By Burt Rutherford | Contributing Editor ADDING DAYS ON FEED PAST INDUSTRY AVERAGE COMES WITH ECONOMIC RISK ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR EXTENDED DAYS ON FEED
I t’s a decision as old as cattle feeding itself – “If I hold ‘em, will the market get better?” Even in today’s era of longer days on feed, that decision still has a place in feedyard management. That’s what an economic model developed by a team of researchers at Kansas State University and Merck Animal Health discovered. The model looks at the risks associat- ed with longer days on feed, according to Lucas Horton, Ph.D., who presented the data during a Merck Animal Health seminar prior to the spring meeting of the Plains Nutrition Council.
weights will continue for the foreseeable future, market variability should be considered, said Horton, a researcher with the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine who lead the research team. The collaborators developed an economic model that looked at net returns for different endpoints for steers on feed using data from 2021 to mid-2024. The model con- siders a wide range of variables that are simulated to reflect variable steer populations and economic conditions. Endpoint 1 reflected the baseline industry average during those years. Endpoints 2-4 each represented feeding an ad-
ditional 14 days past Endpoint 1, where the final outcome was the marginal difference in net return.“We didn’t evaluate whether cattle were profitable at each endpoint,” Horton said.“Rather, we evaluated how much profitability changed if feeding to each of the later-fed endpoints instead of the average in Endpoint 1.” Bottom line, the model showed that, on average, it was not economically advan- tageous to feed cattle longer than average during those years. On a grid, net returns
“Being in conditions where corn prices are lower and cattle prices are a bit higher, adding days probably makes sense.” – Lucas Horton
compared with Endpoint 1 were positive for Endpoint 2 about 44 percent of the time, about 38 percent of the time for Endpoint 3 and about 29 percent of the time for Endpoint 4. “Obviously, as weight goes up, we have a shift up in premi- ums for quality grade,” Horton told the nutritionists.“But there are also shifts downward toward increased discounts for yield grade and heavyweight carcasses, those more than
Feeding cattle longer has its roots in the cattle cycle. As cattle numbers decline, more days on feed utilizes feedyard capacity more efficiently and packers have more beef to sell from every carcass. Beyond that, cheaper ration costs, growth technology and high feeder cattle prices also make longer days on feed and heavier carcass weights feasible. While it’s likely the trend of more days and heavier
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