“Certainly, being in conditions where corn prices are lower and cattle prices are a bit higher, adding days probably makes sense,” he said. Grids are negotiable and cattle feeders may be able to get a better deal on heavyweight carcasses, some of which is happening already, he added.“But in the summer, when corn prices generally go up a bit and cattle prices start to trend down, that might be a time to pull back.” Beyond that, he said the model isn’t necessarily a decision-making tool.“There’s not going to be a straightforward, this-is-what-you-should-do answer every time of the year. It’s going to vary depending on economic conditions.” To that end, the model isn’t saying that cattle aren’t going to be profitable if fed longer than average, and variability around how much more or less profitable they are should be expected, he said.“It’s something to add more information to hopefully make more informed, evidence-based decisions.” A summary of the data can be found at https:// www.agmanager.info/livestock-meat/production- economics/extending-days-feed-feedlot-steers- economic-considerations .
1,050 pounds,” he added. Over that time, heavier car- cass weights and better quality grades did not outweigh the discounts the majority of the time. Indeed, of the factors at work in the model, four of the top five most important were economic, as opposed to animal characteristics. “What we saw is that how much price changed was by far the most important variable,” he said. Other import- ant variables were the dressed base price, corn price, the quality grade grid and the number of mortalities. He points out, however, that the model looked at net returns on a pen basis, not a feedyard basis. From an overall feedyard perspective, adding days on feed may be a valid decision. For comparison, Horton ran the data for the nine months prior to his presentation in April. Carcass prices were higher and corn prices were lower than the timeframe used in the original model. As might be expected, changes in those variables made the net returns for Endpoints 2, 3 and 4 look better. But variability in net returns still existed. Which means there are times when increasing days on feed beyond the industry average makes economic sense, and times when it doesn’t.
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