Sustainable Marketing Strategies to Enhance the Value of Weaned Beef Calves Marketed by Producers

View the project final report

Commodities

• Animals: bovine

Practices

• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring

Alabama ranks 8th in the United States for the number of registered beef farms, with cattle and calf production representing an important component of the state’s agricultural economy. Beef producers across Alabama operate under diverse production systems and face challenges associated with improving herd management, production efficiency, calf value, and access to competitive marketing opportunities. The Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension Program (TUCEP) provides research-based education, technical assistance, and outreach to livestock producers to strengthen production practices, profitability, and long-term sustainability.

Value-added calf production requires coordinated implementation of recommended management practices related to animal health, nutrition, forage management, recordkeeping, and marketing. Individual beef cattle operations may face challenges in implementing these practices and assembling sufficient numbers of uniform calves to take advantage of value-added marketing opportunities. This project aims to establish four demonstration sites to provide participating producers and agricultural extension agents with practical experience in producing and marketing value-added calves. Participating producers will coordinate selected production and marketing practices to improve efficiency, calf quality, market readiness, and potential economic returns.

The demonstration program will involve four mentor producers working collaboratively with agricultural extension agents. At each demonstration location, mentor producers and agents will participate in multiple training sessions addressing forage production, animal health and management, value-added calf production, recordkeeping, and marketing. The demonstrations will provide practical, field-based learning opportunities that can be applied across beef cattle operations in Alabama. 

• Objective 1: Train mentor producers and agricultural extension agents on the importance of herd health, genetics, and a 60-day calving season.
  • This objective will be completed with four on-farm demonstrations on common management practices that could potentially result in a value-added calf across the Black Belt of Alabama. Additionally, the mentor producers will be trained in reducing their calving season overtime at each of these workshops. Finally, the benefits of artificial insemination (AI) will be presented to peak their interest in condensing their breeding season and improving their genetics. This training will focus on creating community leaders that could potentially assist other producers in forming more calf pools across the state of Alabama.
• Objective 2: Train mentor producers and agricultural extension agents on a forage-based approach to cow-calf production that has a focus on regenerative agriculture which could reduce the dependency on supplemental feeds.
  • Feed cost is the most significant expenditure for all livestock producers; this cost can be reduced by utilizing legumes and cover crops to help meet the needs of the animals. Soil conditions across the Black Belt of Alabama are often lacking in organic matter (Bosarge et al., 2015). Using mixtures of cover crops and legumes can improve the quality of the soil while decreasing dependency on synthetic fertilizers. At each of the four training locations, demonstration plots will be planted utilizing combinations of cover crops and legumes. Before planting, a workshop for the mentor producers and agents will be completed on soil and pasture preparation to ensure the greatest amount of seeds germinate. After the pastures have been established, another round of workshops/ field days will be planned to show local producers the biomass and forage sample collection process allowing us to have the greatest impact. At this stage, mentor producers and agricultural extension agents will be taught how to interpret the results of the forage sample, determine if supplemental feeding is required, and determine the correct rate. Finally, the third round of workshops will be conducted to evaluate the end soil sample results to demonstrate the differences in organic matter and nitrogen requirement. If the forage stage of the demonstrations is successful, more producers will be working together to rent grain drills and prepare pastures for planting. Mentor producers at the four demonstration sites will serve as calf pool leaders and community contacts for more sustainable cow-calf production. At the conclusion of the study, the impact of planting these forages will be demonstrated to producers and published in a how-to manual.
• Objective 3: Train the mentor producer and agents on the importance of a weaning period (e.g., 60 days) before marketing the calves. The weaning period will demonstrate the importance of calf health and nutrition.
  • One of the essential steps to creating a value-added calf is to wean the calf crop for 60 days. This weaning period is necessary to reduce stress, allow the animal to gain additional weight (2 lbs/day), increase immunity from effective vaccination, and increase animal performance in the next stage of production from the synergistic effect of the previously listed reasons. It is essential for the weaning period to be profitable. The weaning period should be forage-based with some supplementation to train the animal to feed and drink water from troughs. One weaning lot will be set up at one of the four sites to demonstrate the weaning process via the pool concept. If successful, we will see an increase in the clientele marketing weaned, value-added calves in the service area of the TUCEP utilizing the pool marketing concept.
• Objective 4: Demonstrate the improved returns to participants on calves marketed by all cattle producers in Alabama.
  • Finally, a mentor producer and agricultural extension agent training session will be conducted to close out the training program. At this event, we will have an agricultural economist and marketing specialist present the data of the four producers compared to the more traditional production and marketing practices of all participating producers. It is expected after evaluating each step of the value-added calf production process that mentor producers will be more inclined to change their management practices to make their operations more sustainable. Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension will continue to provide consultation and assistance and support for those interested in working with others. Additionally, “How-to manuals” and videos will be prepared as a result of each step of this project. These resources can be distributed to future producers.