There are some things in life that a person just should not skimp on. A quality mineral program is one of them. “In a drought year, mineral is even more important,” said Scot Holcombe of Holcombe Ranch in Barnsdall, Oklahoma. Holcombe and fellow Oklahoma cattle feeder, order buyer and stocker grazer Randy Heflin depend on […]
Category: Stocker/Backgrounding
How to Define the Stocker Sector
It’s the middle child of the cattle business. You’ve likely heard of the stocker operator, but maybe you aren’t really familiar with just what he or she does for the cattle industry. The cattle business is typically broken into three distinct segments: the cow-calf enterprise, stocker operators and feeders. Most people are familiar with the […]
Video Series Offers Timely Industry Information
Time and money. The two things are precious commodities to those in the cattle business. There never seems to be enough of either, but with the new Gain Smart® Money Saving Minute, cattle feeders can learn valuable information about how to increase their bottom line in just a few short minutes a month. Launched in […]
How to Choose the Best Mineral for Stocker Cattle on Pasture
When it comes to backgrounding your cattle and keeping them healthy, there are a lot of choices that exist. All of the options might make your head spin, but look no further than the Gain Smart® line to produce healthy, efficient pounds. Gain Smart is a line of vitamin and mineral supplements for beef cattle with the Amaferm® advantage that promotes […]
Don’t Take Risk with Your Feeding Program
Risk. It’s a term everyone in the livestock business is familiar with. But why take additional risk on sets of already high-risk calves that you plan to background and sell? With a premium nutrition program that jump-starts their feed and water intake and keeps them eating and growing, you can put that extra risk behind […]
Growing Efficient Pounds Equals Growing Money
Money doesn’t grow on trees. However, it does grow on healthy cattle that are out grazing longer periods during the day. The more time calves spend grazing, the more they are going to gain and faster they are going to get to their market-ready end point. Isaac Marcum at Paint Lick, Kentucky, discovered his appreciation […]
Tips for Marketing Feeder Calves
As Summer slowly gives way to Fall, the daylight hours get shorter each day. It also means time is nearing for those who graze and background calves to finalize their marketing strategy for the year. Several marketing options exist for those who have backgrounded their calves. They can sell them privately, take them to the […]
How to Keep Stockers Gaining Through Summer Heat
After a long cold winter and an overly wet spring, summer might seem like a welcome change. However, the season doesn’t come without its fair share of challenges, especially if you’re grazing stockers. As a stocker operator, you’re going to be confronted with the heat, the possibility of grazing on fescue, flies and the potential […]
Seeing is Believing When it Comes to Healthy Calves
For one progressive cattleman, seeing is believing. And seeing a program on RFD-TV several years ago, has made a difference in the way Tom Carter, Reidsville, North Carolina, backgrounds and markets cattle. Carter buys 300 head of calves throughout the year that he backgrounds on grass, hay and mineral. He puts the calves together and […]
Using Nutrition as a Tool in Your Program
Being a backgrounder, cattle feeder or cow-calf producer is more than a job, more than a hobby and more than a way of life. For many people it can be classified as their job or their passion, but at the end of the day, it is also an investment. And, with any investment, isn’t your […]