A typical marketing plan for many cow-calf producers revolves around hoping to hit a run of good prices when they sell calves, yearlings and cull cows after preg-checking. If the stars don’t align to bring all of the variables together in their favour on sale day — weather conditions for roundup, trucking arrangements, market forces — their profit for the year can go down the drain.
Ryan Copithorne knows that worry all too well. He managed his family’s ranch, CL Ranches, near Jumping Pound, Alta., set up the beef division as director of cattle operations for an 8,500-head investor-owned ranch and today runs 1,200 head on his own ranching operation on private and First Nation lands just west of CL Ranches.
He also knows marketing doesn’t have to be so risky and that cow-calf operators run on limited manpower with little time at the end of the day to devote to developing marketing strategies, or executing those marketing plans in a timely manner.
Looking around, he realized that there are no businesses in Western Canada that specialize in supporting cow-calf producers in their marketing decisions. Backed by his practical ranching experience, a degree in finance with a master’s degree in business administration, and his most recent experience with a cattle feeding/grain marketing/consulting company and his affinity for hedging and marketing, he set up the Cows in Control Marketing Group last fall.
His focus is to provide a service that helps cow-calf producers protect the money, labour, time and expertise they’ve invested in their business.
“When I first started ranching I worked on ways to improve grass and genetics to add value, but all it took was a 10- to 20-cent market move downward to wipe out all that work and profit. I was doing some grain farming as well and saw lots of marketing options not available on the cow side and became interested in how I could make those work for cattle,” Copithorne says.
“I also came to realize how important marketing is in our industry and felt that building a marketing tool box for ranchers could take the worry out of marketing so they could concentrate on what they like to do, raise cattle.”
He opens the tool box by explaining the marketing options available and works with each client to develop a year-long strategic marketing plan, then helps them navigate through the year with timely market analysis and advice, plus business connections as needed or requested.
At the end of the day, the producers are still in control of when and how they sell their cattle.
“There are lots of ways to have more control over the price you get and protect high prices,” Copithorne says. “The No. 1 issue isn’t whether prices will go up or down, but by how much they will go up and down, which could be violently, not in modest 10- to 20-cent moves, but we could see 40- to 50-cent moves.”
Source : AlbertaWheat