Commercial Angus Producers Adds And Captures Value In His Herd Through Strategic Marketing

By Dave Nichols

Angus breeder Dave Nichols follows a simple model: to stay in business, he must keep his customers in business, too.

“I realized early in the late '80s and early '90s, that the farmers and ranchers in our area had other options rather than raising cattle that either grow the crops like wheat and corn and so on and that they didn't have to raise cattle,” Nichols said. “And so there was really, the marketing system at that time was just take them to the auction, shrug your shoulders and see what they brought. So we felt that it was essential to identify those cattle that were out of Nichols Genetics that had genetic inputs for growth, carcass weight and most of all, eating quality.”

What started as a large-scale special feeder calf auction has turned into more of a listing service, but the goal is the same: to identify cattle that have more value to feeders, and help them earn premiums accordingly.

“Before you try to do this, it's imperative that you're selling bulls,” he said. “You're selling bulls, you’re selling bulls that will work in the system. Many people have felt like that because they're customers. Sell their calves that are weaning, carcass quality and feed lot gain and the feed lot. And so those things aren't important because you're just passing the cattle onto someone else. Well that's, that's really bad thinking because any calf, beef calf that's sold, someone feeds it, someone slaughters it, someone sells it and someone eats it. So we're firm believers in that we need to make the pie bigger not cut it into smaller pieces.”