HAMS Marketing Services Advises Incremental Approach to Forward Contracting

The Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services is advising pork producers to take an incremental approach over the next few months to forward contracting. In western Canada we've seen more pork processors making reference to the carcass cut-out value in their contracts and a better than usual improvement in the pork cut-out value since the Christmas/New Year holiday period has allowed them to rationalise higher prices.

 

Tyler Fulton, the Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services, says pork demand remains solid and we've seen the futures and forward contract prices move up to the highest levels we've seen over the last ten months.

 

 

I think the best approach is an incremental one where they do smaller portions of their production and when we see a further increase in prices then they keep adding to that position.

 

It's kind of the concept of dollar cost averaging where they increasingly get more protection as the price goes up. Alternatively, if the market doesn't continue to rally, what we're generally recommending is that in a month or two months if we don't see a lot of further support then maybe taking an additional 20 percent protection at that point would be prudent if they at that point had only taken 20 to 30 percent.

 

It's an incremental approach and producers are taking advantage of the programs that are out there.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.