I found the graph below in the latest Market Summary sent out by Cattle Range. Much has happened within the last five years. Five years ago, we were receiving record-high prices for our cattle. Life was good! We were ranching in the very BEST of TIMES! What happened next was totally beyond our wildest dreams. Prices continued to increase at unbelievable rates through 2014 and into 2015.
All good things must come to an end! What goes up, must come down. Even so, the prices we are receiving for our calves today are a little higher than the record-high prices we were so happy with just five years ago. Life is still good! If you are not making a very good profit at today’s prices, you are doing something wrong.
Unfortunately, many cow-calf producers are struggling to make a decent profit at today’s prices. How can that be? They continue to focus on the wrong thing. They continue to focus on increasing individual animal production (bragging rights). They need to make a paradigm shift and start focusing on increasing pounds and profit per acre – NOT per animal. This is Step One of the Ten Steps To Double Your Profits.