Drought conditions across the country this year remind us of the importance of a drought-management plan. Diversifying a cow-calf operation with a backgrounding enterprise could be part of a drought-mitigation strategy, as backgrounded cattle can be sold or moved to a feedlot to free up feed supplies or pasture for the cow herd.
While backgrounding may not be an option of many producers this year due to tight feed supplies, now might be a good time to start thinking if this strategy fits your operation.
The Beef Cattle Research Council’s Preconditioning and Backgrounding Calculator is designed to identify economic opportunities and risks from preconditioning or backgrounding cattle. The calculator has recently been updated to allow more flexibility in price projections. The cattle price index database embedded in the calculator is updated with the latest five-year (2016-20) provincial data from British Columbia to Quebec.
Producers can use the calculator to project net returns from preconditioning or backgrounding compared to selling cattle at weaning, as well as to identify the production cost, cattle performance or cattle price scenarios that could potentially result in positive net returns.
The net return from preconditioning or backgrounding, which is the difference between the gross revenue from selling cattle at weaning compared to gross revenue after a backgrounding period, will be determined based on the user’s projections on calf and feeder prices, sale weight at weaning, the length of backgrounding period, cattle performance, and backgrounding costs. Producers can adjust these variables to reflect their own production systems and market outlook.
To download the calculator, visit beefresearch.ca.
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