Did you miss me last week? I’ll bet not too bad. I got new software for recording these programs, and I had trouble getting it to work. I got the program recorded and was able to put it on our web page, but I didn’t get it finished in time to make it to the radio. If you read this last week, you will notice quickly that most of this is simply a repeat. That is because it wasn’t on the radio, I repeated it so everyone could hear the information.
Tonight at 6:00 is the 4-H Beef Carcass Evaluation. Anyone interested in carcass evaluation is invited to the Valentine Locker.
Wednesday is the UNL Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory Open House near Whitman. UNL has a well deserved reputation for doing cutting edge beef production systems research. This years agenda looks to be the best in the last couple of years. I really encourage rancher to participate in the open house. Registration starts at 8:30 Mountain Time at the ranch north of Whitman. The program will conclude around 4 pm.
I know it’s a busy time of year. I hate to add one more thing to your to-do list right now, but it might be time to think about this winter’s protein supplement needs. August and September has historically been a good time to lock in dried distillers grains prices? I dug out an article written last September by Dr. Darrell Mark, our UNL Extension Marketing Specialist.
We commonly refer to dried distillers grains as DDG, so that is how I will refer to it for the rest of the program. Dr. Mark calculated a seasonal price index of DDG using USDA-Ag Marketing Services weekly reported prices for Nebraska from 2003-2005. The seasonal trend is for DDG prices to peak in mid-April and decline throughout the summer. Seasonal lows typically occur in August at about 80% of the annual average. DDG prices then increase through the fall and early winter months to peak in December and January close to 20% higher than their annual average. He pointed out in typical conservative economist fashion, that long series of price data on wet and dry distillers grains available to analyze are limited, and the prices that are available may be thinly traded or not necessarily representative of actual trades made between ethanol plants and feed buyers. Still, it is useful to consider trends in these feed products.
Assuming that same seasonal trend occurs this year, cattlemen might want to forward contract or lock in DDG prices soon for this winter. Many producers have found it hard to get DDG later in the year, so if you are thinking about feeding DDG this winter, now is probably a good time to get it nailed down.
There is more information in the article and Dr. Mark has included a nice graph as well. I am working on a newsletter that I’ll be sending out by the end of next week. I will include Dr. Marks article in the newsletter. If you can’t wait until then, I will include a link to the article in the script to this program. Just go to the news section of our web site at cherry.unl.edu.
As always you can call the extension office at 402-376-1850, or check us out on the web for more information on any of the things I’ve covered.
