Adding Value Through Cooperative Feeder Cattle Marketing

Marketing is a part of every cattle operation that participates in the sale of an animal to generate income. Feeder cattle are the most widely marketed animals and have traditionally and most commonly been marketed using private treaty and weekly auction markets. These two marketing methods are favored by many cattle producers because they are convenient and have relatively low marketing costs. Other marketing methods available to producers include graded feeder sales, marketing alliances (cooperative marketing), video sales and internet sales. The focus of this publication is educating cattle producers concerning cooperative marketing of feeder cattle. Our purpose is to 1) define cooperative marketing for feeder cattle and discuss factors to consider when establishing a cooperative marketing effort and the different forms it may take; 2) outline the benefits and potential challenges of cooperatively marketing feeder cattle; and 3) quantify the added value cooperative marketing generates utilizing sale results from the Tennessee Beef Alliance, an established feeder cattle marketing alliance in Middle Tennessee.