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128: Don't Leave Money On The Table with John Campbell · CattleUSA Daily

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Welcome to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
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Today we are welcoming back the one the only John Campbell onto
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the podcast. John has been someone that has
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been showing up around our YouTube channel for a really
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long time. So he's a familiar face to many
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of our viewers and listeners out there.
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And today John and I are talking just the generalities of
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bringing cattle to the market and what that looks like to
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consign cattle. Some of John's thoughts and
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opinions on communication, location within that, and what
0:31
you need to be doing as livestock producers to make the
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most out of your consignment. So without further ado, let's go
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ahead and jump into this episode with John.
0:43
Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
0:47
the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
0:50
updates shaping agriculture today.
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I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
0:55
agriculture, here to keep you informed and connected.
0:58
Now let's dive into today's episode.
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John, welcome back to the podcast.
1:06
We are excited to welcome you on for another week.
1:09
And this week we're we're talking all things bringing
1:12
cattle to the sale and I'm excited about it.
1:15
How how are you? How's life in Colorado?
1:18
Well, we got a little moisture. So Colorado is actually in
1:22
Lahata where it never rains. We're actually in pretty good
1:25
shape. There's still some dry spots
1:27
around and everybody's praying for a little moisture.
1:29
But All in all, everybody's posture is pretty good on a
1:33
moisture wise. And for sure, Mark.
1:35
Yes, I think everyone can agree from that standpoint, some of
1:38
the rain that's been pummeling through the Midwest recently has
1:41
been wonderful for a lot of people, especially out in the
1:44
West. So that is that is wonderful to
1:46
hear. Well, Are you ready to dive into
1:48
bringing cattle to the sale barn?
1:49
I'd love to hear just your thoughts initially on bringing
1:53
cattle to the sale barn, what it means, the impact that it can
1:57
have. And we kind of talked about it
1:59
last week off air, the fact that it is something that isn't
2:02
taught in school and it's something that so many producers
2:07
need to know how to do better and do better for their
2:10
operations. So I'd love to hear just kind of
2:11
your thoughts on that. Right, right.
2:13
You know, as we mentioned there, there's there's fortunes that
2:16
are gained and lost within just a handful of days before you
2:21
merchandise your cattle. But it's tough to get your hands
2:25
on what those are and what the parameters are.
2:28
And, and so many producers are really completely unaware of
2:33
what they're gaining or what they're losing because it's hard
2:37
to quantitatively measure those things.
2:40
But just through experience, I would say first and foremost, if
2:45
you've got an auction guy that you like and that you trust,
2:49
boy, really lean on his education and, and his
2:53
experience and, and he can show you a lot of shortcuts that will
2:59
help you. And you know, those things are
3:02
based off how many cattle you've got, where you're located at how
3:07
you're feeding the cattle, whether they're weaned, whether
3:09
they're not weaned. The scenario changes really 180°
3:14
just based off what you have got to sell.
3:17
Do you have 100 or do you have three?
3:20
My answer to that question would be completely different just
3:24
based off those things. Communicate with your auction
3:28
market operator. Tell him what you got.
3:30
Tell him what you're wanting to accomplish.
3:33
Ask him what your concerns are. But you have to know the right
3:36
questions to ask. But more times than not, if
3:39
you'll listen, he will try. It's to his best advantage and
3:44
yours as well, to merchandise those cattle to the best of his
3:48
ability because he wants to keep you as a customer.
3:51
It's a win win deal. The more he helps you that makes
3:54
a repeat customer out of you and that makes an ambassador for his
3:58
sale out of that customer. Anyway, I think those are that's
4:05
probably first and foremost and and we kind of had an outline of
4:09
things that we want to go through.
4:11
But a number one, first and foremost as it is and a lot of
4:15
things is communication. Call the guy that you're and
4:19
even if you haven't decided where you're going to sell your
4:22
cattle, call four or five of them.
4:25
You know, sometimes, I mean, we have the cattle that come 500
4:30
miles to La Junta. Are there other auctions in
4:34
between here and there? Most definitely a lot of them.
4:38
So whoever is the closest may not always be the best for your
4:43
situation and what you've got it.
4:45
It's just kind of like going to the doctor or going to the
4:49
hospital just because the hospital is local.
4:52
They may not be the best cancer hospital in the country.
4:57
Identify. And then you have to weigh those
4:59
options out. Well, can I afford to take those
5:02
cattle 5? Maybe not.
5:04
Maybe you're crazy if you don't, but you you need to qualify all
5:09
of those and establish what that market operator can do for you
5:14
based on your scenario and your situation and distance.
5:19
It is just one of the factors that that you're dealing with.
5:22
You know, you can pay a lot of freight in the difference in the
5:26
Commission. You know, if you've got somebody
5:28
charging you 345 percent at these levels, why, my gosh, you
5:34
could buy the truck for, for what your, you know what your
5:38
savings at the bottom line is 500 miles really a bad deal?
5:42
Well, no, if it cost me another 30 bucks to get it, but I can
5:46
stay here locally and it cost me 60 to sell them, I'm a net
5:51
winner by $30.00. So there's a lot of those
5:54
questions that really the market operator can answer for you and
5:59
but like I said, you need to know the the the question steps.
6:04
Yeah. What are some of those questions
6:06
that these producers need to be asking themselves or their
6:09
market operators as they continue to prepare and just sit
6:12
down and quantify and qualitatively like look at all
6:16
of this and say how am I making the best business decision for
6:20
my operation in these standpoint?
6:21
Because you and I could sit here all day and we could talk about
6:24
different things to do to not to do.
6:26
But you said at your best earlier of I could say that it's
6:29
a terrible idea for one person where it's the best idea for
6:32
another person. So how does someone sit down and
6:35
actually figure that out for themselves?
6:38
Exactly, And I think a little or a lot of it depends on what what
6:44
you have got to sell, how many you have got to sell.
6:47
You know, we have some people that think they can justify
6:50
bringing a trailer load of cattle 10/12/14 ahead 3400 miles
6:56
to La Junta versus stopping them here.
6:59
There are the cattle weaned, are they not weaned?
7:01
You know, how do I recuperate that shrink that's involved,
7:04
involved in transporting the cattle so that that changes if
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I've got 123 Ed, your local guy 5 miles away, even though it
7:13
costs more, even though the market is not as good, you know,
7:16
you, you can't justify coming that far.
7:18
And that's why local markets are so important and you need to
7:22
support them. So you need to look at that side
7:25
of it too. Well, if all I ever do is take
7:27
him all my junk and all my cuts, it's a little hard for him to
7:30
survive, you know, but he has to be doing the job too, in order
7:35
to justify a bigger consignment of cattle.
7:39
But the main thing I would say is consign your cattle ahead of
7:43
time and that will answer a lot of questions for you.
7:47
Lauren, how many cattle are you going to have that week?
7:50
You know, if it's the 5th of July and you're only going to
7:53
have 85 cattle plus my sixty, you probably want to stay away
7:58
from that. If it's around a holiday, look
8:01
at the weather. Again, the market operator can
8:04
answer a lot of those questions, but it is my, is my timing,
8:09
right? You know what I mean, to sell
8:11
your wake house a week or 10 days before the Christmas break,
8:17
because they're going to need volume because everybody's going
8:20
to be shut down. Is that a good time to sell?
8:23
Just things like that that you can look at that will weigh on
8:27
your decision. When do I arrive, John?
8:30
Well, that depends on how far you're coming, the class of
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cattle that you've got involved back back to our initial point,
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I, I have cattle that come from 4:00 or 500 miles away that are
8:41
weaned. Those cattle need to come three
8:44
days ahead of time. I have another guy that has the
8:47
same cattle that are weaned, but they are 7 miles away.
8:51
He can do a more adequate job of filling those cattle and
8:55
prepping them for the sale where the the freight and the haul is
9:00
only 7-8 miles. The guy coming 300 miles or 500
9:05
miles, he's got to recuperate some weight somehow and we're
9:09
not trying to overly fill the cattle, but the thing that we
9:12
have to sell is hopefully we can get your cattle back to par on
9:18
your weight. You all cattle 500 miles, you
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know you're going to lose 3% just loading them and unloading
9:24
them plus every 100 miles after that you're going to lose
9:27
another percent. So how am I going to recuperate
9:31
this seven 8%? Well, you don't do it coming to
9:35
the sale the night before and then you know, it's so they'll
9:39
auction operator can help you with that.
9:41
Yeah, Lauren coming that far and our sale is on Tuesday.
9:45
You need to have those cattle in here Saturday night.
9:48
If I'm, if my cattle are unweaned, then how do I handle
9:52
them? What, what, how do I prioritize
9:55
those things? Distance is just one thing, but
9:58
how the cattle have been handled.
10:00
I've got cattle that are very close that are weaned, but
10:03
there's a cotton picking wild. He's crazy to bring him in 2-3
10:08
days ahead of time because they haven't quit bouncing off the
10:11
fences in three days and then may be good, may be bad, but for
10:15
him, he's a lot better off. Those cattle are easily
10:19
agitated. They're fine.
10:20
They're good cattle. You buy them, turn them out, you
10:22
get along fine. But for his bottom line, he is a
10:26
lot better served to come in the day of the sale.
10:30
If you have cattle that are close and it looks like we're
10:33
going to have 10,000 cattle and you're very concerned about the
10:37
time of day those cattle sell, you may sacrifice some things in
10:42
terms of weight, in terms of a lot of things because you think
10:46
it's in your best interest to show those cattle a little
10:50
earlier. And the market operator will
10:52
will tell you that if he knows that that is really important to
10:56
you, he may hold you off for a week.
10:59
Lauren, don't, don't come because I think the market's
11:02
going to be good. I think it's going to be great.
11:04
But if you come in Tuesday at 2:00, it is going to be 7:00 at
11:08
night before you sell. Next week, we're going to have
11:11
half that mini cattle. You can come in on Tuesday and
11:15
it'll be 4:00 when you sell. I'm not a big believer in the
11:19
time you sell makes a big value determining characteristic as to
11:24
what they bring. But there are a lot of people
11:27
that are that are for their own management style and this and
11:30
that. That's that's what they want to
11:32
do. And same way with grow yard
11:35
cattle. We get a lot of them in the
11:36
spring. Well, it's foolish to bring them
11:39
in two days ahead of time because they're, they're
11:42
switching rations, they're switching locations.
11:45
You're you're not going to gain anything as it is just as a
11:48
foolish to bring those cattle in at 8:00 in the morning when you
11:51
know they're not going to sell to four in the afternoon.
11:54
Bring them at 2:00 in the afternoon already sorted then
11:59
the amount of shrink that's involved is a heck of a lot less
12:02
than having them stand over here and they're not going to gain
12:05
any weight. You can do your best job at home
12:08
because of the close proximity you are to the sale.
12:13
Again, full circle. Your auction guy can answer that
12:17
that there's a lot of questions that you need to know the
12:20
scenario you're coming to before you can make a good decision.
12:25
So going back to asking the right questions to your auction
12:29
manager, we're talking distance, health, the type of animal that
12:33
you're selling. So whether it is a calf, a coal
12:36
cow, whatever amount of animals that you're selling, what else
12:40
am I missing? Are there any other questions
12:42
that we need to be asking our auction managers?
12:44
Yeah, I think conversations about value that you have added
12:50
to your program, ask him what, what do you want from me?
12:53
What? What are things?
12:54
I mean, I've had people go into extended stories about the rib
12:59
eye area of the bull they used. That's all good and fine, but in
13:03
the priority of things of what adds value to your product,
13:07
that's probably not not very high on the list.
13:10
Well, it's a big deal to him. It means a lot to him.
13:13
But when you're merchandising the cattle, talk to the guy
13:16
that's merchandising him and he will tell you what things he
13:21
really needs to know. And are your genetics important?
13:25
Yes, they most definitely are. How you've handled, how you
13:27
vaccinated those cattle, Are they important?
13:30
Yes, they they certainly are. Are the cattle weaned?
13:33
If so, how long? I'll talk to 1 Blue in the face
13:36
about one that's weaned 60 days. If Lauren, you tell me, John,
13:40
they're weaned 21 days. I say, Lauren, let's skip over
13:43
that and go to the next one because I'm not doing you any
13:46
favors saying your cattle are weaned 21 days because they're
13:49
really not weaned. You know, I mean things like
13:52
that, that I know. But the next guy that says,
13:55
well, John, 21 days. I I mean, I've always got along
13:59
great with my calves, you know, weaning them 21 days and da, da,
14:02
da, da da da, da, da da. That's because you've never
14:05
experienced loading them, hauling them, putting them in a
14:08
new facility new. And then somebody from eastern
14:11
Kansas buys them and hauls them another 300 miles.
14:15
OK. He doesn't know what the
14:17
consignor, He has no experience along those lines.
14:21
And it's not that he's stupid and doesn't know what he's
14:23
doing. But my gosh, oh, Friday, that's
14:27
a death sentence, you know? And the guy may get along good,
14:30
but it's not that the guy was trying to sell something.
14:33
He just didn't know. He didn't know.
14:36
A lot of people think 21 days is great and depending on where
14:41
they go and where they come from, it may be fine.
14:44
But again, you have to qualify to what you actually have to
14:47
sell. But that that would be the big
14:49
thing. Talk to your operator about what
14:52
things can I do to enhance the value of what I've got to sell.
14:58
And you know, whether that's weaning, whether that's the
15:02
health, it varies depending on how many you've got to sell.
15:06
If you have got 3 cattle and they sell one, one and one, all
15:10
of that may go out the window and, and it's not right, but
15:14
it's the way that it is. Lauren, you have one steer and
15:17
he is the greatest steer in the United States of America.
15:21
He's weaned, he's had every shot.
15:24
He's out of a high-powered bull. He will do it all, but the fact
15:28
that you only have one Trump's all of the effort that you put
15:32
into it. And don't get me wrong, all
15:33
those things are important or that is good, but how you handle
15:36
that one head or those three head, I may tell you completely
15:41
different. Lauren, you know, get him in
15:44
early. We'll try to sell him around
15:45
11:00. I'll tell him that he's weaned
15:48
that he's this, he's up. But you are going to sell your
15:50
one head or three head to a completely different discipline
15:54
than the guy that's got 100 head and you're doing yourself a
15:58
disfavor if you think, John, I want my one head to sell at
16:02
2:00. Will the people that are there
16:05
at 2:00 wouldn't buy one head if you give it to them because they
16:09
are not going to put a load of 100 head of £500 steers together
16:14
one at a time. They are forbidden by the people
16:18
on the other end to buy them that way, irregardless of how
16:22
great your animal is. So you bring that one head in at
16:25
ten 11:00. I've got a ring full of guys
16:29
that love to buy them 12357 because that's the nature of
16:33
their operation. They buy them 3257 at the end of
16:38
the day, they may put 200 of them together, but they've just
16:41
got a six horse trailer or a, you know, A6 head trailer.
16:46
Well, they can't buy 9 because it's 80 miles one way and back
16:52
and they're not coming back for two more.
16:54
But they will give more for that convenience of having one,
16:59
having three, having two, having four because it fits their
17:03
application. Again, full circle.
17:05
It comes right back to what you've got and, and, and there's
17:08
a different way to merchandise every one of them based off what
17:13
you've got to sell. Yeah.
17:14
I think at the end of the day, it all goes back to that
17:17
communication aspect that we first started this podcast out
17:19
with. You have got to call your local
17:22
auctioneer, your local people that you are working with, that
17:25
you are consigning with and you got to communicate with them and
17:28
you have to have a really great working relationship with them
17:32
and be open and honest about your operation.
17:35
Because John, from a standpoint of someone who owns and operates
17:40
a like consignment market, it's one of those situations that you
17:42
need your people to be honest with you.
17:44
You need them to be open. It can be at the end of the day,
17:46
they're not successful. If they're not successful,
17:48
you're not successful. So it's a, it's a mutually
17:52
beneficial thing across the board, but it all goes back to
17:55
communication. It it does and and there's got
17:57
to be some hand holding along there too because everybody is
18:01
important. You know, 80% I, I would say of
18:05
our volume probably comes from consignments of less than 70
18:09
head of cattle. So the little guy is crucial to
18:13
our success. He doesn't have the options that
18:16
somebody with 500 had to have. You know that they have people
18:20
beating their door down wanting to buy their cattle.
18:23
But the guy with three 5/17/25 even a even 100 headache calves
18:28
by the time you steer an Ephraim and size them three ways, the
18:31
biggest bunch he's got's 13. So that's the lifeblood of our
18:36
operation. Sure, we like the big deals and
18:39
we get a lot of them and we're going to handle them different
18:43
than we are the guy with a hunter.
18:45
So, so you need to, like you said, communicate with with the
18:49
auction guy and he'll have the best program and he can design
18:53
it specifically for you for how far away you are, you know,
18:59
whether you're cattle or wean, whether they're not, how many
19:02
numbers that you have. Each one of those has a
19:05
different set of qualifications that how we have them on this
19:10
end once again, is just completely different.
19:12
I mean, we, I just got back from southern New Mexico about a
19:16
month ago and they are so dry. There's a lot of those people
19:21
that are contemplating, you know, John, I'm just going to
19:23
pull them off the cow and send them to you.
19:26
What's travesty don't don't do that and I'd love to have the
19:31
business, but I get it one time because you cannot haul those
19:36
ball and calves 500 miles. We have people that do it and
19:40
and if we got them in ahead of time, but look at options about
19:44
where could we stop those cattle along the way that they can wean
19:49
them that that they can prep the cattle that health wise, way up
19:53
wise. We don't know what the markets
19:56
going to do and, and, but there there's other options that you
20:00
need to explore versus loading the cattle and, and, and hauling
20:06
them 500 miles off the cow. Now you know that that's the
20:10
thing about a cow calf operator. They're dealing in a perishable
20:13
product and a lot of those people don't have the luxury.
20:16
They're in the cow calf business, they're not in the
20:18
Stocker business. So you know, do we get some of
20:22
those? Yeah, we do.
20:24
And sometimes that's the best option they have.
20:27
They don't have the whereabouts or the money or the time to stop
20:32
these cattle somewhere else, wean them, pay a feed bill, go
20:35
through all the deal. Especially look at the market
20:38
we're looking at now how much more you want for them, you
20:41
know, so they still have a value even though they've been hauled
20:45
500 miles and sold the next day. Will you have to weigh that
20:50
against, you know, what is the risk benefit versus doing it
20:54
that way versus where I'm at? And we have a lot of people that
20:58
buyers don't understand, hey, they gather their cattle out of
21:02
the mountains 358-1215 at a time.
21:05
It takes them three days to put a load of them together to where
21:08
they can take them anywhere. Are they wrong?
21:12
Well, that's, that's what they've had to give up in
21:15
practicality and, and doing it right because of the situation
21:20
that they're in. That's, that's all they can do.
21:23
So anyway, every scenario is, is different.
21:26
But if you're constantly working towards an end result that will
21:31
benefit you the most. Sometimes it costs some money
21:34
and sometimes it takes years to get there.
21:36
But if you've got an idea or a goal of where you would like to
21:40
be that would maximize your return on the cattle, you're
21:44
foolish not to get as much information to make that
21:47
decision as you possibly can. And part of that is how you're
21:51
going to merchandise those Cal A. 100%, John, as we round out
21:55
the podcast, are there any final words, pieces of advice,
21:58
anything that you'd like to leave with the audience today?
22:01
You know, I would say one note that I, I put here as far as,
22:05
you know, the animal health goes and you know, buyers, a lot of
22:08
times they, for they're easy to forget about the good ones they
22:12
bought, you know, and, and all those cattle did great and good
22:15
this and, and all that. But, you know, I'm just pulling
22:18
some records here myself of cattle that I had problems with.
22:22
I'm going to find out who's those were.
22:23
I, I mean, you remember the bad deals and you say I'm not going
22:27
to repeat that again. So back to how you handle these
22:31
cattle, how you facilitate the sale of them.
22:34
Don't think that the buyers don't remember the problems that
22:38
they've had. And if you can eliminate as many
22:40
of those and add as much value working with your auction guy as
22:45
you you possibly can, you start to build a reputation.
22:49
And a reputation is something that you really want when you're
22:52
merchandising your cattle at Public Hall. 100% Well, John, I
22:56
can think of a better way to round out the podcast and our
23:00
amazing discussion today. I appreciate all of your wisdom
23:03
and just all of the things that you are bringing to our audience
23:06
today and everything that goes along with it.
23:08
So thank you for your time and to all of our audience members
23:11
out there, we appreciate you guys listening to another
23:14
episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
23:16
We will see you all tomorrow on another one.
23:19
Have a good day y'all.