Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with Greg Burden of GB Marketing, talking about how new breeding technology over the years in the cattle industry is valuable when it comes to marketing.
Greg Burden has been raised in the cattle business and recently founded GB Marketing to work with seed stock producers across the country in marketing their purebred stock. Burden is one of the sales managers that has been working with Cattlemen’s Congress for the first two years, and he will be back for a third year in early 2023.
At the end of the day, whether it is a production sale or a bright lights sale like Cattlemen’s Congress, Burden said you want to put your best foot forward, whether that be an open heifer, bred heifer, a bull, or genetic lot, and showcase what you are doing at your place.
“When you are breeding cattle to go toward your own production sale, you really have to start thinking about those things three or four years in advance, so you’ll have the right set of breds and cows for that sale,” Burden said. “It takes several years and a lot of hard work and planning to get to the production sale, and the same thing goes for when you are consigning to a big sale and show like Cattlemen’s Congress. You are trying to showcase your breeding program.”
As for production sales, Burden said it takes time to have the right set of breds, which comes from having the right set of genetics to breed something that is appealing to buyers.
” Embryo transfer has gotten more and more prevalent in all of the breeds,” Burden said. “Now they can do IVF, and so they can do it every two weeks if they want to on those good donor cows.”
Science has moved breeds forward dramatically, Burden said, because now livestock can pass their genetics on more in this lifetime than in the past.
“That has changed everything for the cattle business,” Burden said. “As far as promoting those things, we sell embryos, and we sell flushes, we sell semen on some bulls that you can’t get semen on a regular basis, so that is dramatically changed the way we sell cattle,” Burden said. “You can generate income from those animals in a lot of different ways in today’s world because you don’t have to wait nine months to get those things on the ground and decide if they are or not. We can flush those things and sell those embryos and create cash flow in different ways.”
Additional information such as genomic enhanced EPDs, Burden said, is a tool that makes a big difference in breeding decisions. Perfecting genetics in your herd is a time-consuming process made easier thanks to new science and technology, and marketing these attributes well is essential to achieving pay-off for the work put in.
To learn more about Burden’s story and operation, visit https://gb-marketing.net/
Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Greg Burden talking cattle and genetics marketing.
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