Taking a gamble on a load of cattle brings a rush of unpredictability and the thrill of a possible win. When that load is harvested and the carcass data shows you beat the average for Choice and Prime, the dopamine hit leaves you wanting more.

“It’s addicting,” says Charles Mogck, Mogck & Sons Angus, Olivet, S.D. “Anyone who feeds cattle is a gambler.”

Whether you’re a farmer-feeder finishing calves at home or working with a seasoned feedyard, there are multiple ways to go about feeding cattle. Whether finishing cattle runs in the family, or you’re just looking for another way to diversify your business, there are more tools available to raise and manage cattle with precision.

Ask the right questions

Finding a feedyard partner you trust starts with asking the right questions, Mogck says. It’s a relationship, so “you have to trust them.”

When working with a new feedyard, to start Mogck asks about historical death loss, rate of gain, feed conversion and cost of gain — all things that affect his earning potential.

The next question he asks is when they have pens available, because the good yards are always full, he says.

The biggest hurdle is financing. Owning cattle longer means you’re pushing back your typical payday. Some feedyards will offer risk protection plans, while others require working closely with your banker.

If you’re asking to double your line of credit to purchase feeder calves, you’ll want to be in synch with your banker, Mogck says. Otherwise, all bets are off.

Capital is your limiting factor, says John Schroeder, Darr Feedlot, Cozad, Neb. With record cattle prices today, it may be a good time to put extra capital to work.

He has standards for his customers, too.

“I want to partner with people who are investing in their cattle to finish and stay healthy going through the feeding process and have quality for the customer’s plate,” he says.

Once your cattle feeding team is assembled, there’s a lot you can learn about your cattle.

Ace in the hole

The end game is receiving carcass data back from the packer. That’s when you learn which calves were the highest performers or had the most marbling, information to help make selection decisions at the ranch. But what if you could get genetic data sooner and proactively manage a calf’s potential?

Mogck paired up with Darr Feedlot in 2024 to feed 200 head. Eager to learn and improve, they deployed genomics testing on the lot. Even within this group of longtime Mogck customer calves, there were surprising genetic differences in growth and performance, he says.

This additional information gives feeders a hidden edge in managing animals more individually to optimize their genetics.

“All cattle have value,” Mogck says. “If we can sort them on their genomics, how they should perform, and feed them accordingly, there’s going to be more profit potential there.”

They were interested in parentage, carcass weight, marbling, backfat and ribeye area to start, Schroeder says.

Knowing a little more about what’s under the hide reveals which are better animals that should earn bigger premiums. It’s not the good ones you need to worry about.

“The top end is going to take care of themselves,” Mogck says. “But there’s no need to feed the lower end of calves if they don’t have the genetics to grade or reach a certain weight. Genomics helps you figure out how to market those differently.”

Getting more descriptive on a group of calves allows similar calves to be penned together. Managing like-kind is easier and more efficient.

“If they’re carcass cattle, we know what we need to do, how we need to sell them and what type of grid we need to sell them on,” Mogck says.

As cattle continue to be of higher quality, the race to beat the average gets harder. The need for a cheat sheet grows, and that’s what genomics provides. Choice is no longer the end game.