The season is again dire in areas that have received no follow-up rain and the smartest options may be to either feed failed crops to livestock or cut them for fodder.

However, there are always opportunities in the beef game if you look for them. Sometimes they’re hard to see - drought puts the blinkers on, because most of us are just trying to survive with the family and business intact. Yet beef producers probably learn more about their businesses and themselves during drought.

Many beef herds in the Southern Slopes are now, potentially, highly fertile. The drought over the last few years has seen producers sell off the rubbish cattle - those less productive that return less for the money invested in them. Often they’re less fertile under tough conditions.

Just as selecting on temperament is the easiest thing to do (the cranky ones just give themselves away), selecting for fertility in drought is easy. Any cow that doesn’t get in calf is less fertile than others pregnant under the same conditions. Pregnancy testing is cheap and accurate and acting on the results removes the poor investments in the herd.

Cows over nine years are often less productive, and many producers have now sold all cows over this age. Cows that do remain in these herds are young, highly fertile, and will contribute the best returns.

The demand and supply curves we learnt about in high school show the reason cattle prices fall during drought. Buying cattle when the price is cheap seems to make sense - the argument against it is you have to feed them.

Yet often there are some very good cattle being sold cheaply - producers say it’s a shame that they have to go. Look critically at your own cattle and those being sold by others. There may be opportunities to offload some of yours and swap them for better ones. If you’re spending money on feed, give it to the good cattle.

Regardless of what happens to the season at your place, consider whether the cattle destined for sale will ever look better than they are now. If not, either because of the season, or the economics of feeding them, sell now.

Planning to get through tough seasons is not easy. Acting on a plan you have developed may not be easy either but it gives you back some control.

Related Economic Research Reports (ERRs):

ERR no. 33 - The economic effects of early-life nutritional constraints in crossbred cattle bred on the NSW North Coast

ERR no. 35 - StockPlan: a decision aid for management of livestock during drought and other times