When I was asked to write this column in 2018, I seriously didn’t think it would still be going this long, or gain the popularity it has. When I pushed to start teaching schools, I never imagined there would be as much demand for them as there is, or that we would still be putting them on at this point. Yet they continue to sell out. Yesterday we hit a milestone I never dreamed we’d realize. I received our 100^th testimonial via text!

Since learning legit sell/buy, earning money in the cattle business has not been much of an issue. The money I earn from putting on the schools is nice. However, receiving a testimonial is when I really feel like I have been paid. I value them more than the income from the schools.

Before each school, I feel just like those who choose to attend. There is a lot to get squared away on the farm before committing the time to each school. That brings a level of stress. There is also the time commitment before each school to get things ready. This brings a whole different level of stress. Before we did the Idaho school in early fall this year, I was stressed, in a bad head space and really didn’t want to go. In the 10 days prior to that school, I received a flood of testimonials and that changed my attitude completely. After reading them, I couldn’t wait to get to Idaho.

I often hear from people that my schools changed their lives. I know what they mean, because I felt the same way after I attended the sell/buy school taught by Ann Barnhardt. The systemic thinking problem that the cattle business is a constant struggle was fixed. The thing is, all Ann and I did was present valuable information. When a person goes home and implements the information, they alone are responsible for changing their lives.

Legit sell/buy changed my life once again when I began teaching it. I won’t go into all the details. One thing I want you all to know is this.  All my life I have been told I could never start my operation from scratch or make a living raising cattle. I was told I sucked and that I am not good enough to do much of anything. That makes the support I receive today a bit of a shock. I just want to say thank you and that I am grateful.

I have never asked for testimonials. I started sharing them on our website and the MrCattlemaster Facebook  page to help attract people to our schools. Today it is something completely different. These posts have become an inspiration and motivation for people in their daily lives. We celebrate each other’s wins. This has become a culture of greatness and unrivaled performance because of you.

Those of us in the North American cattle business right now are extra blessed. For months now, the price relationships that exist are off the chain. When we learn legit sell/buy, we gain market literacy and can spot opportunities to prosper. There is never a shortage of them. Right now, there’s so many of them, and most of them are paying extremely well. One thing I’ve been hearing from people that have attended my schools is they are overwhelmed trying to decide which one to capitalize on. What a great problem to be blessed with!

The testimonial I shared this week proved a few points I want to highlight. This cattleman did his first sell/buy trade after attending the school earlier this month. First off, he earned a total of $1,118 excess profit. For those who haven’t attended a school yet, the excess profit is above and beyond what he penciled in as his profit target. That’s why we call it excess. He earned that much on 16 head of stockers. The excess alone paid for his tuition to the school and hotel room.

Here’s the other part that really caught my attention. He had a high Break Profit Cost of Gain (BP), coming in at $2.03. I didn’t ask why it was that high, because honestly, I didn’t care when he’s making that kind of money. It just goes to show that marketing skill is the number one factor in making a profit. He proved one of bullet points: having a low Cost of Gain is not the most important thing, yet it does help a lot.

I am wrapping up a stocker trade of my own right now. I sold a load of mixed heifers with a BP that was on the high side. This was due to them needing some extra attention and time to bloom up enough to show well when selling them. Since I owned them a little longer than usual, they owe me more profit due to slowing down my turnover. My buyback consisted of steers, bulls, heifers, and some leapfrogs. Leapfrog trades are when the market pays us to take weight home. I also consider part of this to be an upgrade trade since I sold heifers. The next sell will be steers.

I wrote on here a short time ago that I had some cows that lost their calves, and I was trying to figure out what to do with them. The market gave me the answer. Before I write what the trade was, I also want to remind readers that the reason I mentioned these cows on here was in response to an article written by another author who basically said he had no idea what to do with them without telling us he had no idea. He just pointed out the seasonality of the cull cow market. What I did was examine relationships, and I was at sales and ready. My replacement buy was short bred heifers. My culls were worth over $200 more than the heifers.

Other trades that are possible is selling cull cows and replacing with replacement five weight heifers at a profit. Or selling the heifers that preg checked open and replacing them with the five weights. While culls and opens are not the desired outcome, we can still prosper from them right now.

Last weekend I sold 3-year-old pairs with 2- to 3-month-old calves and replaced them with bred heifers and five-year-old bred cows. This is the biggest female trade I have ever executed as I sold $1,300 value into the market and got paid $1,500 for it. I will be virgin buying females from here forward.

One week after the market put in the 52-week low, I executed the most profitable stocker trade I have ever done. I am certain this sounds silly to those not familiar with legit sell/buy. When I sold cattle I sold weight, and when I bought back, I bought weight. It is the ratio of dollars to pounds difference that matters. The ratio was so heavily in my favor, it was the most profitable trade I have ever done with stockers. When we have marketing skills, market direction doesn’t matter.  This skill is what allows us to be self-hedged. This is why I am opposed to LRP on my operation.

The last blessing we received is my daughter’s herd grew 44% this year (44% is easier to achieve with her head count). I started this deal for her when she was one month old. The first few years I kept all the profits until those first five head were paid for. After that, I began reinvesting the profits into virgin buying and expanding her numbers. It took 13 years to grow this to where she has her own load lot. I will also point out that she has her own checkbook, and she does pay me for feed and yardage. One of the points of doing this is to teach her how to run a business.  A traditional 529 will never give these kinds of compounding returns.

As you all can see the true legit sell/buy marketers have a lot to be thankful for right now.  Happy Thanksgiving.  I’ll get back to myth busting next week.