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- [00:03]
A
Some of the most talked about management practices in 2025. Crew, let's ranch it up. Good day everyone and thanks for riding with us on this all new episode of the ranch it up radio show. I'm Jeff Ticker Earhart. A big thank you goes out to our partners for today's episode. Clear Springs Cattle Co. Bringing us the bread for balance sale for pharmatan by Imogene ingredients Livestockmarket.com Ranch Channel.com, westway Feed Products Wrangler and this fine radio station. A management practice that was really discussed this past year was virtual fencing. Remember this one? It's been over 10 years that we have been bringing you stories, information, news, markets, everything about the cow business. Yep, I've been in yalls years for over 10 years now. And this one, this one today is probably the most intrigued I've been in a long time. I got to be honest about that. Now we are always trying to bring you solutions. The latest and greatest genetic information, nutritional strategies, reproduction, marketing, grazing, all of it. Got any idea what we're covering this week? And I haven't even danced with this topic until now, but it may change the way that we muster the cattle instead of yelling come, come boss or the siren on the cake truck. So before we begin, this is where we really want to hear from you. Your thoughts and comments. 707 Ranch 20. That's 707-726-2420. You can call or you can text. By the way, if you do call, it does go directly to my voicemail right away. By the way, our email ranch it up show@gmail.com today the topic virtual fencing. Y' all heard me correctly. Virtual fencing gaining more and more curiosity and popularity the past couple years. Gary Tiller is the director of commercial operations for Vance Virtual Fencing, a part of Merc Animal Health. Gary, my interests is beyond piqued when someone says virtual fencing. Here we go. What is virtual fencing?
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B
Well, virtual fencing, let's, let's take a step back. In history, we've always used fence to contain cattle. We stacked rocks, we put poles together, we created barbed wire, we created electrical fencing. And virtual fencing is just the next evolution in fencing whereby we take out all the old rules, we utilize a collar and behavior and stimulus to control the behavior of the cattle versus having to use a physical barrier.
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A
And I have to say this because I am completely ignorant to this, but I am so fascinated because you heard this before. I have got more old barbed wire fence that I need to pull out. I do this spring That I need to pull out. And I was going to hot run a lot of this stuff is what I was going to do. So virtual fencing, we have a collar on the calves, cows, whatever the case is. And you said by a stimulus. Now is that like a little shock collar that if they go outside of a barrier, it gives them. Gives them a little zzz.
- [03:22]
B
So if you think about it, it's base form. It's a lot like the invisible fence that you use for your dog and for dog containment. So our system has three components. One is the collar. And within the collar you have a gps, you have a communications chip, and you. And you also have the ability to send a audible signal and an electric impulse to create a stimulus to control the behavior of the cattle.
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A
I had mentioned that I was going to put some hot wire in and I wanted to make some different runs and I wanted to do some intensive grazing. So can I do that? Can I change my perimeter, my barriers? Can I constantly change that?
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B
So I would say the first thing is with virtual fence, we recommend you have a good, a good, solid perimeter fence. You know, good fences make good neighbors.
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A
Amen.
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B
So the real advantage to virtual fencing is all of that sort of roll and unroll electric fence that you would do to deliver on what your grazing management plan is. That all goes away. So what you're now allowed to do is to go onto your software and click and drag and build virtual pastures. Or all around your ranch, you can set those pastures up to be on a timer where cattle are in X amount of hours or days. And then the virtual fence will drop, they'll move to the next pasture, the virtual fence will come back up. So just literally, we like to say whatever you want to accomplish, you're only limited by your imagination in terms of how you create these virtual fences and how you deliver on your grazing management plan.
- [04:57]
A
So here's where I come in with the yaw butts and you've heard them all. But I got to really ask this. Bovine are an interesting creature because they are based on habit, repetition and behavior. So a barbed wire fence and I'm fussy. You can ask Beck. I am the fussiest when it comes to fixing fence. The cattle learn to respect that and they see that barrier. Now, if there is a virtual barrier there, what is going to cause those cows to. To move beyond this virtual barrier into the next paddock per se, and then behind them, another virtual barrier will go up? Because cattle are based on pattern. And if they get that external stimulus, when they get too Close to that. What's going to make them go beyond it? Or is it the fact that there is that fresh forage that is going to be tempting and they will naturally move? Is that, how am I understanding that? How is it going to work?
- [05:55]
B
Yeah, yeah. So let's take a step back. So part of your set up and training when you employ virtual fencing is a time period at the very beginning where you condition these cattle to the stimulus. So this is just very similar to.
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A
Running stockers and training them to a barbell, to a hot wire.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah, absolutely. It's classical conditioning from Skinner to Pavlo. And so early on in the, in the training phase, you will overlay a barbed wire fence or a permanent fence and you'll set your signal and your pulse so that when the cow come up to, to the hard fence, they will get the stimulus and they will start associating that with the barrier where they need to stop. However, the next phase of it is to create virtual fences within that training paddock that have no visual fence behind it so that they only start living off of the cues. And so ultimately that's your goal. You only want them to really modify their behavior based on the audible cue. So literally, when you drop a fence as the cows graze toward it, as long as they don't get an audible cue, they will continue to graze. It's not like because there is no permanent fence for them to see, there's no visual cue, they're just head down, grazing. No audible cue. I can just keep on walking.
- [07:15]
A
In addition to the electrical stimulus you mentioned audible. And I'm assuming that this management controlled practice is answering a number of BQA questions.
- [07:26]
B
Absolutely. And there's, there's a lot of studies done here in the US and Australia and in the EU as it pertains to virtual fencing, countries like Australia and in the EU have a very, very, very strict sort of animal welfare set of guidelines. And so we have to do the work, we have to be approved to be in there. So I would say that just from a pure research perspective, these products have been researched from an animal welfare perspective extremely well. And as a result, we're able to operate in some of the toughest countries when it comes to regulation around, around electrical stimulation and electrical fencing.
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A
You can hear more of that episode by visiting the show notes@ranchitupshow.com Episode 233. By the way, time for a break. When we come back, the hot topic of electronic ID tags. Yeah, that was a hot one. This year in 2025. You're listening to the Ranch it up radio show ranching recap of 2025, part two of and we'll be back right after this. If you're buying or selling cattle, make your first stop livestock market.com bred cows, peppers, pears, bulls and frozen genetics. Even feeder calves.
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You'll find them all@livestock market.com Livestock market.
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Features private treaty sales, online auctions and.
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Live production sale bidding. You'll also find horses, sheep, goats and hay.
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Check out the free Livestock Market magazine.
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Wherever you pick up Tractor House and.
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Download the Livestock Market mobile app today. Hey Tigger and Beck, Hope everything's going well for you and your listeners. This is Travis Wolf here from Clear Springs Cattle Company and we're gearing up for our 2026 Bread for Balance sale. Going to be February 13th this next year here in Starbuck, Minnesota. Join us on DV Auction or check out our website bread4balance.com and follow myself, Travis Wolf on Facebook to stay updated with all the latest lot information and catalog. Thanks. Have a great day. That's the Clear Springs Cattle Company and their annual Bread for Balance sale February 13th in Starbuck, Minnesota, home of Superior Simmentol and Simangus Genetics. Are you looking for the best way to raise healthy, productive beef? Look no further than Westway Feed Products. Westway's liquid supplements support increased forage utilization, efficiency, convenience, sustainability. With Westway Feed, scientifically formulated liquid feed, your cattle will gain weight faster and stay healthier, ensuring you get the best return on your investment. Visit westwayfeed.com or call 800-875-17 to learn more. Westway Feed Products Raising the Bar in Beef Production one Supplement at a Time. Welcome back to the Ranch it up radio show. Recapping some of the most talked about management practices of 2025. Miss the coverage on electronic ID tags. David McElhaney, ID infrastructure specialist for Merck Animal Health, joins us today now. David, thanks for coming on the show and answering some questions for us. Let's just dive right into this because lots of producers are concerned of who's going to have the burden and the brunt and the cost of these certain tags. That's been brought up a lot Sale Barn owners have reached out saying how they are frustrated when trying to process all of these and the way ups and having to deal with all of these tags. So producers understand that this is here and that we're trying to make changes, but it's rather difficult to implement them.
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C
Well, in fact, yeah, there's been a process over time and that is kind of the beauty of this country. People have choices. They may or may not, the technology may or may not fit their business model. So that's what decision they have to make. At Merck Animal Health and particularly the All Flex brand and our full suite of products, that's what we try to do, is provide solutions for the various enterprises those people are entering into. So it may or may not fit them, it may or may not be exactly what they need. Maybe some other component of our products fits them better.
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A
And that's what we're here to talk about, is solutions. What can we do? And I know many times you know this. Those of you that follow our show, especially in our show notes on our website ranchitupshow.com we've made reference towards many times with Merck and their products. So go there, click on those links. It's very easy to follow along. In case you're a little unsure of what the rules and regs are, we've tried to lay that out for you as clear and concise as we possibly can. Let's talk specific product. Now let's talk about these tags, cost of them from Merck. What is it? What are we looking at?
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C
Well, sir, the retail price, I'm not going to get into that in detail. It's going to vary a little bit depending on probably your relationship with your distributor and so forth like that. But the, the value proposition is, I think where we want to look at market channel access, fitting into different programs, whether it's an NHTC, maybe organic, etc. Etc. That's where the value proposition is on the tag. So it's a tool to help people manage their cattle and assimilate data, data points that may be valuable to the next person in the chain.
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A
So let's say somebody wants to get in one of those programs like nhtc. This tag will satisfy that particular program requirements.
- [12:59]
C
Yes, in most cases, I'm not going to say all of them, but in most cases, the uniqueness of the ID in the ear, that unique number, for simplicity, a Social Security number like we all have, it makes that very unique to that animal. So tying data to that data points makes that more valuable and easier to move the data and transport it to the next person in the chain.
- [13:23]
A
So will any of these tags, will they qualify? Do you know if a. I'm going to pick on a seed stock guy and we put prefixes, ranch prefixes in the ear for those specific registration numbers that are later developed, can the tag.
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C
Replace that, the RFID tag, can it is unique, but that's going to again be determined by the breed association that they're working with, that producer, so forth like that. But it is a unique number. Again circling back to the Social Security number that we all have. It's unique to us, it lives and dies with us.
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A
And location, where are we recommending putting these tags in?
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C
Proper location is between the middle two ribs in the center part of the ear. That's the ideal location to put that between those two ribs. That increases survivability but also increases readability. So pretty vital to do, you know, get at the proper location with any tag you're using, whether it's a panel tag or an RFID tag, you know, you want to try to do as much as you can to make it survive better, have better performance, all the above.
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A
Now I am in total support of being able to capture data, capture information, because numbers don't lie. That's the thing that I really love about this business is it's a benchmark, can tell you where you're at, what you need to do different numbers don't lie. It's universal. Any language we look at now, from a practical shoot side standpoint, as a producer, I have to look at this and say, okay, I've got my ranch ID tag, I'm putting in fly tags. Yes, I'm taking all the bale twine off my bales and that wrap. I look at it a lot of other guys too. And you do too, David. You know this, that guys say, gosh, is this thing going to rip out? Am I going to have that problem? What happens if it rips out? How do I. If I've got 500 all black cows and I've got a few of them that lose their tag, how do I know which one goes back into that right cow?
- [15:17]
C
Some of that will depend again on the program and you know, the regulatory agency that you're dealing with, your state vet, USDA and so forth like that. But if they're just using a manufacturer coded tag, which a lot of folks in the beef industry do use that because they fall under the 18 months of age, so they don't have to have official ID to travel, they'll travel on back tags, group lots, things like that, they don't have to have any kind of official marking on them. So in that case it's simply put another tag in if they do lose it, you know, and it largely depends on the animal, you know, like there's clean animals and dirty animals, you know, it's just that where that animal is willing to put its head a lot determines how well that tag stays in over time. But the easy point is it is replaceable. You know, it's not super costly, so people can maintain identity with it. And the products that we have developed with match pair sets, so forth like that, tags are cross referenced, the visual tags referenced on the mail button of the RFID, the RFID number, the last 12 digits of it are on the shoulder of the panel tag. Things like that that we try to do to make it better for the producer, easier to manage their animals. And that's what we do at Merck Animal Health. So we try to provide solutions and tools for people. Not all of them apply to everybody, so they pick and choose what tools best fit them and how they want to assimilate all that data into an aggregate to better fit market channels.
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A
So in this situation is the place to go to, to help still answer questions to our veterinarian and would you say that's still probably the best place go and start that conversation?
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C
Yeah, your veterinarian is always going to be that, that, that person in the room with you that is going to have that broad base of knowledge and so forth like that. That'll help you work through any issues that you have, maybe make good recommendations for management. But also there are other people, in our case Merck Animal health, we have 90 plus field reps that are out there willing and able to help and help guide people and show them the solutions that we have, the opportunities for those to be applied to their particular situation. So there's a lot of, and you know, distribution partners as well. They have reps out there. So the availability of knowledgeable, knowledgeable people out in the field, they are there, people should utilize them.
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A
And I know a number of the Merck reps and they are excellent people and they're valuable resources and it's, it's just part of another tool in the toolbox. And I encourage people that if they do even don't understand the slightest thing, is to call, honestly call one of our reps. They will be able to walk you through and be able to put you in the best program that fits for you.
- [18:05]
C
Absolutely. We have a lot of trained professionals out in the field and some have very specific areas that they touch. But everybody can get you to somebody that can help you and that's what they're there for. Utilize them. It's a, you know, it's free. Why wouldn't you use them, you know, bring them in and get, get some idea of the solutions you're seeking.
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A
And if you have a question, ask the question. Don't go on social media. Don't get opinions of your neighbors. Actually seek out the right question and get right answer because we know how that goes. We right away want to go to another outside source and just see where the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Right. And so where a lot of the tension goes, that's where we think we need to follow along. But if you have any kind of a question, just pick up your phone and just call.
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C
Absolutely. Fact is always better than someone's opinion. Everybody has opinions, but fact that you can never go wrong with fact. And that's what the Merck Animal Health staff will give you as fact.
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A
David McElhaney with Merck Animal Health, thank you for the time, Jerry. Thank you for reaching out. And we will be reaching out to additional producers who are using EID tags specifically to qualify feeder cattle for various programs. I want to get the good, the bad and the ugly from it. And I have information in the show notes@ranchitupshow.com with specific charts of what animals need to have tags when crossing state lines and which animals do not. So share with us your thoughts. As I said, good, bad and indifferent about EID tags. Maybe some of your experiences. Like we said, good, bad and different. We'd love to hear from you. The email is ranchituphowmail.com and our hotline to call or text is 707-726-2420. That's 707-Ranch 20. All right crew, let's get our last market recap for 2025 with Kirk. That and more is up when the Ranch it Up radio show returns. Ranch Channel.com I'll give you just a few seconds to head there on your phone. Ranch channel.com your farm and ranch network on demand bull sales, western events, product information right at your fingertips on the ultimate cowboy friendly platform. Want to follow up to date markets ranch channel.com no need to dig for information on all these different websites. It's all right there on ranch channel.com y' all are loving it now, aren't.
- [20:39]
C
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- [21:00]
A
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- [21:02]
C
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- [21:15]
A
Hi, I'm Chase Keller. A little about farmer tan products on my operation here Farmer tan products year round have for two or three years now and I have not had to treat a single cap or scours. Haven't lost a cap of scours. I believe fully in farmitan products and helping my profitability on my operation. For more information go to pharmatanusa.com. Welcome back to the Ranch it Up radio show. It's that time of the program we check in with Kirk Donsbach, Stonex Financial Incorporated. Recap in the markets from last week. So Kirk, numbers, what do we got today buddy? All right Tigger and all your listeners out there. As of Friday December 19th, January feeder futures close of the week at 3:46:15. That's up 672.5 on the week with the CME Feeder Index up 328 at 350.05. That left the basis at a positive 390 versus January futures. We did have a cattle on feed. It came in at 97.9% versus expectations of 98.2. The placement number was 88.8% versus expectations of 90.9 and a marketed number at 88.2% versus expectations of 88.5. So definitely a slightly bullish tilt to that in the placement numbers. But as I reviewed the comments on the Internet most of them kind of switched their focus to economic concerns and demand. February live cattle closed the week at 231.15. That's up $1.52 and a half on the week. Cash trade was not reported in the south due to confidentiality issues which generally means that one packer is buying a majority of the cattle there. We did get 228 traded in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. That left the five area weighted average down 16 cents at 227.96 and the basis versus December futures at negative 284. Choice boxes were up 419 at 361.63 with the weekly slaughter of 525,000 head. That's down 7.4 thousand from last week and 11,000 head below the same week last year. Dressed weights were up another three pounds at 898. Again those weights are a little concerning. That's 25 pounds above the same week last year. The combination left yearly production up 110 of a percent at 4.1% less than last year. To wrap this up, March corn closed the week at 4:43 and a quarter. That's up two and three quarter on the week. With soybeans continuing to drag on the corn market, ever wonder what you should actually do to be profitable during volatile markets? Hey. Hey. I'm Shea Warner and I host the welcome to the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast. I visited with Tim Petrie about what ranchers should and should not do during volatile cattle markets. Here's a portion of our conversation. Okay, well, yeah, we've had a very, very volatile market lately and you know, there are many reasons for that that we can talk about. But I think, you know, don't get worried about all the futures market is up the limit today or down the limit tomorrow. Let's concentrate on the cash market and the fundamentals affecting them. And I know producers like to get the highest price possible, but I think in volatile times here it is not a time to change your marketing plan. I would stick with it if you usually keep your calves till January, I think do that. We don't know what the market's going to do, but we do know that it's at record high levels and it's going to stay at pretty good levels. But if you're going to try to say, well, should I now I'm going to hold till next week or should I wait for two weeks or something, that is not a good marketing plan. Ready to tune in to the full conversation? Check out the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast on your favorite podcast player as soon as you're done listening to the Ranch it up radio show. On last week's episode was your final chance to score some Ranch it up gear for 2025. I asked the question, what did Beck and I implement on our place for the very first time to control noxious weeds this past summer? And we got all sorts of different answers from using biologicals and bugs and using sheep and goats. But the answer is the first time that we implemented on our place to control noxious weeds was using a drone. So, Dustin in South Texas, be watching the mail. You've got yourself a whole big package of Ranch it up gear coming your way. And finally, a big sincere thank you to Beck and I to each and every one of you listeners for making the Ranch it up radio show part of your week and part of your operation. Happy New Year. And now that's going to wrap it up for this year. A big thanks goes out to our partners for today's episode, Clear Springs Cattle Co. Bringing us the bread for balance sale Farm A10 by Imogene Ingredients Livestock Market.com Ranch Channel.com Westway Feed Products Wrangler in this fine radio station crew. So glad y' all came with us one more time and one more year as we ranch it up. Be sure to follow and like us on Facebook Facebook at Ranch It up show. Our email is ranch it upshow gmail.com and you can call or text 24. 7. That phone number is 707-Ranch 20. That's 707-726-2420. Spread the good word and join us again next year where it's always Tigger and Beck approved. Stay ranchy and Ranch it Up. Sam.