Course 16 of 20 · Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy

Livestock & Feed Procurement

Stage D, Complex specialisation and optionality. Level 7 of 10.

The feed buyer and livestock producer position: least cost ration formulation and ingredient substitution, feeding and placement margins, and hedging live cattle, feeder and hog exposure.

122 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 11, Course 12, Course 13

Enrol or enquire See the 122 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 122 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Feed Buyer's Chair Ch 1-11
  1. Grain Arrives as a Cost and Leaves as an Animal
  2. Four Operations That Buy Feed and Sell Animals
  3. The Buyer Is on the Other Side of Every Trade So Far
  4. An Animal Requires Nutrients, Not Ingredients
  5. Two Margins This Material Refuses to Merge
  6. Month Selection, Ratio and Roll Already in Hand
  7. Feed Demand for Corn and Wheat, Received Not Rebuilt
  8. Soybean Meal Arrives Already Priced
  9. Carry Was Settled for Grain and Not for Animals
  10. Minimum Price Structures Built Elsewhere, Used Here
  11. Ration, Then the Pen, Then the Hedge
M1 Nutrients, Not Ingredients Ch 12-22
  1. What a Nutrient Specification Actually Lists
  2. Energy Measured Differently for Cattle and for Pigs
  3. Crude Protein Is a Poor Proxy and Lysine Is Better
  4. Fibre the Rumen Needs and the Pig Cannot Use
  5. Dry Matter Intake Is the Ceiling on Everything
  6. As-Fed Weight, Dry Matter and the Moisture Trap
  7. The Ingredient Matrix a Buyer Keeps
  8. Book Values Against Your Own Laboratory Result
  9. Energy Density Priced Rather Than Tonnage Priced
  10. Requirements Change as the Animal Grows
  11. Who Owns the Specification and Who May Change It
M2 The Least Cost Ration as a Constrained Optimisation Ch 23-34
  1. The Formulation Problem Stated Plainly
  2. The Objective Is Delivered Cost, Not Market Price
  3. Minimum Constraints and Maximum Constraints Do Different Work
  4. Why Inclusion Limits Exist, Ingredient by Ingredient
  5. A Linear Programme Solved by Hand, Illustratively
  6. Which Constraints Are Binding and Which Are Slack
  7. The Shadow Price of a Nutrient Line
  8. The Price at Which an Ingredient Enters the Mixture
  9. A Solution That Changes Nothing Because a Cap Binds
  10. Formulating Across Several Pens at Once
  11. Mill Capability as a Constraint Nobody Wrote Down
  12. Least Cost Is Not Least Cost Per Kilogram of Gain
M3 Substitution When a Price Moves Ch 35-45
  1. Reformulating After a Corn Rally
  2. Wheat Displacing Corn and the Point It Stops
  3. Distillers Grains Against Soybean Meal and Corn
  4. Canola, Sunflower and Cottonseed Meals as Alternates
  5. By-Product Feeds and the Supply That Is Not There
  6. Roughage Sources and the Freight That Decides Them
  7. The Cost of Changing a Diet at All
  8. Ration Change Control and the Record That Survives It
  9. A Substitution That Saved Feed Cost and Cost More
  10. Reformulation Frequency and Who Decides It
  11. Substitution Limits in a Branded or Assured Supply Chain
M4 Buying Feed Against a Ration Ch 46-56
  1. From a Ration to a Dated Feed Requirement
  2. Cover Placed Per Ingredient, Never in Aggregate
  3. Days of Feed on Hand as the Unit of Cover
  4. One Sheet the Mill and the Buyer Both Initial
  5. Forward Buying Feed Without a Grain Merchant's Toolkit
  6. The Basis a Feed Buyer Pays Rather Than Earns
  7. A Feed Mill Contract and What It Bundles
  8. Buying a Co-Product Stream Rather Than a Cargo
  9. Storage at the Feedyard Is Measured in Days
  10. A Feed Purchase Policy a Lender Will Read
  11. Feed Bought for Animals Not Yet Placed
M5 The Animal as Inventory That Gains Weight Ch 57-67
  1. Four Numbers That Describe a Pen
  2. Feed Conversion Translates Grain Price Into Animal Cost
  3. The Marketing Window Is Not a Date
  4. Why the Carry Trade Does Not Exist Here
  5. What the Deferred Month Is Telling You Instead
  6. Holding an Animal Longer Costs More Than Feed
  7. Marginal Cost of Gain Against Marginal Value
  8. Death Loss Is a Quantity Risk, Not a Price Risk
  9. Dressing Percentage and the Weight You Are Paid For
  10. Grading Grids Differ by Country and by Packer
  11. A Pen Closeout Reconstructed Line by Line
M6 The Feeding Margin Ch 68-78
  1. What a Feeding Margin Is and What It Is Not
  2. Every Component and the Direction It Pushes
  3. The Cost of the Animal Walking In
  4. Feed Cost Per Head Rather Than Per Tonne
  5. Yardage, Interest and the Costs Nobody Quotes
  6. The Value Out Under a Grid Rather Than an Average
  7. Which Animal Cost Enters the Margin
  8. Margin Per Head, Per Kilogram and Per Pen
  9. Where the Closeout and the Feed Records Disagree
  10. Decomposing a Feeding Result Into Named Causes
  11. A Margin That Was Decided Before the Animals Arrived
M7 The Placement Margin Ch 79-88
  1. The Decision to Put Animals on Feed at All
  2. Building a Projected Closeout From Forward Prices
  3. The Cattle Crush as the Placement Margin Priced
  4. A Hog Feeding Spread Built From Corn and Meal
  5. Breakeven Feeder Price Rather Than Breakeven Margin
  6. Placement Weight as a Commercial Choice
  7. Why Locking the Feeding Margin Leaves Placement Open
  8. An Empty Pen Is a Cost and a Choice
  9. Placement Data Read as a Supply Signal
  10. A Placement Decision Taken and Defended
M8 Hedging Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle and Hogs Ch 89-101
  1. Long the Animal and Short the Feed
  2. Three Livestock Contracts and What Each Settles Against
  3. What a Cash-Settled Index Hedge Actually Fixes
  4. Why the Deliverable Contract Is Still Not Your Animal
  5. Livestock Basis Has No Carry Inside It
  6. Hedging the Feed Leg With Two Different Grains
  7. A Ration That Changes After the Feed Is Hedged
  8. Classes With No Contract of Their Own
  9. Hedging Beyond the United States Livestock Contracts
  10. Margin Calls Arrive Before the Animals Are Sold
  11. Hedging a Grid Sale and the Premium It Cannot Reach
  12. A Hedged Pen and an Unhedged Pen, Scenario by Scenario
  13. Exposure to a Disease Event, Named and Handed On
M9 Arguments the Trade Has Not Settled Ch 102-111
  1. Why Producers Disagree About Hedging at All
  2. The Always-Hedge Argument and What It Assumes
  3. The Never-Hedge Argument and What It Assumes
  4. Hedging Only When the Margin Is Positive
  5. The Cattle Cycle Argument and Its Assumptions
  6. Retained Ownership Weighed Against Selling at Weaning
  7. The Price Discovery Argument in Fed Cattle Marketing
  8. Mandatory Price Reporting as a Named Example
  9. The Vertical Integration Argument in Pork and Poultry
  10. Contract Growing and Who Is Left Holding the Ration
M10 A Feeding Year and What It Leaves Unsettled Ch 112-122
  1. A Feeding Year, Part One: The Ration and the Placement
  2. A Feeding Year, Part Two: Feed Bought and Hedges Placed
  3. A Feeding Year, Part Three: A Price Move Rewrites the Ration
  4. A Feeding Year, Part Four: Two Margins Reported Side by Side
  5. Where the Mill, the Pen and the Broker Tell Different Stories
  6. The Standing Month in a Feed Buyer's Calendar
  7. Two Yards Quoting Cost of Gain and Meaning Different Things
  8. A Loss No Ration and No Hedge Could Have Prevented
  9. Ingredient Analyses and Intake Figures Past Their Date
  10. When Feed Buying Becomes a Position on Corn
  11. The Feed and Animal Legs the Final Simulation Inherits

The brochure gives each of these 122 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 16 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway