Best Marketing Avenues

[Barry Farms]

What are good free or affordable marketing avenues are available for marketing halter broken steers. I am 16 in FFA and 4H and this year I took the best of the steers at weaning and halter broke them. I have placed advertisements in Trader magazines like Hawkeye Trader, made fliers and I'm putting them in local Ag. Businesses, and I posted in Steer Planet Classifieds. Anything else you more experienced cattlemen can think of?

 

[obie105]

I have had good luck with craigslist but be ready for people to try to scam you and tire kickers. I have also used several groups on Facebook. Get decent pictures of them that always helps.

 

[simba]

I agree with obie105 that Facebook groups are a great way to sell cattle. This spring I posted a picture of a heifer on one of our local groups and I managed to sell her and another heifer in four hours. It doesn't always work out that good but when it does it's worth it!

Good pictures are a must if you want to get cattle sold quickly and I like to see all of the info in the post. I hate it when I'm interested in an animal and I have to ask for their sire, dam, location or age. To me if the seller is serious about selling then that info should be in the post. Personally I don't like to post the price for everyone to see but that is up to you.

I live in Alberta and we have a really good website operated by the Alberta government where we can post free agricultural listings. A lot of the guys who don't have Facebook check that like clockwork so if you have something like that I would recommend taking advantage of it.

Good luck and good on you for taking the incentive to try and market your own calves!

 

[iowabeef]

I would double the comments on Facebook.  We sell all of our prospects through facebook.  There are many, many groups on their that you can become a member of to get pics out.  Simply search registered cattle or show cattle and the groups will pop up.  We have also had some luck with Craigslist but the spam is heavy there.  No spam in the facebook groupings.  Big fan of those.

 

[jwfarms]

I have had good luck with craigslist but be ready for people to try to scam you and tire kickers. I have also used several groups on Facebook. Get decent pictures of them that always helps.

When I do craigslist, I ask for calls only, that cuts down a lot of the tire kickers.  Facebook is good, also corkboards at feed store have gotten us a few leads.