• What is Beef Cattle Buy/Sell Margins Calculator?
• Minimum System Requirements
• Manual
• Download & Installation
• Who made Beef Cattle Buy/Sell Margins Calculator?

What is Beef Cattle Buy/Sell Margins Calculator?

 The buy/sell margin (the difference between a feeder calf or yearling purchase price and a sale price at some later date) is a critical component in the profitability of beef cattle backgrounding and finishing systems. In fact, the margin can make or break a producer in a single year.

This program allows you to look at historical buy/sell margins for buy-sell periods that you select for heifers and steers. These historical buy/sell margins can give you some feel for the price risk exposure on purchased cattle as well as calves from a cow/calf program. The absolute buy/sell margins in dollars per hundredweight are one measure of price risk.

The BSM Calculator will calculate the minimum (worst), average, and maximum (best) buy/sell margins for the past 10 years (5 years for Holstein steers) based on your selections of both buying and selling months, state, sex, weight ranges, and grades. The input screen of the BSM Calculator presents two boxes which include information for the buying and selling months needed to calculate the minimum, average, and maximum buy/sell margins.

Return to the Top

Minimum System Requirements

• an IBM PC compatible with a 486 or higher processor
• 8 MB RAM or higher
• 1 MB of free hard disk space
• Microsoft compatible mouse
• Windows 95 or 98

Manual

The manual is available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. In order to read or print the manual you will need to obtain a free copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader a link is provided to Adobe's website. Installation instructions are available on Adobe's website and are easy to use.

Return to the Top

Download & Installation

• Download the Buy/Sell Margins Calculator for Windows 95.
• After downloading the BuySellMargin execution file, place the file in the folder of your choosing.
• Then, go to the "Run" command located in the "Start" menu on your PC's screen. After the Run window has appeared, choose "Browse" to select the ".exe" file; then select "OK". This should automatically unzip the file.
• In Windows 95, select Start, Run and Type C:\directory\SETUP (where "directory" is the name of the directory that you unzipped the Buy/Sell Margins Calculator) and select OK.
• Accept the default destination directory and follow the instructions.

Who made Beef Cattle Buy/Sell Margins Calculator?

This software was developed cooperatively by The University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service with support from The United States Department of Agriculture Fund For Rural America program.
For more information please contact Dr. John McKissick, Coordinator Extension Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.

Return to the Top