Feedlot Forum 2025 Features Cattle Feeding in Changing Environment

By Beth Doran

 High-priced feeder cattle, inflation, volatile markets and weather have pressured the bottom line for cattle feeders. Beth Doran, beef specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, said these pressures and methods of coping are the focus of this year’s Feedlot Forum 2025.

"Feedlot producers agree that profitability has become harder to come by," she said. “The return from finishing a 1,500-pound yearling steer the past 11 months has averaged $28 per head."

The popular forum is scheduled for Jan. 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Terrace View Event Center on the south side of Sioux Center. It includes the following topics and speakers.

• Beef-on-Dairy Health and Carcass Quality – Garland Dahlke, Iowa Beef Center
• Economics of Extending the Days on Feed – Grant Crawford, Merck Animal Health
• Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force – Dustin Puhrmann, ICA Feedlot Council
• Usability and Basics of Livestock Risk Protection and Livestock Gross Margin –  Zach Tindall, Producers Livestock
• Ag Market Outlook for 2025 and Beyond – Chad Hart, Iowa State University      

A trade show will highlight 20-plus industry-leading businesses providing the latest technology in cattle nutrition, animal health, food safety, feedstuff harvest, housing, manure management, marketing and cattle management.

Registration (which includes lunch) is $25 per adult or $10 per student and is due Jan. 6 to ISU Extension and Outreach Sioux County.