A majority of fed cattle spend some portion of their lives putting on pounds beyond the ranch of origin and before the feedlot. Yet, there’s never been a national effort to benchmark and characterize the management practices and challenges of stocker operators and backgrounding operations.

That’s why 12 land grant universities are collaborating with Penton Media’s BEEF magazine to conduct the nation’s first national beef stocker survey.

“The stocker and backgrounding segments have always been critical to the overall success of the beef industry. And the structural changes brought about by higher grain prices and input costs make these segments even more critical. Thus, the information provided by this survey is essential to characterize management practices and identify opportunity on a national basis,” said BEEF magazine’s Wes Ishmael.

Dale Blasi, beef stocker specialist at Kansas State University, a participating institution, said the survey will help benchmark this segment of the industry for individual operations, collective regions and the industry as a whole.

“The survey results will also identify critical needs and areas of management that can enhance profitability within the stocker segment,” he said, “and help all of us charged with serving the stocker and backgrounding industries serve them more effectively.”

BEEF magazine mailed the National Beef Cattle Stocker Survey Oct. 23 to an extensive list of stocker and backgrounding operations representative of the segment’s size and geography.

Producers who don’t receive a survey in the mail can participate online at http://www.snap-surveys.com/prismb2b/grau/NSSAlt/ntlstkrs07alt.htm.

Jason Sawyer, Texas A&M University stocker specialist, said all individual data will be kept in strict confidence.

The participating institutions include: Auburn University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, South Dakota State University, Texas A&M University, University of Florida, University of Missouri, University of Nevada and Western Kentucky University.