Livestock Pro User Guide

Livestock Pro User Guide

Table of Contents Launching the Livestock Pro Workbook... 2 CME and CBOT Prices... 3 Cash Prices... 4 DTN Livestock News and Stats... 6 Feedstuff Prices and News... 7 Cattle Strategies... 8 Feedstuff Strategies - Corn and Soybean Meal... 9 DTN Weather... 10 DTN Livestock Real Time Calculato... 11 DTN Livestock Risk Management Tools (Cattle Crush)... 12 DTN Livestock (Cattle) Breakeven and Profitability Calculator... 12 Feeder Cattle Purchase... 12 Corn and Meal Prices... 13 Cost of Gain Calculations... 13 Labor, Yardage, Transportation and Interest Costs... 13 Live Cattle Marketing... 13 Breakeven Analysis... 14 Revenue P&L per CWT... 14 Revenue P&L per Feeder... 15 Breakeven Analysis... 15 Sensitivity Analysis... 16 Saving the Spreadsheet... 17 1

Launching the Livestock Pro Workbook Before launching the Livestock Pro Workbook, you may need to disable macros to display the spreadsheet in ProphetX. In Excel 2003, open Excel and select Tools/Macros/Security in order to view the embedded spreadsheet in Excel. For Excel 2007, select the Office button, Excel Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Macro, and select Disable All Macros with Notification. This is typically the default setting for Excel 2007. This needs to be set only the first time you open the spreadsheet. To launch the Livestock Pro workbook, move your pointer to the Files docked toolbar on the left side of the screen. Click on the + sign next to 3.0 Sample Workbooks, and double-click on the DTN Livestock Pro workbook. 2

CME and CBOT Prices This page displays three page tabs at the top. The first tab displays quotes for the CME livestock and the CBOT grains contracts. The second page displays the Real Time QuickCrush Calculator for Cattle. (The crush symbols in the quick crush display must be manually updated when contracts expire. The crushes are located in the ProphetX Studies and Filters docked toolbar and listed under Studies/Synthetics.) The third page displays Break Even Prices. On each page the Ticker Symbols are linked directly to the charts. When you click on a Ticker Symbol the chart will update with that symbol s history. 3

Cash Prices This page contains Cash Grain Bids with examples of three counties. These can be changed depending of subscriber s choice and permissions. The DTN Soybeans and Corn Basis Maps show local cash bid prices and basis level. 4

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DTN Livestock News and Stats The news page contains Livestock commentary and analysis. When you click on the story title the contents of that story will display in the lower pane of that display. The right window display satellite generated cattle data and charts. Ex. CME Feeder Cattle Index 6

Feedstuff Prices and News The news page contains Feedstuff Prices and various news searches To perform your own search: Select News from the Main Menu Bar. Select Search Scrolling News or Search Fixed News Select the data vendor from whom you want to view the news (typically DTN). Type a keyword for what you want to find. Select Titles, Stories, or both to search for that keyword only in the Title or both in the title and the story contents. 7

6 Factor Cattle Strategies DTN s proprietary 6 Factor Strategies for Cattle are displayed on these pages. The news index page for these strategies has a selection called How it Works. This page explains what the Cattle Recommendations are and how they are used. 8

Feedstuff Strategies - Corn and Soybean Meal The 6 Factor Strategies for Feed Corn and Soybean Meal are displayed on these pages. The news index page for this strategy has a selection called How it Works. This page explains what the DTN Feed Corn and Soybean Meal Recommendations are and how they are used. 9

DTN Weather Know when the weather is going to affect feeding rations and market trends by using the weather data available via DTN s fixed news feed. 10

DTN Livestock Real Time Calculator This is a customizable spreadsheet that is imbedded within the Prophet workbook. It allows you to monitor and track Feeder Calf Prices, Cost of Gain, and Prices at Market. When you click on this page tab, a dialog box will pop up asking if you want to open or save this file. Select Open. Excel opens in the background. Please navigate to the Excel program where a dialog box will ask for a password to open the spreadsheet. Enter the password you received in your e-mail after downloading ProphetX. Excel may also ask if you want to update the spreadsheet with the latest prices linked from ProphetX. 11

Select Update. PX Livestock Pro spreadsheet will now display in ProphetX. DTN Livestock Cattle Crush Overview of colors: Cells with BLUE font are user definable parameters. Edit these cells as necessary to model your own particular business, including defining feed rations, costs, interest rate, number of feeders to purchase and at what weight, etc. Other cells are calculated fields that you should not regularly edit. A good practice would be to make a backup copy of an unedited spreadsheet, or perhaps a frequent backup of the workbook that contains your customized parameters, before modifying any of the other cells. This way if you accidentally overwrite one or some of the formulas, you can revert to an earlier edition. DTN Livestock (Cattle) Breakeven and Profitability Calculator The fields in BLUE can be customized to your particular operation with 4 different scenarios that will be used in the rest of the calculations. Where you see drop down arrows in a cell, you can click the arrow and select from the list of options. The first section of the spreadsheet includes entries for 4 different scenarios that can be used to determine final Total Revenue, Profit or Loss, and Breakeven Prices. The Feeder Cattle Purchase entries include costs of purchasing and feeding. 12

The Corn and Meal Prices entries include feed costs Cost of Gain Calculations are derived from several parameters, the most important being the selected feed rations. In the top section of the worksheet, you establish several different feed rations with the associated costs. In this section, you can select which of those feed rations you want to use for the various seasons, and compare multiple feed rations in different seasons and feeding scenarios. In the Labor, Yardage, Transportation, and Interest Costs section, previously entered fixed costs are tallied depending on variables such as the average number of head on feed, days on feed, transportation distance to market, etc. The Live Cattle Marketing portion of the spreadsheet calculates the revenue that will be derived from delivering a projected number and weight of fed cattle to market at an estimated time. The market date is estimated based on the feeder purchase date, and the days on feed which can vary depending on the feed scenario selected. Use the dropdowns again to select which contract months to use to estimate the market price for your fed cattle. 13

Breakeven Analysis calculates both Feeder Cattle and Live Cattle hundred weight. The breakeven Feeder Cattle price is the maximum price you can pay for feeders and still break even, given all of the other current or future prices, costs and assumptions. The breakeven Live Cattle price is the minimum price you can market your fed cattle at and still breakeven, given all of the other current or future prices, costs, and assumptions. The rest of the pages in the Livestock Calculator show charts that are based on the data that was calculated in the spreadsheet. Revenue P&L per CWT This chart was generated from the Primary and Secondary Feed Scenarios in the Cost of Gain Calculations section and Total Revenue per CWT to Market in the Live Cattle Marketing section of the DTN Livestock Cattle Crush page. 14

Revenue P&L per Feeder This chart was generated from the Primary and Secondary Feed Scenarios in the Cost of Gain Calculations section and Total Revenue per Feeder Purchased in the Live Cattle Marketing section of the DTN Livestock Cattle Crush page. Breakeven Analysis The Breakeven Analysis of Feeder Purchase Price and Live Cattle Market Price chart was generated from the Primary and Secondary Scenarios in the Breakeven Analysis section of the DTN Livestock Cattle Crush page. 15

Sensitivity Analysis Corn Price adjustments can be made by clicking on the up/down arrows labeled High Corn Price and Low Corn Price. 16

Saving the Spreadsheet Saving the ProphetX workbook only will NOT save changes to the spreadsheet. To save changes in the Spreadsheet, click on the Save Icon in the context toolbar. 2012 DTN ProphetX. All rights reserved. Updated 01/2014 17