Sell Buy Marketing in Canada: How One Farm Pivoted From Grain to Cows

Lessons From The Ranchonomics Podcast Episode 83 With Joseph Gardiner

In the spring of 2024, Joseph Gardiner was staring at a crop plan that, best case, broke even on a $400,000 gamble. Instead of planting, he bought 200 bred cows, and started one of the cleaner real-world demonstrations of sell buy marketing Canada style that I’ve come across.

Joe runs Covers and Co. with his wife, brother, and his brother’s partner under the name Riot Ranch. His story is worth telling because sell buy marketing Canada faces the same skepticism it does everywhere (neighbors asking “what if the market drops?”) and Joe has the numbers to answer them. This is for producers, especially on struggling grain or conventional operations, who suspect sell buy marketing Canada offers a more profitable, more resilient path.

Key Takeaways About Sell Buy Marketing In Canada

• The trigger question at the heart of sell buy marketing Canada is simple: for every animal, ask “what’s the market value, and would I pay that today?” If you wouldn’t buy it, you’ve effectively chosen to buy it by keeping it, so you should probably sell it.
• Joe bought 200 bred cows in April 2024 around $3,600 CAD each, hedged the floor with Canadian livestock price insurance, and ran his “would I buy it?” test through the whole herd.
• One cull-cow trade alone cleared over $100,000 above salvage value: selling pairs at $5,850 that would have brought $2,500 as culls months earlier.
• Volatility is your friend. Trading through a down market keeps cash flowing and equity intact, and sell buy itself becomes better insurance than any hedge.

Why Sell Buy Marketing in Canada Started With One Borrowed Line

Joe’s pivot into sell buy marketing Canada didn’t begin with deep theory. He’d heard Wally Olson and a Jim Gerrish line that Wally quotes often: “You can buy an expensive cow just as long as you sell an expensive cow.” Grain wasn’t going to pay, cattle were climbing, and a friend was selling young black Angus cows that fit his herd for $3,600 CAD (roughly $2,800 USD) that would calve in three weeks. Comparable bred cows now run $5,000 to $6,000.

So he ran an eight-month budget, set his floor with Canadian livestock price insurance (essentially a hedge), and bought 200 head, a three-quarter-million-dollar bet on a principle he barely understood yet. That’s the honest origin of his sell buy marketing Canada approach: a sound buy, a hedged floor, and the willingness to take the first leap. As he says, that first leap is the one no resource can take for you, and the moment you make it, the real education starts.

The Mindset Shift That Powers Sell Buy Marketing in Canada

The engine of Joe’s whole sell buy marketing Canada operation is one Bud Williams question, run on every animal: what’s the market value, and would I pay that today? “If you wouldn’t buy it, then you should probably sell it.” Owning a cow yesterday and keeping her today is the same as choosing to buy her at today’s price.

Joe describes it as walking around the farm with vision problems and someone handing him glasses. His neighbors saw $5,500 cows they’d never go buy; he pointed out they owned $5,500 cows they’d refused to sell: same decision, just hidden. The mindset spread to his machinery too: he ran every piece of equipment through the same test (a Dallas Mount prompt: list it at market value, would you pay that today?) and sold nearly all of it. It’s sell buy marketing Canada applied to equipment, not just cattle.

Underneath sits the intrinsic value calculation: take the purchase price of the cow, add her annual run cost (about $1,500 CAD in Joe’s case), then weigh that against the calf she’ll wean plus her eventual sale value. In 2024, that math came out strongly positive across a big chunk of the market, and recognizing it was, it turns out, pure sell buy marketing Canada thinking.

What the Numbers Did

The clearest win came from his cull cows, and it’s sell buy marketing Canada at its clearest. Joe took roughly 65 head (bad udders, too big, wrong color, the ones a 2021 version of his farm would have dumped for $2,500 salvage), kept them on a separate pasture, calved them out, and sold the pairs for $5,850. He essentially doubled the money by holding them an extra six months. That one trade cleared over $100,000 above salvage. In the prior decade, good years meant scratching out $100,000 to $150,000 total. The difference, in his words, was unbelievable.

The deeper lesson is about down markets. When the U.S. board dropped from $3.80 to $3.20 in a week or two on import talk, then recovered to $3.50, Joe watched a live microcosm of sell buy marketing Canada. As long as you keep trading while the market falls (not freezing up, as Wally and Bud both preach), you keep generating cash, equity often holds rather than collapsing, and when the market turns back, equity takes off. The more volatility, the better: every move up or down is an opportunity for sell buy marketing Canada operations. In that October dip, Joe’s value of gain on some cutter bulls hit over $21 a pound, so who cares if feed runs $2 to $3 a pound to get them there?

On hedging, Joe asked me directly, and my honest answer is that for us it’s mostly insurance to break even, and we’re not interested in breaking even. Sell buy marketing Canada itself provides better insurance and better cash flow than purchased hedges. Joe’s Canadian livestock price insurance gave him the confidence to make the first leap, and the discipline took it from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is sell buy marketing in Canada, in practice? It’s the same Bud Williams and Wally Olson framework producers use in the U.S., applied with Canadian dollars and tools like Canadian livestock price insurance to set a floor. Joe Gardiner applies it primarily in breeding stock: buying sound, well-priced cows, running a “would I buy this today?” test, and trading for cash margin.

Does sell buy marketing in Canada work in a falling market? Yes, that’s where it shines. If you keep trading as the market drops instead of freezing, your buyback is also cheaper, so you keep capturing cash margin. Equity often holds rather than collapsing, and when the market recovers, equity climbs fast. Volatility creates the opportunities sell buy marketing Canada traders profit from.

Do I need a feedlot or daily sale-barn trips to do this? No. Joe doesn’t run feeders through a feedlot or live at the sale barn. Producers who get their operation sound and then add sell buy marketing Canada (especially those dealing in breeding stock) tend to be the most profitable. It’s about disciplined buying and selling, not constant trading volume.

Where can I learn more or follow Joseph Gardiner? Joe shares his work at Covers and Co. (coversandco.ca), runs winter webinars with farm experts on specific practices, and hosts a weekly podcast, the Connor and Joe Show, tackling hot-button ag topics. He answers emails and is a strong advocate for showing younger producers a profitable, hopeful path into agriculture.

The Bottom Line

Sell buy marketing in Canada isn’t a different system: it’s the same disciplined buying, honest math, and refusal to freeze in a down market, applied with Canadian dollars and a willingness to take the first leap. Joe Gardiner turned a struggling grain farm into a cow-trading business that clears six-figure margins and heals his land at the same time.

If you want to put real numbers behind a pivot like this (your cost, your margin, your cash flow before you commit), that’s the kind of clarity we help ranchers build at Ranch Right.

More From the Sell/Buy Marketing Series

• Sell Buy Marketing for Cattle: A Plain-English Guide: the full framework Joe applied on his own farm
• How to Get Started in the Cattle Business in a High Market: entering the business without freezing at the price tag
• Using the Cattle Cycle to Buy and Sell Cows: timing herd growth across a full cattle cycle

This article draws on Episode 83 of the Ranchonomics Podcast with Joseph Gardiner of Covers and Co. (Riot Ranch), Canada.