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Will Age and
Source
Verification
Pay for Me?
We all know
that packers
are paying
premiums for
age verified
animals,
anywhere
from as low
as $10 to as
high as $50
per head for
animals that
are part of
a USDA
approved
Quality
System
Assessment (QSA)
or Process
Verified
Program (PVP).
But as a
Cow/calf
Producer,
how can you
take
advantage of
these
premiums?
First,
you need to
age and
source
verify your
calves. Age
and source
verification
starts at
the ranch
with the one
person who
knows when
that calf
was born but
it’s
important to
remember
that your
calves won’t
be age
verified
unless your
farm or
ranch is
enrolled in
a USDA
approved QSA
or PVP.
Second,
to make age
and source
verification
pay for your
operation,
you need to
market your
calves
through an
auction that
will work
with you to
get those
premiums.
Research
conducted by
the Montana
Beef Network
in the
summer of
2007 showed
that there’s
income in it
for the
Cow/calf
Producer.
They tracked
calves sold
through
Superior
Livestock
Auctions and
found that
age and
source
verification
added $12.83
to the final
price of a
600 pound
calf. Our
own
experiences
here in
Kansas with
the Beef
Verification
Solution
Program
echo those
results. On
January 18,
2011,
Wakeeney
Livestock
held a
special
preconditioned,
age and
source
verified
feeder
cattle
auction, and
the 1,867
age verified
calves
brought on
average, a
$2.34/cwt.
premium over
non-verified
calves.
That’s a
$14.04 per
head premium
for an
age-verified,
600 pound
calf; to see
the complete
analysis,
including
the values
of color,
lot size,
sex and
weight from
this sale,
click
here.
So does
it pay?
The two
tables below
compare and
contrast the
costs of
enrolling
your animals
in the
Beef
Verification
Solution
Program
and
AgInfoLink
PVP with the
income you
could earn
through age
and source
verification.
It pays
to age and
source
verify!
Even after
paying the
one-time PVP
Training fee
of $100, a
20 head
operation
can make age
and source
verification
pay, in year
two the
benefits
increase
another 68%;
and the
opportunities
for profit
are even
greater for
larger
operations.
How?
By holding a
“special
sale,” for
age and
source
verified
cattle; that
way when a
buyer grabs
seven of
yours,
fifteen of
somebody
else’s and
forty-eight
from another
ten
producers,
they now
have
seventy, age
and source
verified
animals that
they can
load on a
truck, feed,
sell to a
packer and
receive the
age verified
premium
for. Also,
a “special
sale” will
attract more
buyers that
are looking
for age
verified
animals,
increasing
the number
of bidders
for your
cattle.
If your
local Sale
Barn won’t
put together
a “special
sale” to
help you get
a better
price, maybe
you and few
neighbors
can put
together
your own
semi-load of
age and
source
verified
calves and
feed them
yourselves;
or together
or
separately,
you can
market them
directly to
a
backgrounder
or feedlot.
Click on our
<Marketing
Options>
link and
contact one
several
feedyards in
the
AgInfoLink
PVP, looking
to buy age
and source
verified
cattle
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