Should you
“age and
source
verify” your
calves prior
to selling
them this
fall?
We all know
that packers
are paying
premiums for
age verified
animals,
anywhere
from $25 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.
Research
conducted by
the Montana Beef Network show that there’s income in it, even for
the Cow/calf
Producer.
They tracked calves sold through Superior Livestock Auctions
during the
summer of
2007
and found that age and source verification added $12.83 to
the final
price of a
600 pound
calf.
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.
Even after
paying the
one-time PVP
Training fee
of $250, a
50 head
operation
can make
age and source verification pay, and in year two the
benefits
double. The
opportunities
for
profit are even greater for larger operations.
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.
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.
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. The Montana Beef Network research
showed that
semi-load
lots would
add another $12.65 to the value of that 600 pound calf.
You can then
list them
for sale on
our
website or click on our
<Marketing
Options> link and
contact one
of the many feedyards
looking to buy age and source verified cattle.
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