The Source
Changing with the times.
The Japanese export market has agreed to revise import guidelines to include beef from cattle harvested younger than 30 months of age. This expands our market potential worldwide, and is good news for our industry, but it also brings about changes to packer premiums for age-verified calves. Our program must shift to reflect current market demands.
The American Angus Association is transitioning its age- and source-verification programs with a goal to provide in-house verification standards for cattle to qualify, continuing to verify the age, source and genetics with the same confidence the industry has come to trust and value. AngusSource will relinquish its status as a USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) in 2014.
Based on what I’m hearing in the business, packer premiums for age will be pretty much gone by spring 2013, but there are still benefits associated with verifying information on your calf crop, especially the genetic component. To better serve the producers using registered-Angus bulls, the AngusSource program will take on a new approach in providing documented age, source and genetic information on Angus-influenced cattle.
With herd expansion on the horizon, the need for replacement heifers is expected to rise. Producers looking to purchase replacement females need to be confident in the genetic quality of each animal. Enrolling in AngusSource will guarantee those heifers are sired by registered-Angus bulls and that they were born on your operation.
At the end of last year, a long-time AngusSource customer purchased approximately 700 head of heifers. He planned to develop the top end as replacements and take the bottom end to the feedlot. He purchased AngusSource-enrolled heifers and heifers that were advertised as being sired by registered-Angus bulls. He thought it would benefit him to use the GeneMax™ test on a percentage of heifers from each group. If they tested 80 or above, he decided he would keep back the heifers. Approximately 70% of the tested heifers from the AngusSource lots scored 75 or above, while only 30% of the non-enrolled heifers scored above 75.
Consumers are demanding superior beef products. The ability to validate high-performing animals will only become more important. Angus-sired calves enrolled in AngusSource will continue to provide buyers above-average quality and a consistent product at harvest. Feedlots will still be able to look at the data on the marketing document and determine how the calves may gain and grade.
Packers expect source verification to begin playing a new role in the marketplace. Currently, the market does not support source premiums. When cattle prices decline, source should become a much more important component of your marketing program.
Our mission holds true — increasing the value of your Angus-sired calves by ear-tag identification, providing updated marketing documents and creating additional methods to promote Angus-sired calves. After all, just because a calf carries a black hide does not mean his genetic makeup is Angus.
Calves wearing the AngusSource tag will continue to be in demand. The genetic data AngusSource provides and the additional information included in the marketing document conveys to buyers the added value of an AngusSource-tagged calf. This will not change.
Editor's Note: Ginette Kurtz is manager of AngusSource for the American Angus Association.
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