The Source
Trick or treat.
We don’t get little goblins out in our neck of the woods very often, but this year I had a surprise! A neighbor’s 2-year-old granddaughter wanted to pet the horses in the pasture next to our house. I told her there were some baby calves to feed, too. Then, we could catch the horses and she could pet and ride one! That brought squeals of laughter, and her good witch tutu started bouncing up and down. It’s pretty darn gratifying to help someone have a special day.
I have not seen too many ranchers wearing a good witch tutu, but some can get pretty darn excited when their calves sell well. Really, I don’t blame them either. While using good genetics and having an outstanding reputation helps, some days the market and prices work as planned. Those days, it’s a treat to be in the cattle business; other days, not so much.
This past summer, video sales showed calves enrolled in value-added programs did receive a little more premium than calves not enrolled. Calves enrolled in age-and-source verification during the last eight years averaged $2.05 more per hundredweight (cwt.). If you look at that on a load lot of calves weighing 650 pounds (lb.), that would equate to approximately $1,000 more dollars in your pocket. If you added Non-Hormone Treated Cattle (NHTC) to your enrollment this past year, you could have increased your bottom line another $1,100 on that load lot, or $2.30 per cwt. This year there were a few people jumping up and down with some excitement on sale day!
The trick is to start early to get your enrollment finished up so that you can advertise your calves to potential buyers. AngusSource® and Angus LinkSM use an email list of more than 800 potential buyers to advertise your enrolled calves. Producers fill out a marketing document telling when and where enrolled calves will be selling. In addition, producers can add management information to the document to let potential buyers know as much information as possible prior to sale day.
AngusSource is a third-party verification program monitored by USDA. It offers age and source verification, NHTC, AngusSource Never Ever 3 (AS-NE3), AngusSource Cattle Care and Handling (AS-CCH) and AngusSource Calf Management (AS-CM). Visit the website www.angussource.com to learn more about pricing and the qualifications for each program. More than likely, you are already keeping the records you need to enroll. Give us a call to request your enrollment form and to learn more.
The best option is to dual-enroll your calves in AngusSource and Angus Link. Why? Because this year we took the genetic component out of the AngusSource Process-Verified Program (PVP). By adding enrollment in Angus Link to your calf crop you will have the best of both worlds.
Enrollment in Angus Link is simple. Visit the Angus Link website www.anguslink.com to complete your enrollment online. At the end of your enrollment, add AngusSource, USDA third-party verification, to your calf crop to take your marketing program to a new level.
Next level
If you are raising high-quality, genetically superior calves, Angus Link will document the genetic potential of your calf crop with three simple scores. Producers will need to have at least 50% of their registered Angus bulls transferred to them. Twenty-five percent of the bulls can be registered to another breed association, and the final 25% can be commercial bulls. In addition you will need to document the breed make-up of your cow herd and the registration numbers of the bulls you used for the last couple of years if you raised your own replacement heifers.
Marketing can be tricky. Just like Halloween, it only comes once a year for many. This year start your marketing plan in advance. Take time to call the Commercial Programs Department to learn more on how to dual enroll your calves today at 816-383-5100.
Editor’s note: Ginette Gottswiller is the director of commercial programs for the American Angus Association. Photo by Max Stewart.
