The Link
The cowboy way.
Great partnerships don’t just happen. They take some work and effort. Just like working cattle, it takes time to know who can sort, who’s on the gate and who can write down the data best.
Working together and helping each other is not just the cowboy way, it’s the farmer and rancher way from coast to coast. Working together to market your feeder calves for the most money on sale day is the AngusLinkSM way. It takes everyone to get the most money on sale day. It’s definitely a partnership between the rancher, the verification company, the rep, the sale facility and, finally, the buyer.
You sell pounds of beef. No matter if it’s at the auction market, video sale or directly from the ranch, pounds are the payday. I haven’t talked to a producer recently who hasn’t said their calves need to be worth more money when the gavel drops.
Adding value
How can your calves, weighing the same, be worth more money on sale day?
The answer is enrolling in value-added verification programs. This is one avenue to provide more dollars to the final price for a nominal investment of time and money.
During the summer video sales last year, it was evident program calves were in demand. The number of buyers inquiring about Angus-sired calves enrolled in programs like non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC), NHTC/NeverEver 3 (NE3), NHTC/NE3/Global Animal Partnership (GAP) has kept the phone ringing this year.
What can that mean in dollars and cents to producers like you?
You have done the real work by keeping calving records, using quality registered Angus bulls, giving preventative vaccines to your calves, providing sound management decisions for your herd health, and the list goes on. Now you need to finish the job by enrolling your calves in AngusLink.
To get started
Call an AngusLink administrator who will work with you to determine the programs that best suit your operation and management style. Our team has plenty of cow sense and common sense to tie your enrollment together in record time.
AngusLink is a USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) with age and source verification as the base claim.
Then together we can start customizing your enrollment with the following options:
- AngusVerified — sired by registered Angus bulls;
- Calf Management (CM) — preventative health vaccinations;
- Cattle Care and Handling — Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certification and animal husbandry practices;
- NHTC — no growth promotants from birth to slaughter;
- NHTC/NE3 — no growth promotants, antibiotics or animal byproducts from birth to slaughter; and
- The NHTC/NE3/GAP bundle, in conjunction with EarthClaims, uses one auditor to save time and money.
The American Angus Association is your verification destination. We offer the claims that matter. While the Genetic Merit Scorecard® is not a PVP claim, it is definitely a valuable tool for you to use. Some producers use it as a benchmarking tool, while others use it to add more marketing power to their verification certificate.
Call the American Angus Association today to learn more about the profit potential from your verification destination, AngusLink, at 816-383-5100.
Editor’s note: Ginette Gottswiller is the director of verification services for the American Angus Association. Lead photo from Getty Images.
