The Link
You can do it if you want to.
Phone call after phone call talking about this variety then another one. What was your yield last year? Can you send me your soil map? What type of fertilizer do you plan to use? Last January I wanted to hibernate between the phone calls and kitchen-table meetings about seed corn. Most seed corn sales happen way before January. My son, Seth, wanted to sell a particular brand of seed corn and was able to be christened as a dealer in January. Believe me, he didn’t leave many stones unturned. Yet, he was successful in becoming a Tier 1 dealer in that short time.
I love to see young farmers and ranchers getting excited.
They look for ways to do it better and more easily. Take Brooke Harward, who operates Mid-Atlantic Cattle along with her dad, Marcus Harward, and their family. Marcus had the foresight to add the video-sale component to their selling lineup, but Brooke took the ball and ran. On the Aug. 2 Mid-Atlantic video sale, more than half of the feeder calves selling were enrolled in an AngusLinkSM value-added program with an average premium of more than $16 per hundredweight (cwt.). The Harward family has to be excited to see buyers clamoring to bid on and buy these outstanding feeder calves on their video auction.
The Genetic Merit Scorecard® (GMS) isn’t much different than Brooke or Seth. It’s young, too. Like young farmers and ranchers, there are not a million GMS cattle out there for purchase today. However, the American Angus Association isn’t new or inexperienced in its efforts to provide tools for better cattle trait selection. The Association released the first expected progeny differences (EPDs) in the 1970s. Now, 50 years later, it continues to add more EPDs and dollar value indexes ($Values) to the suite. Imagine what GMS will be and what it will be able to do for you when you sell your feeder calves in 50 years!
It is no secret. EPDs are great trait selection tools, and they are also used heavily for marketing registered Angus bulls and females.
GMS will do the same thing for commercial cattle in the future that EPDs have done for the registered Angus business. GMS has been in the marketplace almost four years. That equates to three breeding seasons. The data we get back on harvested calves shows it works very well. It describes how well scored calves will perform in the feedlot and on the rail. We use a three-score system — beef, feedlot and grid — to describe your feeder calves.
The last two years AngusLink calves with a GMS have seen approximately $5 per cwt. more than calves without a score. GMS may be young, but GMS is a workhorse with lots of potential to help your feeder calves reach more profit potential with bidders on sale day. The return on investment (ROI) has not been a disappointment.
You can do this. Enrollment isn’t nearly as hard as you think. You have the information we need to help you get the best price for your feeder calves. Pick up the phone. Call 816-383-5100, and ask for AngusLink and the Genetic Merit Scorecard. Work smarter, not harder.
Visit www.anguslink.com for more information.
Editor’s note: Ginette Gottswiller is the director of verification services for the American Angus Association’s Commercial Programs Department.
