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.

Contact Fawna at henkef@kfb.org