Verified Beef meeting planned for Monday

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
An information meeting about Verified Beef is planned for 7:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 9, at at the Holy Family Activity Center at 415 N. Cedar St., Marion.

Verified Beef is a cooperative created by cow-calf producers and veterinarians in an effort to evaluate and improve the quality of beef produced.

The cooperative is not a typical marketing group. The primary goal is to receive data feedback on calf feedlot and carcass performance and interpret this information to make long-lasting farm improvements.

Veterinarian Brad White developed this program in Missouri in 2000 because his producers wanted more information on the genetics and performance of their calves.

These producers were not large enough to each send a pen of cattle to the feedyard. So a cooperative program was started that allowed several producers to group cattle into uniform, 50,000-pound lots, for movement to the feedyard. Individual feedyard and carcass data would be remitted back to each producer.

White produced a data management program that would group the data into usable reports that each producer could use to evaluate their own production program.

Cattle enrolled in the program are vaccinated by Beef Quality Assurance standards, and practices are verified by a third party. With the established verified program, the track record for the past four years is 5 percent to 7 percent pull rates in the first 30 days into the backgrounding yard, and minimal illness rates once sent to the feedyard.

Producers gain several benefits by participating, according to promoters. Information derived from the program will help the producer evaluate farm management and genetic strategies.

Unlike most “value-added” calf-vaccination programs, the cattle are not being placed into the sale barn with a higher price. Instead, cattle are sold after the stressful time of commingling and backgrounding with minimal problems, commanding a higher price for the entire pen.

After the first year, historical data is included on the bid sheet, which helps to capture a higher price.

Anyone interested in the program is invited to attend the meeting at Marion. To get more information about this program, call the Animal Health Center of Marion County at 620-382-8800.

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