Cattle buyers make no secret of their needs. They want high-quality calves, weaned and vaccinated. And they'll pay top dollar. Producers are finding ways to be part of the process.

If you don't think the cattle market is sensitive to the end user, go to the local auction and watch cattle sell. Buyers are expressing needs via checkbooks. They want large drafts of healthy, preconditioned, like-weight, like-framed cattle. "We won't buy a regular sale barn feeder calf," said Steve Sellers of Sellers Feedlot in Lyons, Kan. It's a strong statement and Sellers hedges a bit. "We're in the custom cattle feeding business. If that's what the customer wants, we fill his order, but not before he and I have a hard conversation about what he can expect."

Everyone knows the cattle industry is changing, said Dr. Kent Haden, MFA's vice president of livestock operations. Those changes need in-depth evaluation to determine the best return to labor and management for producers. Hoping to create a competitive edge for producers in MFA's territory, Haden and Mike John, director of MFA's Health Track Beef Alliance, focused on assembling objective, accurate data. "When we started, the big question people asked was how much more will Health Track calves bring?" said John. "Initially, we thought the price difference in Health Track calves versus non-program calves would be easily calculated using the market report published by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

"Instead what we found was that the USDA/MDA market report doesn't include all cattle sold, and the percentage reported varies by location and weight range. When we compared actual total sale prices to the reported prices, the latter were $2 to $8 per hundredweight overstated."

Necessary feedback
Jay Kerr farms north of Mexico, Mo. He wants information back from feeders and processors that tells him more about his herd performance and genetics. "I would like to know how the cattle do on down the line," said Kerr. "To me, the cowman is still low man on the totem pole. We're using better bulls now. I want to see if it pays."
That's right in tune with feedlot owner Steve Sellers. "We have a computer program that gives us the ability to collect and track feedlot performance and carcass data on an individual animal basis," he said. "The problem is that we almost never get a producer who takes advantage of what we can do because they don't tag their cows so they can trace the calves back. But if they are MFA Health Track producers, we can help them tie the process together. The data can be pulled together in a nice and tidy report. Just think about the ability for the producer to make management decisions with that kind of information."

Source verification
MFA Health Track source and process verifies calves which includes an EID and panel ear-tag cross-referenced and stored in a database. Source verification is critical because of issues like country of origin labeling, bio-security, export acceptance and consumer comfort. There is only one definition of source-verified. Simply put, the animal is identified at the "ranch of origin"--or place it was born. Few programs provide the verification and adequately manage the data. Health Track does both.

Health Track requires producers to meet a list of specific practices for the animals to carry the identification. Among them are a stringent health program (2 rounds of vaccinations, 2 to 4 weeks apart) and standardized feed specifications. The program verifies steers with a 10-cent per pound settlement for undetected bulls. Heifers are guaranteed to be open on the day of sale and no horns are allowed. Participating cattle must have been weaned for at least 45 days on their farm of origin.

Tracy Brunner, owner of Cow Camp Beef, a feed yard in Ramona, Kan., considers the health regimen one of the most important aspects from a feeder's perspective. He buys cattle from many sources and has seen differences between animals with less stressful weaning and cattle weaned on the way to a sale. The Health Track cattle, he said, have more uniformity within the herd. That benefits the feeder with a more predictable feed out and pushes benefits down the line with more predictable carcasses on the rail and more uniform cuts in the meat case.

Program benefits
"When you show the customer how much inbound processing, vaccination and/or treatment will cost versus not having to, that's usually enough to convince them," said Steve Sellers. "But if it isn't, then we talk about the potential death loss risks and the inability for the cattle to come in ready to eat associated with regular sale-barn cattle. We don't have to process the Health Track calves when they come in and that is a huge savings."

The program's benefits impressed Dan Fancher of Fancher Farms in Berryville, Ark. On June 20, watching his Health Track cattle sell at Joplin Regional Stockyards, the cow/calf operator underscored his enthusiasm. "We've always done a lot of what Health Track requires. We just weren't as extensive, and we didn't have a way to document everything we did. But I know the industry is moving toward source and process verification very fast. I want to be on the front end of this movement. Health Track gives us a way without limiting how I choose to market my cattle. In fact, it gives me more options."

Premiums
What these parameters have delivered so far is a significant premium as detailed by a 2-year study at Joplin Regional Stockyards. Some 17,000 cattle sold in Health Track sales were compared against 42,000 non-program cattle sold in Joplin. The 2-year average premium for the Health Track cattle was $27 per head. Similar studies at Eastern Missouri Livestock Market and Callaway Livestock Market verified the findings. Most of the year, the value of the extra body condition stays in the producer's pocket because of better market timing (by adding the 100 lbs. and holding calves at least 45 days after weaning).

That's one reason Dean Carroll of Clarence, Mo., is participating in MFA's Health Track Beef Alliance. The Carrolls traditionally preconditioned their calves simply because they believe that putting quality calves on the market pays its way via building a good reputation among buyers. But with Health Track, Carroll sees an aspect that might have been absent with earlier, abortive attempts to build livestock alliances--tough-minded integrity.

"I've long thought we needed something that showed we had high-quality feeder cattle in Missouri," said Carroll. "But that takes a program with integrity." He's been selling his cattle at the Health Track sale at Callaway Livestock Market in Kingdom City, Mo. He's been pleased with the results so far, and his Charolais/Angus calves beat the weighted weekly average.

"When you advertise dehorned cattle or open heifers, a quality product, you've got to keep the non-quality animals out," he said. "You're signing on the dotted line that you're producing a certain product. I think what this program is going to do is not so much raise the price of cattle, it will differentiate the high-end cattle."

Information is key, said Mike John. "Maintaining a database can be used not only to verify program compliance, but also to provide buyers with information critical for entry into alliance and branded retail product lines. It allows us to keep herd records and do production analysis for producers. If they give us enough information, we can analyze their herds any way they want."

Another benefit, said John, is ability to help with value-based marketing by showing producers where they are and where they need to be, through understanding market signals, toward higher profitability. "We expect carcass information on at least 4,000 animals this year."