“What advice would you give sellers and buyers of value-added calves and how do you market value-added calves?”
To a seller or to a buyer, the answer is the same: Unless you can sell your feeder cattle in a sale that gives all the data that value-added calves have received, and also if you're a buyer and you can buy out of a sale that gives all of the data for value-added feeder cattle, you're missing the boat on value-added selling or buying.
That's why we sell our "Northern" outstanding feeder cattle at auction through Northern Video. Northern Video or Sales of this sort where all value added data is presented and the cattle are sold in load lots is the best way to market value added calves. One other thing which is a "given" is the fact that a seller or a buyer must have quality, genetically strong feeders before any value-added scenario is helpful. First you must have quality and genetics, then if you have value-added through your health program, that's something to sell and that's something to buy that benefits both ends.
Wayne Edmondson
El Yeso Ranch