Want your cattle to bring in more money on sale day?

Your calves have been raised right: good health, good management, good genetics. Does it make a difference when you sell them? Third-party verification could be what you’re missing. Here are six programs that aim to help you get paid for what you may already be doing.

1. Superior Livestock Auction   Value Added Calf (VAC) 

Superior Livestock, noted for its video cattle auctions, instituted a customer-verified vaccination program in 1994. You can choose from several levels of its VAC program. 

VAC 24, VAC 34, and VAC 34+ are for calves sold at or near weaning and vaccinated at least once for common diseases (IBR, PI3, BVD, Pasteurella, and Clostridium). VAC 45, VAC 45+, and VAC 60 are additional value-

added designations if your calves have been weaned for 45 or 60 days before sale and given booster vaccines and parasite treatments.  

To participate, you sign a contract with Superior verifying the procedures were performed. It is presented with cattle on sale day. The program doesn’t stipulate which brands of health products you use.

“Each set of our VAC protocols are specific to certain types of cattle with good, better, and best options for the producer, depending on how they run the operation,” says Merrigwen Morrow, Superior’s value-added specialist. “We’ve seen premiums for each group go up as a producer moves from good to better to best.” 

Superior’s VAC 60, which she calls the best protocol for producers with weaning capabilities, has produced a $7.92 per cwt advantage over unvaccinated and unweaned calves. “Buyers want assurance the cattle they receive will be healthy and move right on to the next phase of development,” Morrow says.

Visit: superiorlivestock.com

2. Merck PrimeVac Preconditioning

The Merck program closely follows the health protocols of Superior Livestock but with the requirement that Merck Animal Health products be used. There are several levels of participation. 

PrimeVac 24 is for calves vaccinated once preweaning. PrimeVac 34 and PrimeVac 34+ are for calves handled twice preweaning. PrimeVac 45 is for calves weaned 45 days or more before sale, and PrimeVac 45 Premium is for calves vaccinated three times (once after weaning) and treated for parasites. Implants are optional treatments that can be recorded with any of the PrimeVac levels. 

After PrimeVac procedures are followed, you fill out a certificate your veterinarian signs, or you can sign an official affidavit for proof. Documents go with your cattle on sale day.

Tim Parks, technical services veterinarian for Merck, says an advantage of the program is it allows producers to use Merck’s calf vaccines on a wide age range of calves to get a vaccination history started early. “Many of the new vaccines, especially ones given intranasally, can be given to calves as early as seven days of age, which is important for preparing the calf’s immune system for a strong booster response later,” he says.

He also points to the value of the veterinarian in the verification process. “Veterinarians are the experts in their geographic areas. They determine diseases to vaccinate against, and when to do it. The veterinarian’s signature gives buyers an extra level of comfort in the status of the cattle,” Parks says. 

Visit: the-best-defense.com

3. Zoetis SelectVac 

Calves enrolled in this preconditioning program fit one of four designations. PreVac means the calves have been vaccinated for common viral and bacterial diseases (Zoetis products) at two to six weeks before sale, with no weaning length requirement. PreVac+ is the same except calves have been vaccinated twice: once early in life and again preweaning. WeanVac calves have had at least two vaccinations and are held on the farm after weaning for at least 45 days. StockerVac is a designation for purchased and vaccinated calves held at least 60 days before resale. Calves in the WeanVac and StockerVac designations must also be dewormed.

“It’s a simple protocol,” says Zoetis beef researcher Tom Short. “For most producers, it could be just your regular vaccination program, but this lets you document, verify, and market it. If you don’t do that, you could be leaving money on the table. Take that next step.” 

To enroll cattle, you (or your veterinarian) create a secure account on the Zoetis website, enter your cattle, and update information as you do procedures. You can even scan receipts as proof of purchase of the health products. At sale time, you can print a Barn Card to present to buyers. 

“It gives them confidence in the health background, so they don’t have to repeat the treatments,” Short says. 

Visit: selectvac.com

4. Boehringer Ingelheim Market Ready Feeder Calf 

With the suggestion of using Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) products, this program has three levels: 45 Premium Market Ready, 45 Market Ready, and 34 Plus Market Ready, depending on when you vaccinate calves and how you manage cattle. To qualify for Premium designation, calves must be vaccinated three times: at branding, preweaning or weaning, and postweaning. The 45 designations mean calves must be weaned for at least 45 days before sale. The 34 Plus program is a two-vaccination protocol — at branding and two weeks to six weeks before shipping — with no weaning requirement.

Producers can use available BI products for the common viral and bacterial diseases. A downloadable card is available for you and your veterinarian to sign as verification of procedures; the card will travel with the cattle.

BI beef veterinarian Joe Gillespie says the Market Ready program gives producers a choice of what works within their management style. “Not all producers work their calves three times, so the 45 Premium program may not work for them,” he says. “It’s a good validation of what actually happened. If you do the work, you should get paid for it.”

Gillespie says producers should look at a preconditioning program as a long-term investment. “If you do it consistently, it will pay off on sale day. Use it as a tool to help market your quality cattle,” he says.

Visit: bicattlefirst.com

5. Purina Plus Feeder Calf 

Purina’s program goes beyond health preconditioning, adding nutrition too. Enrolled calves must follow proven vaccine and dewormer protocols with approved products from Elanco, Merck, Zoetis, or BI. In addition, they must be fed a quality nutrition option from Purina’s lineup of starter and grower feeds. They also must be fed appropriate amounts of vitamins and minerals through starter feeds. 

After the starter period, calves must be transitioned to a balanced nutrition program tailored to a producer’s local area and resources, with oversight from a local Purina nutritionist. Purina Plus calves must be weaned for a minimum of 45 days, boosted with approved vaccines, and treated for internal and external parasites.

Ted Perry, Purina director of beef cattle technical solutions, says you can enroll through one of 4,000 dealer locations. “Purina dealers handle the distribution of program tags, certification, and documentation of calves while also helping promote cattle marketing,” he adds.

Enrolling calves in Purina Plus has to be started well ahead of your anticipated weaning date, Perry says, and the program can work in tandem with other value-added programs.

Visit: purinamills.com/purinaplus

6. Integrity Beef Alliance

This program involves not just health and vaccination protocols, but also genetics, management, and record keeping. First initiated by Noble Research Institute, it now is operated independently by a board of directors of cattle producers. To participate, you apply for membership, then pay $1 per head in an annual fee. 

Health protocols say calves must have two rounds of vaccines and be dewormed, weaned a minimum of 60 days, bunk broke, and from a cow herd testing negative for BVD. Also, the cow herd must be vaccinated annually for respiratory diseases and blackleg. 

Genetic requirements for the Integrity terminal calf program state that calves must be sired from one of eight preferred breeds, with sires ranking in the upper half of expected progeny differences (EPD) for weaning weight and yearling weight. Members even have to adhere to a strict 90-day or less breeding/calving season.

Robert Wells of Noble serves as a consultant to Integrity Beef. According to Wells, the program has given members nice returns: 14% higher markets than commodity cattle of unknown background and 5% over other value-added programs. In heavier calves (more than 700 pounds), Integrity Beef premiums have been $150 or more per head over commodity cattle. 

Members can market their cattle anytime and anywhere with the Integrity Beef verification, and the organization also holds special sales every year just for Integrity cattle. 

“It has a 21-year track record of profitability for members,” Wells says. “We even help them identify areas on the ranch that cost them money and areas that work well and don’t need changing. This data is crucial to making member ranches more efficient and allowing us to promote the Integrity Beef program more effectively.” 

Visit: integritybeef.org