Marketing
BeefTalk: Age and Source Verification Revisited
By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
Ten years (as of November) have passed
since the Dickinson Research Extension
Center summarized research on tagging
calves for improved market traceability,
and the subject remains relevant today.
In the last decade, trading beef was,
and still is, a complex pattern of
pathways that involves many steps.
Although selling cattle has been
fairly simple throughout history,
more recent desires continue to
evolve processes that are not as
straightforward as a simple handshake.
History changed the rules. There was
no vote. There was no input. There
was a simple acknowledgment that
business as usual was not to be. A
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few more questions were asked,
but in the end, life went on. producers for the identification
and capture of product value.
Producers are seeking an
unencumbered environment that allows
buyers from around the world to bid on
their calves. The current environment
seeks to maximize business options for
producers. Producers seek the flexibility
to market their stock that effectively
capture value for them and enhance that
value to all links within the beef industry. Ten years ago, more uncertainty
surrounded calf marketing. The national
(and international) discussion about
age and source verification heightened
that uncertainty. The situations, names
and places have changed, but the
uncertainty remains, at least regarding
age and source verification and potential
trace-back of cattle that are sold.
During this decade, we saw many
marketing options: sale barn auctions,
video auctions, internet auctions,
direct sales, alliances, branded
programs and other alternative
marketing arrangements, all considered
beneficial and essential by beef Essentially, two products still remain:
the “calf” and then the associated
“data.” Both products have value, an
important point to understand.
Today’s producers market a calf and the
data about that calf, but the concept
of marketing the data still is struggling
in the pens and alleyways of the