GREEN CITY, Mo. (University of Missouri Cooperative Release)– Prices went up at the third and fourth Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer sales of the season, Saturday, Dec. 5.
In north-central Missouri, six consignors sold 69 bred heifers in 21 lots for an average price per head of $1,207 at the Green City (Mo.) Livestock Market.
In the southeast, 11 consignors sold 65 heifers in 46 lots for an average price per head of $1,413 at the Fruitland (Mo.) Livestock Sales.
All heifers sold were products of a yearlong heifer development program led by University of Missouri Extension. Two more sales for spring-calving herds will take place this month, said David Patterson, MU Extension beef reproduction specialist in Columbia.
"Bidders knew what they wanted, as 78 percent were repeat buyers," said Roger Eakins, Jackson, Mo., MU Extension livestock specialist and sale coordinator. "They already owned some of our heifers and knew they worked on their farms."
At Fruitland, Glen Birk, of Jackson, Mo., sold the top heifer for $1,750. Nineteen heifers sold for $1,500 or more.
At the north-central sale, Kenneth Mort of Gallatin, Mo, sold the three highest-priced lots, with the top lot bringing an average of $1,475.
Mort sold 16 head of commercial Angus heifers that had been synchronized and bred AI to proven sires, said Chris Zumbrunnen, MU Extension regional livestock specialist, Milan, Mo. The heifers were pregnancy-checked by ultrasound and sorted into groups by the sex of the calf they carried.
Increasingly, heifers in the sale are bred by timed artificial insemination to proven sires.
The number of heifers offered in the sale was down from the advertised 125 head because of a health emergency in the family of a major consignor, Zumbrunnen said.
Jim Humphrey, MU Extension livestock specialist, Savannah, Mo., said the heifers in the Green City sale were in more uniform condition, top to bottom, than in previous sales.
"Producers are watching their feed costs. There wasn't any extra finish on them, but there were no low-end heifers. They were in their working clothes," Humphrey said. "They can go into any herd and go to work."
At the Fruitland sale, Eakins said buyers came looking for breeding. "They didn't mind paying that extra dollar for good genetics."
Top buyer Paul O'Dell of Piggott, Ark., took home 24 head, Eakins said. "He bought from several farms, but knew what he wanted." O'Dell was a repeat buyer.
The two remaining fall sales of spring-calving heifers are Dec. 12, 12:30 p.m., F&T Livestock Market, Palmyra, Mo.; and Dec. 12, 1 p.m., Wright County Livestock Auction, Mountain Grove, Mo.
Heifers are sold guaranteed pregnant for 30 days after the sale. They are pregnancy checked within 30 days prior to the sale.
The heifers are checked at the sale barn by livestock graders from USDA and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Those not meeting condition, frame and muscling scores are sent home.
Show-Me-Select heifers are identified with a black-and-gold ear tag with a trademarked logo.
Details on sales and program standards are available at
http://agebb.missouri.edu/select/. Beef producers can start enrolling for the 2010 breeding season after Jan. 1.
