HEIFER SALES ESTABLISH RECORDS

FRUITLAND, Mo. -- A Show Me Select Bred heifer sale over the weekend has broken previous records on average prices of the Missouri University sales of young female stock from the University's Extension on-the-farm program.

The sale of 230 heifers at the Fruitland Livestock Sale Inc. averaged $1,085 a head.

Two Show Me Select Bred heifer sales held last weekend came within $2 a head of the same average price, said University animal scientists. A sale of 189 heifers at the Green City Livestock Market averaged $1,083 a heifer.

Both sales broke previous records on average prices for the four years of the university's sale of young female stock.

In separate places, at the same time, there was an amazing consensus on what developed heifers were worth, said David Patterson, extension beef specialist in charge of the program.

The two sales are among seven being held across the state. The last sale will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the F&T Livestock Market south of Palmyra, Mo.

Prices have averaged from $879 a head to the $1,085 at Fruitland.

Averages per sale:

* $879 at Kingdom City in the state's Central Region.

* $1,048, Joplin sale, in the southwest region.

* $1,064, Kingville sale in the west central region.

* $940, Mountain Grove sale, in the south central region.

* $1,083, Green City sale in the north central region.

* $1,085, Fruitland in the southeast region.

Final sales are Friday at Palmyra.

Producers signed up their herds to participate in the development program last spring. The heifers comply with a rigid set standards for health, reproductive soundness and calving ease.

"Health programs are designed to set up the heifers for lifetime immunity," Patterson said.

The heifers are checked for reproduction capacity early and then pregnancy checked again before the sale.

"Buyers returning to the sales are bidding more this year," Patterson said. "They have learned that the calving ease of the heifers and the performance of the calves make the heifers worth more. We're now selling heifers out of heifers that were in the program."