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NewsMay 13, 2002

FRUITLAND, Mo. -- In the first of two spring sales, 200 Show-Me-Select replacement heifers set a record for average price, said David Patterson, extension beef specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The heifers averaged $1,118 per head and brought the total of all sales in the state since 1997 to $7,172,082...

Southeast Missourian

FRUITLAND, Mo. -- In the first of two spring sales, 200 Show-Me-Select replacement heifers set a record for average price, said David Patterson, extension beef specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The heifers averaged $1,118 per head and brought the total of all sales in the state since 1997 to $7,172,082.

The 66 lots of heifers, bred to calve this fall, sold last week for a total of $223,570. Eleven beef producers sold heifers. The sale, organized by a committee of area beef producers in the MU Show-Me-Select program, was at Fruitland Livestock Auction Inc. in Cape Girardeau County.

The next sale is Friday at Carthage, Mo.

One buyer from South Carolina bought a truckload of heifers.

"He was looking not just for replacement heifers that would calve in the fall; he was looking for good genetics," said Roger Eakins, regional livestock specialist at Jackson, Mo. "He found what he was looking for here."

The Show-Me program held seven sales across the state last fall, offering spring-calving heifers.

Buyers at the Fruitland sale paid an average premium of $127 per head for heifers that had been bred by artificial insemination over those with natural service sires. The AI-bred heifers averaged $1,183 compared to $1,056 for the natural-service bred heifers. Over 60 percent of the heifers in the sale were artificially inseminated.

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"Buyers are placing increasing importance on AI and are willing to pay for it," Patterson said.

Helped by catalog

Most herds in Missouri have spring-calving cows. A trend, especially in the southern regions of the state, is for fall-calving herds. Many of the producers participating in the sale have both fall- and spring-calving herds, Eakins said.

An added value of the Show-Me-Select heifers is the catalog available on sale day that gives background information. Projected calving dates are included.

The advisory committee at the Fruitland sale has set stricter standards than those in the state provisions, Eakins said. There is more information available. They give more EPDs (expected progeny differences) and birth dates of the heifers. The heifers were developed in the herds where they were born and are produced by known sires with EPDs.

"The stricter requirements helped our sale," Eakins said.

The replacement heifers were grown under strict standards that help assure easy calving. They are sold with a guarantee of being pregnant.

The heifers are inspected and pregnancy checked on the farm by veterinarians and extension specialists. Representatives of the Missouri Department of Agriculture recheck them on sale day for lack of blemishes and minimum standards of soundness and muscle and condition scores.

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