MFA Incorporated boasts its Health Track is "the nation's leading Source, Age, and Wean VAC 45 process verification program that identifies and properly conditions calves so they meet the demands of today's beef industry." In the program's seven-year history, nearly 300,000 calves have been tagged and managed in the HT database; Health Track's Daniel Schafer said those calves have, on average, brought a $35/head premium over similar calves sold immediately after weaning.
And Schafer said in these times, the returns from that investment can be important. "I think the cow/calf segment as a whole is starting to feel the pinch just a little bit more," he said. "Fertilizer prices have increased dramatically in the last couple of years, and climbing with that have been a number of feeds and different commodities or ingredients that go into feeds…all the way down to just the energy prices. When you talk energy, you're talking not only gasoline and diesel fuel, but you're talking fertilizer you put on the pastures, which also trickles into the phosphorus and different element ingredients that go into their minerals…Hopefully, Health Track is one more way (producers) can add some value and get more production out of the same mass of land, to help alleviate some of that pinch."
Under Health Track, cattle have to be weaned for a minimum of 45 days; they have to receive two full rounds of vaccination for blackleg and four-way virals, the second of which has to be a modified live product, and one round of Pasteurella vaccine. They also have to be dewormed, dehorned and treated for external parasites, and the males castrated. There's also a feeding requirement; Schafer said, "For the first 14 days, those cattle have to be on 10 lbs. a head a day, or full feed, of MFA Cattle Charge, which is a weaning ration we have; we've put it into enough animals that we have enough confidence the cattle will do well that go to it, and it will help stimulate the immune response that we're trying to build."
The added benefit to Health Track is the source and age verification program; all cattle that go through the program get the Health Track tag and an electronic ID. Information on the cattle is stored in a database. The cattle are certified by AgInfoLink, whose Process Verified Program is approved by USDA. This makes beef from those cattle eligible for export programs that require age certification and traceback, such as those for Japan and South Korea.
Schafer said the demand for source and age verification has been mixed at the ranch level, but is gaining speed industry wide. He said, "The premiums on finished animals have ranged all over the board, but in a lot of cases anywhere from $35-50 a head on a finished animal. What we're seeing is the demand for that beef is far exceeding the supply we've got in the pipeline to fill it."
And Schafer said demand for beef from pre-conditioned cattle is coming from the feedyards. With today's high grain costs, he said, feeders want "to buy cattle that they know are going to come in the front door, that know how to eat, that are going to take off and not get sick, and efficiently convert those high-priced grains when they're putting them at the feedlot level."
There are other benefits to the calf producer. Schafer said their records show only 2 percent of post-weaned Health Track cattle have to be treated for respiratory illness. And there are added benefits to producers who are able to pool their cattle to be marketed in bulk; he said MFA promotes and advertises Health Track animals, and "anywhere we can assimilate a large group of Health Track cattle, it's to everybody's advantage."
