PHOENIX, Arizona – Ken Jordan wondered if he was doing the right thing when he took over the family farm and auction business at San Saba, Texas in 1971.
Almost 20 years later, computers and the internet have him convinced he made the right decision.
“The train is moving folks, and every producer has a chance to get on it,” he said during the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention Jan. 26-29.
He believes the new technology is reinventing the way cattle are sold, such as the new type of presorted sale introduced at his Jordan Premium Cattle Auction last year.
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“I wanted to do this 10 years ago but the systems were not in place.”
Jordan said presorted sales allow him to tell potential buyers everything that has been done to every calf in the sale.
So far 20,000 of the 200,000 cattle his auction sells in a year have been sold this way.
All cattle must meet specific sales criteria to receive a certificate guarantee.
The calves must be weaned 45 days before the sale date, so they are adjusted to new feed and recovered from separation stress.
Health management information must include details about diets and medication.
All calves must be vaccinated for diseases like IBR, pasteurella, BVD and blackleg. Injections must be administered subcutaneously in the neck, which means beneath the skin only.
They must be dewormed.
All steers have to be knife cut to make sure they are not bulls. They must be dehorned or have their horns tipped.
All of this information is stored on computer and correlated to numbers encoded on electronic button eartags attached to each calf. The numbers can be read as calves pass through the sales chute.
Jordan said ranchers involved in the presort sales tell him they are earning premiums of more than $10 per hundredweight. Many are turning a profit for the first time in years.
“Profit is the best word I can hear,” he said.
“It is not a bad word.”
New technology is also allowing feedlots to keep track of the cattle they buy during shipping. Buyers use global positioning systems to trackdelivery trucks.
Some calves are traveling 800 kilometres and GPS helps the feedlot determine arrival times within 15 minutes.
