age verifying cows?

[dfarms11]

A neighbour told me that I will have to age verify my cows before I sell them. Has anyone else heard this?

[vagabonddreamer]

From what I was told a couple days ago when I took some fall calvers to the auction in Kamloops...age verification is still optional...some buyers may pay a slight premium for age verified if they are shipping to the US...I didnt notice any premium given to verified cattle at that auction...vs

[grassfarmer]

No you don't have to age verify cows, there won't be any such rule brought in either as it would be impossible to enforce. You may choose to age verify cows born since the CCIA age verification data base was set up but for cows born before that it can be argued that producers were under no compulsion to record birth dates so can't be expected to age verify. Worst case scenario you might be asked to age verify cows as being born prior to a certain date when the CCIA database was established.

[kato]

AGE VERIFY YOUR COWS! If they are young enough, for pete's sake do it.

We sold two cows last week. One was age verified, and one was too old. They were virtually identical to look at. We sold them to a private buyer who pays a premium and says it up front, so it's not a difference due to some bidding by more than one buyer.

None age verified cow - 1598 lb @ .40 for a return of $639.00
Age verified cow - 1646 lb @ .48 for a return of $790.00

8 cents a pound on a 1598 lb cow is $127.84. That's a pretty good payback for a few minutes on the computer. Times that over a hundred cows or so and you're talking big money.

I've gone through the herd and age verified all who can be, and can't imagine why everyone doesn't want to do it. It's like getting free money at a time when we need all the money we can get.

[dfarms11]

ok, I can understand verifying a 2 to 4 year old cow, but 10 - 15 year old cow? What would they do with that info? How could they make more money? What good would that info be? An old cow is an old cow. Doesn't make sense to me. So If I verify my 12 year old cows, am I going to get another 5 cents?

[kato]

It works for cows born after 1999. I've heard different dates in 99. Jan 1 and March 31. Anyone here know which is correct?

Older than that, and don't bother. It's not going to help.