The effect of growth-promoting implant status on the sale price of beef calves sold through a livestock video auction service from 2010 through 2013

Abstract

Data were collected to quantify the effect of implant status on the sale price of lots of beef calves marketed through a livestock video auction service from 2010 through 2013 and to calculate the percentages of implanted lots. Information describing factors that could potentially affect the sale price of lots of beef calves was obtained electronically from the auction service for 27,746 lots (2,749,406 total calves) selling in 92 video auctions. All lot characteristics that could be accurately quantified or categorized were used to develop a separate multiple-regression model for each study year using a backward selection procedure. Implant status had no effect on sale price in any of the 4 yr of the study (P = 0.53, 0.39, 0.64, and 0.12, respectively, for 2010 to 2013). The percentage of lots that were implanted in each year was 28.4, 30.3, 30.5, and 29.0 for the years 2010 to 2013, respectively, with a mean of 29.5%. The percentage of lots of beef calves that were implanted was relatively low in the West Coast, Rocky Mountain/North Central, and South Central regions of the United States ranging from 18.2 to 27.9%. However, 64.9% of the lots from the South East region were implanted. The results of this study indicated that implant status of beef calves marketed through a livestock video auction service had no effect on sale price. Approximately 30% of all lots were implanted in each year of the study with approximately 33 and 25% of the steer and heifer lots being implanted, respectively.