There has been growth in value-added, identity preserved businesses in the beef industry which facilitate marketing systems of this type.  Unfortunately, small and medium sized beef farms have difficulty in attracting buyers from these alternative marketing systems when only small numbers of animals can be offered for sale at a given time.

The Commercial Agriculture Beef Focus Team has developed the Premier Beef Marketing Program with the goal of educating producers in adding value to the feeder side of the beef production and marketing system. This program is intended to help producers coordinate with the objective of gaining market power by producing uniform, quality animals that can be traced from birth through slaughter.  

As cattle producers approach the time to make a decision on whether to keep or sell their cattle this fall, they should be aware of the options, advantages and disadvantages of group marketing alliances.  These type of groups offer advantages on several levels:

1.    Reduced Transportation costs: Marketing animals together in truck load size lots allows fewer stops for the buyer

2.    Improved Market Power: A single producer with 1000 calves or several producers that have worked together to develop 1000 calves with similar production practices can attract a larger number of buyers, which in turn increase the chances of a greater price paid for the extra additional value of the calves

3.    Fewer Transactions:  Buyers are more willing to pay a higher price if they can fill their orders in large quantities. For example, every time a calf is sold there are commissions, trucking charges and some health costs associated with the transaction. These costs are paid for by the producer. If producers own the calf from the cow to the slaughter plant, they'll save the marketing costs of two transactions.

4.    Better information: Buyers will be provided with substantially more information about the husbandry practices of these animals than they would normally receive.  In addition, in subsequent years carcass data from the previous years siblings may be available if the alliance chooses some form of retained ownership

This website has more information on the following subjects:

Premier Beef PowerPoint Presentation
This presentation gives detailed information about the economics and opportunities of the Premier Beef Program

Premier Beef Forms
This page contains information for use by Premier Beef Marketing Groups and their members in the collection of information, soliciting backgrounders, and bids from value-added buyers

Premier Beef Documents
This page contains general information about backgrounding and retained ownership intended to help producers analyze information they gather from participation in the Premier Beef program and help others decide the benefits and costs of participation in this program or others

Premier Beef Educational
This page contains general information about backgrounding and retained ownership intended to help producers analyze information they gather from participation in the Premier Beef program and help others decide the benefits and costs of participation in this program or others.

Premier Beef Marketing Groups
This page contains contact information for individual groups that are participating in the Premier Beef Program