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Virginia Cooperative Extension -
 Knowledge for the CommonWealth

Virginia Premium Assured Heifer Program Sale Summary

Livestock Update, August 2001

John Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef, VA Tech

The Virginia Premium Assured (VPA) Heifer Program has been very successful over the last 18 months. This program has provided buyers high quality replacement heifers while rewarding VPA Heifer producers for extra attention to nutrition, management and genetics. VPA Heifer sales grossed $ 624,523.06 through the sale of 686 heifers (Table 1). Five hundred and seventeen VPA & VPA+ bred heifers averaged $ 967.38 per head, and 169 VPA & VPA+ open heifers averaged $ 736.01 per head.

Table 1. Number of heifers, total receipts, average prices and price ratios for Virginia Premium Assured Heifers* and non-Premium Assured Heifers** sold in 2000 - 2001.

  Head Total $ Average $ VPA advantage Ratio
VPA+ Bred 314 $307,763.04 $980.14 $99.21 111.26
VPA Bred 203 $192,375.00 $947.66 $66.73 107.58
Non VPA Bred 253 $222,874.89 $880.93   100.00
VPA+ Open 70 $52,157.98 $745.11 $79.75 111.99
VPA Open 99 $72,227.00 $729.57 $64.20 109.65
Non-VPA Open 109 $72,525.08 $665.37   100.00
*Numbers and prices for all premium assured heifers sold and recorded
**Numbers and prices for heifers sold at auctions with VPA heifers, only
VPA + = Virginia Premium Assured Plus Heifers
VPA = Virginia Premium Assured Heifers

Several sales featured VPA Heifers and non-VPA Heifers. In those sales, VPA+ heifers were worth 8% to 13% more than non-VPA heifers (Table 2). Regular VPA heifers sold for 3% to 5% more than their non-VPA counterparts.

Table 2. Average price ratios of Virginia Premium Assured Heifers relative to non-VA Premium Assured Heifers sold in the same sale.

Average Ratio
VPA + Bred 113.22
VPA Bred 105.44
Non-VPA 100
VPA + Open 108.10
VPA Open 103.85
Non-VPA 100

Sales price is not the only important consideration with a new marketing program. We are currently conducting a follow-up survey of VPA Heifer buyers to ascertain their level of satisfaction with VPA Heifers.



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