– Condensed by Steve Boyles, OSU Beef Extension Specialist (Source of Article: The Professional Animal Scientist 31 ( 2015 ):443–447)
Dr. Tom Wittum of the OSU Veterinary Medicine School and other researchers from around the country collected data to quantify the effect of implant status on the sale price of lots of beef calves marketed through a livestock video auction service.
The data analyzed were collected from 92 livestock video auctions from 2010 to 2013. Only lots of beef calves were included in the study. There were 27,746 lots and 2,749,406 total calves used in the analyses. Mean lot sizes were approximately 100 head and were expected to be truckload quantity lot sizes.
Percentage of implanted calf lots (lots = 20 calves or more)
West Coast region
California 7
Idaho 32
Nevada 3
Oregon 4
Utah 29
Washington 36
Rocky Mountain
Colorado 10
Montana 30
Wyoming 21
North Central region
Illinois 71
Iowa 50
Michigan 9
Minnesota 60
Nebraska 31
North Dakota 39
South Dakota 21
Wisconsin 18
South Central region
Arizona 4
Kansas 48
Missouri 30
New Mexico 8
Oklahoma 36
Texas 28
South East region
Alabama 38
Arkansas 12
Florida 70
Georgia 45
Louisiana 70
Mississippi 41
North Carolina 67
Implant status had no effect on the sale price of beef calves in any year. But another way to put it was there was not a price benefit for not implanting calves. Unless well-planned marketing strategies are used that capture a premium for “natural” (or non-implanted) calves, beef producers will receive reduced revenue from calf sales by choosing not to implant nursing calves.