EID Spurs Superior Payday

By Susan Etxebarria

BIG CYPRESS — Pleased by the high bids for Seminole cattle during the April 29 Superior Livestock Auction, Tribal cattle owners had reason to celebrate the best payday ever.

Many owners assembled in Big Cypress at the Morgan Smith Building to watch the Fort Worth, Texas auction conduct the sale between numerous buyers and producers nationwide via closed circuit television on channel RFD-TV. After the sale, the Seminole cattle owners and managers beamed with satisfaction.

“We had a good sale,” said Richard Osceola, BC Cattle Range Office Manager. “Probably the highest we ever had.”

President Moses Osceola said the Seminole Tribe is heading in the right direction in the type its producing. He said the Tribe is “trying to raise what the beef industry wants.”

“I want to congratulate all the cattle owners,” said Osceola, who was interested in watching the live auction of the Board I and Board II cattle. “We hope we can make all the money we can and we want to thank you.”

About 10 years ago, Natural Resources Director Don Robertson began a program to gradually replace the primarily Hereford stock with the Brangus breed. Today almost all herds are Brangus, which produces premium grade beef. But, there was another factor that added to the prices this year. The Tribe is in the forefront of innovative technology.

“I guess you know these prices broke the record,” said Robertson.

As an example, the price comparison for Brighton’s annual calf sale shows that small steer prices have gone up $52.75 on the cwt pricing scale from 2003 to 2005. Small heifers prices also rose $49.50 in the past two years, on the cwt pricing scale.

“I am proud of these prices,” said Robertson. “I think that the new electronic animal identification had something to do with it.”

The innovative animal identification system, completed by the Cattle and Land Operations last month, traces each cow’s history and movements from its birth to slaughter and enables state health officials to trace back within 48 hours in case of a disease outbreak. It is currently a voluntary program but it is expected to become mandatory by 2008.

“I definitely feel the Tribe’s electronic ID [EID] program helped their sale,” said Jim Odle, general manager of Superior Livestock Auction.

The Seminole Tribe’s cattle outsold all other Florida cattle ranches at the auction.

“We are seeing the ID program as being financially beneficial to people who use it. With the possibility of more global exports there is going to be more demand for cattle that can be traced back to their origin and their age,” he said.

Most of the lucrative foreign markets, such as Japan, will not buy cattle from countries without an electronic ID (EID) program. McDonald’s restaurants and Wal-Mart are also moving in that direction as well. Odle said a Texas ranch that adopted an EID program for its herd of 800 cows also did very well at the cattle auction.