VQA Feeder Calf Sale Requirements

Requirements for Buckingham Cattlemen's Assoc.

Feeder Calf Sale

Vaccinations (Boehringer Ingelheim Products)

IBR, PI3, BRSV, BVD (Pyramid 5 + Presponse)
7-Way Clostridial (Caliber 7 or Calvary 9, which includes Tetanus)
Dewormed (we recommend the injectable Dectomax or LongRange, but is at producer discretion)

First vaccinations given at turn out in the spring (after calf is 4 months old). A second vaccination of each must be given not more than 50 days and not less than 14 days prior to the sale (see letter for dates).

**All fall born calves must be:

castrated by April 15th and weaned by June 15th.

**Weight limit will be 450 lbs. Grade all 450 lb calves and up. Every effort possible will be made to include all calves, but if they do not fit on a full (50,000 lbs) or half load of 25,000 lbs or more, they will be cut from the sale.

**Naturals

The only ‘natural’ loads to be sold in the feeder calf sale will be one owner loads. There will be no co-mingled natural loads.

**Genetic Selection:

Board action requires that an Angus, Gelbvieh, or Angus/Gelbvieh Balancer bull be used as sires for calves, however those of you who have different breeds of bulls will be grandfathered until you replace those bulls. If you are large enough to have your own trailer load lots, you can use other breed or breed crosses with the approval of the Marketing Committee, but we may not be able to co-mingle surplus calves.

Bull Certification:

It is the producers’ responsibility to supply a list of bulls that have sired the calves that are being offered for sale. The list needs to include: the name, the breed, registration number, the year born, and the yearling weight EPD. If yearling EPDs are not available then weaning weight EPDs are used. If you use a multiple bull-breeding unit all bulls that enter that pasture must meet the minimums. For valid EPDs the bulls must be registered, with EPDs assigned by the breed registry. The Virginia Cattlemen’s Association has revised the EPD requirements. EPD requirements can be found at: VA PREMIUM ASSURED HEIFERS (vt.edu) If the current year is not listed, please contact Jennifer Ligon at jligon@vt.edu.

Tags:

Tags will be Virginia Quality Assured Purple tags with the Buckingham designation on them.

Grading Calves:

As the number of calves in the sales grows so does the time involved in grading the cattle. It will be the producers’ responsibility to have their calves up to be graded. The main item is that calves can be driven through a gate a few at a time for a better view. You will also need to provide an accurate count as to the number of steers and the number of heifers

Calving Dates:

The calving dates on your farm should be September 1st - December 31st calving season. If you choose to calve earlier and your calves will not fit the loads we will not accept them. The calf sale advertisement specifies calves born in the above window. For those wanting to market we will allow a little lead way until you get on the program.

Marketing Committee:

The marketing committee consisting of three members has the right to reject any or all calves that do not meet the quality or health program set forth by the association. The VDACS Livestock Grader and the Extension Agent shall be ex-offico members of this committee

Heifer Guarantee:

If a Buyer purchases a heifer that happens to be bred, the producer agrees to refund $300 to the purchaser. This is subject to a veterinarian's certification that the heifer is pregnant and the returned ear tag verifying the identification and farm of origin.

Stags:

If a Buyer purchases a Steer that turns out to a stag, the producer agrees to refund $250 to the Association to be forwarded to the purchaser.