October 12, 2007
Digital Angel's RFID tag well-received at cattle auction
Digital Angel Corporation, an RFID tag manufacturer, announced recently that Superior Livestock Auction, the pioneer in marketing cattle via satellite and the Internet, has contracted the company's animal applications unit, Destron Fearing, to manufacture an exclusive tag for its new process verified programme.
The programme comes under the name PVP (Process Verified Program) - Superior Verified.
Superior Verified provides age and source verification to help producers differentiate their cattle with buyers and use that data for a broader range of marketing options, the company said.
Producers in the Superior Verified do not have to invest in a reader or enter tag numbers into a database. They simply provide the programme's data provider, IMI Global, with supporting documents and place the tag in each animal's ear.
The company is pleased to supply one of the largest livestock marketing firms in the US with quality, proven identification products, Rae Powell, vice president of sales and marketing with Destron Fearing said.
The company's RFID tags would allow enrolled cattle to retain their identity and documentation, even as the cattle move outside the producer's control or ownership.
One reason the company was chosen was that its tags were in number-sequential order, and not the random-number order as adopted by other companies, said Jim Kelley, business manager at Superior Livestock Auction.
This makes it easier to keep up with cattle and their information, he added.
Kelley says the first 90,000 head of cattle Superior marketed brought an average premium of US$1.77 per hundredweight over similar cattle sold without the verification.
Premiums from cattle sold during the summer sales, may fetch as much as US$2 to US$3 per hundredweight, he said.
At the same time interest in the PVP programme has double compared to last year, he noted.
More people are realizing that there are premiums associated with age and source verification, he said.
