UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State Proud! Beef Cattle Sale, Nov. 7 at the University Park campus, should generate upwards of $100,000 for the College of Agricultural Sciences, share highly desired top-quality Angus genetics with beef producers across the East and reaffirm Penn State's reputation as an institution that maintains a first-class breeding operation.

But those aren't the biggest benefits from the first such sale the university has held in 15 years, according to John Comerford, associate professor of dairy and animal science and beef cattle coordinator.

"The most important reason why a university like Penn State would own cattle is for their educational value," he says. "Sales give us an opportunity to teach students how to prepare cattle for a sale as well as how to create catalogs and advertisements. For that reason, we developed an undergraduate class in livestock merchandising.

"Students in the class will participate in all aspects of the sale activities, including preparing the catalog, submitting advertisements, reviewing budgets, preparing the sale facility, meeting and interacting with buyers and guests, and providing feedback to help improve our sales in the future."

Not since 1988 have Penn State students experienced a cattle sale. "Our department made a strategic decision a few years ago to begin having regular beef sales," Comerford says. "We have been producing more cattle to get ready for this one.

"We have received animals from endowments, gifts and donations," Comerford adds. "We must have a certain number of cattle available to have a sale, because we could gut our program if we sold too many and didn't have enough animals to meet teaching and research needs. But we decided if we are going to produce cattle at Penn State, then let's produce good cattle, and then we can use them to make a contribution towards education of our students as well as making a contribution to the beef industry."

In addition to purebred Angus cattle, some crossbred animals from the college's commercial herd also will be sold, including some Simmental crossbreds and 4-H steer prospects.

Starting at noon at the Beef-Sheep Center off Orchard Road, approximately 65 head of cattle will be sold. Many of the cows will have calves at their side and all females will have been bred to top A.I. sires. A few bull calves will be auctioned, along with one two-year-old bull. The sale is being managed by one of the college's alumni, Dick Beck, originally from York County, who is in the cattle sale management business in North Carolina.

"We hope to gross over $100,000," Comerford says. "It will be similar to sales of the past. We anticipate 200 or more people will attend. A few breeders may come long distances, but most of them will be cattle business people from Pennsylvania. I think it is important that people know that cattle sales don't make our department rich. There are significant costs associated with a sale, and any proceeds we make are used for improvements in instruction and research."

Beef unit manager Don Nichols stresses that sales are great for students. "We are developing students who will be qualified to merchandise cattle," he says. "They will learn marketing techniques and the subtle things we do to prepare animals for sale. This will teach them something that they can take home. They'll meet people in the business and hopefully make merchandising contacts that might help them later."

Nichols hopes this year's sale will be the first of many, held at regular intervals at Penn State.

"Sales help us to control our cattle inventory, and they allow us to offer our genetics to other Angus breeders throughout the country," he says. "With the number of cattle we have and the long-range plan, we could have sales every two or three years. It is something that we have to build on. Sales attract students and help other breeders."

For more information about the beef sale, call 814-863-0831 or visit the Web at http://das.psu.edu/beefsale/.

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EDITORS: Contact John Comerford at 814-863-3661 or jxc16@psu.edu.

Contact:

Jeff Mulhollem jjm29@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-863-9877 fax #234