Name:     Roger Koberstein	Profession:    Farm Service Director
Relationship:  Ernst NE Line
Cattlenetwork.com Jolley: ID/INFO vs. NAIS Who Blinked? 08/29/2009 09:00AM "Speaking on behalf of animal identification were Roger Koberstein, a Colorado beef producer; Eric Brandt of Brandt Beef in Brawley, CA; Josie Riser of JoBo Holsteins in Pennsylvania and Mark Harmon of Joplin Regional Stockyards in Missouri. Points made? The quick location of cattle lost in the violent snow storms that raked Eastern Colorado. Without premise ID and tagging, Koberstein said most of the cattle would not have been located in time to airdrop hay and they would have starved to death. " Feedstuffs.com Costs versus benefits: Costs favor larger producers (8/27/2009) By Rod Smith Special coverage from the National Conference on Animal Identification (ID INFO) in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 25-27: "Producer calls premiums good returns on $2 investment In other presentations on the second day, Colorado cow/calf producer Roger Koberstein said he started attaching electronic identification tags to his calves five years ago and is making a $5-15/cwt. premium on them today, or $30-90 per head on a 600 lb. calf. He said that's "a fairly good return for a $2 investment in a tag." Koberstein said this is possible because his calves are traceable, explaining that he can take them to a backgrounding operation and get a call 15 months later from a packer who says: "I've got your calves here, and do you want their carcass data?" He then uses the carcass data for quality improvement. Koberstein also said he markets 10% of his calves through Colorado Home-Grown Meat, an online market a consumer who has bought one of his calves can log onto and call up the calf to see how it's growing and send a cut card to the processor specifying how they want the carcass cut, e.g., size of steaks. He said this returns a premium of $300 per head. Koberstein also said he uses the tags to monitor where his calves are grazing, how far they graze and on which grasses, which helps in determining carrying capacities."