VIENNA – Seventeen consignors from the mid-Missouri will offer quality heifers at the Show-Me-Select sale 6 p.m. Friday, May 22, at South Central Regional Stockyards in Vienna.

University of Missouri Extension field specialist in livestock Anita Ellis said this is the first sale in several years. The sale serves producers and buyers in mid-Missouri and the upper Ozarks, Ellis said. Area producers enrolled in the program requested a sale.

She says SMS producers will offer around 150 heifers, crossbred and purebred Angus, Simmental, Charolais and Limousin fall-calving heifers. They are set to calve by Dec. 1.

Online bidding is offered by DV Auction. See videos and pictures of heifers at facebook.com/SMSCentralMO. Email Ellis at snella@missouri.edu for a catalog.

The Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program uses the latest research on health, nutrition, genetics and reproductive science to ensure Missouri counties continue to be national leaders in providing quality beef, Ellis said.

SMS heifers gained fame for calving ease that cut death losses and labor at calving. Spring and fall SMS auctions across the state bring higher bids for calving-ease genetics, she said.

Buyers pay premiums to lower assisted births with first-calf heifers. In the past, high death losses took out heifers entering the herd.

Dave Patterson, MU Extension reproduction specialist, started SMS more than 20 years ago. MU Extension specialists run the educational part of Show-Me-Select. Board members enrolled in the program run the sales.

Only Missouri produces SMS heifers. Herd owners enroll in a yearlong MU Extension education program. Regional livestock specialists guide the heifer program.

Herd owners join SMS through county MU Extension centers. For more information on SMS, go to agebb.missouri.edu/select. See a video about the program at youtu.be/mNPFlnw7v2M.

— Source University of Extension