Experts vs. propoganda artists

August 8, 2011

When I hear experts sharing their opinion on the news, I always pause for a moment to think about whether these people really have the credentials for that title–especially when they’re commenting on things like food production or medical issues.

How many times have you seen a famous journalist telling the nation how their food is raised, after they visited one farm? Or a celebrity giving suspect diet advice?

It’s pretty scary to think about the number of people who take these uninformed accounts as gospel truth, so I welcome and encourage folks to use their critical thinking skills whenever they read/hear/see anything.

But that leads some in the cattle industry to think there’s no way they could get credible advice from a group that’s owned by the leading breed association. See if I can change your mind on this one:

Myth—The CAB supply development team just spews Angus propaganda, regardless of the facts.

Fact—We do want you to use more Angus in your herd, but only because we truly believe it will lead you down the trail of profitability.

And it takes a lot to make us “believe” because our team is made up of scientific minds who take a hunch and then find the hard-core data to back it up. We’re not easily swayed by popular opinion. We want to know the numbers, the supporting facts and then firsthand accounts from ranchers and feeders.

Almost all of us come from a production background and most of us continued that early education with advanced study in the agriculture field, some holding masters and doctorates. Heck, our president isn’t just a marketing whiz. Dr. John Stika is a Kansas farm boy, still firmly grounded by his advanced study of meat science.

We have looked at the numbers on everything from how having more Angus-influence in your herd affects quality grade to how the breed has improved its growth traits. When somebody asks us about implant recommendations, we crunch the numbers and then ask for outside opinions.

We lean on a wide and varied network of university and private researchers to provide us with information that we can share with you.

Of course it’s always going to talk about quality. We are paid to increase the long-term supply of Certified Angus Beef ^® but I certainly didn’t take this job to spew propaganda. I’m sure my teammates would agree: We all want you to succeed. If you want to do that by producing a darn tasty product, we’re here to share with you all that we know (and all that the true-blue experts know) about getting that done.

Let us know if you’ve got a question and would like to see the data that answers it. We love this stuff!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

~Miranda

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