On the road to Missouri

March 10, 2011

Had a fantastic meeting with our licensed partner, Performance Blenders at Gordonville, MO.  Gerry and Geoff Shinn, owners and managers of the company, asked me to come down to speak to about 160 producers this week.  They dined on CAB brisket and side dishes and learned more about consumer demand for high quality beef; not only from me, but from Brian Bertelsen of U.S. Premium Beef and Scott Murphy from National Beef.

One question I got before the meeting began, was “do you remember when Angus cattle weren’t worth anything?”  He went on to sing the praises of the Angus breed, from the advances made in genetic selection to the most successful branded beef program in the world. 

Mr. Bob Copeland was the gentleman’s name, and he said that he had tried other breeds; sees neighbors using other breeds, and is happy that he and his father “stuck with” the Angus breed.  “Dad said, at the breed’s lowest point, that Angus cattle would come back.  He was right.”  We all know what Angus-sired calves are worth compared to other cattle; they have certainly outpaced the other breeds and crossbreds in salebarns across the country; and we have the pricing data to prove it.

There’s no question that consumer acceptance for the Certified Angus Beef product has helped fuel that demand for Angus cattle; but also,the breed’s inherent ability to add calving ease,growth, and performance convince producers that they contribute to the bottom line in more ways than one.

Later, I had the opportunity to visit Circle A Angus Ranch in Iberia, MO and talk to Mark Akin, the manager.  Mark was preparing for the March 19 bull and female sale at the ranch’s sale facility.  Over 200 head of bulls will be offered and 450+ bred heifers.  Circle A also has a calf buy-back program for cattlemen that purchase and use bulls from their operation.  They then feed those calves to harvest weight and all are sold on a quality grid.  Mark shared with me one kill sheet in which 14% of the cattle graded USDA Prime; 56% CAB, and rest were low Choice, with no Select carcasses!  It’s no surprise that Circle A feedlot has won the CAB Quality Focus Award a few times!

With calf prices and corn prices where they are, it will pay more dividends than ever for stocker, backgrounding, and feeding operations to purchase calves like these.  They will perform and return more than commdity cattle!  Next time, I’ll talk about some profitability profiles that we have done with the TriCounty Steer Carcass Futurity.

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