A dry, flavorless and thinly cut steak can be enough to sour anyone’s taste for beef. “There is no doubt that cattle are getting bigger, and that will continue,” says Terry Houser, Kansas State University meat scientist. “I don’t think we are going to produce smaller rib-eyed cattle anytime soon or start selecting cattle for that trait.” Still, demand for beef looks bright, thanks to new cutting methods developed to tackle the issue of increasing carcass size and its effect on the eating experience.
You could say there were no losers, but room for more winners in the Kansas Angus Association 2011 Carcass Data Project pen. “The cattle just did phenomenally—everybody’s did,” said Landon Shaw, assistant manager at McPherson County Feeders, a Certified Angus Beef ® brand partner yard near Marquette, Kan.
Early-born calves have a better chance than the later born of making a profit for their owners. That’s what a 2010 study of Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF) data helped confirm.
When springtime hits the rural regions, folks hunt for mushroom delicacies that pop up this time of year. People crave these, seek them out and guard their secret places, but they know it is for a limited time only.
The people of Performance Food Service (PFS) journeyed to farm country to learn more about ranchers who raise high-quality beef for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand. The event marked the company’s 25th year as a licensed CAB distributor.
Education is part of beef promotion and sales. That’s as true within the beef industry as it is in selling beef to consumers. Any of the 37 meat technical and sales professionals from Buckhead Beef Atlanta who came to Kensington Cattle Company, near Woodbury, Ga., for a ranch field day this spring would surely agree.
It’s a pretty well recognized fact: if you want grid premiums, your cattle have to be better than average. Most people don’t sell on a value-based system unless they have reasons to believe their herd genetics and management will result in high-quality beef. But even among ranchers who sell on a grid, the plant average factor—part of the formula used to derive grid pricing—is not as well understood.
As cash cattle prices shot up to record highs in March and the futures markets showed incredible strength, consumers were asked to pay record prices for beef. Shaking off worries about the economy, they responded positively. Ground beef and cuts from the chuck and round led the increase, but middle-meat steaks moved higher, too. Faced with record high prices for the most expensive cuts, more consumers opted to ensure the eating experience by turning to the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand.
Good stocker operators think about how to make their cattle better for the next segment in the beef business. Many of them gathered at the Backgrounding for Quality field day near Hamilton, Kan., last month to learn more about what feeders want and how to get there.
Cattle health matters at every segment, but it could be the single biggest profit determinant for the stocker phase. Mitch Blanding, senior veterinarian with Pfizer Animal Health, and rancher Mike Collinge shared tips for managing health at last month’s “Backgrounding for Quality” field day on the ranch near Hamilton, Kan.
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