Category: Premium Potential

Plan, monitor and cool it

Date: Jul 31 2019

It’s a hot topic every summer.
“Heat stress is the largest impediment to efficient animal agriculture,” said Rob Rhoads, Virginia Tech. He presented with University of California-Davis colleague Frank Mitloehner for a symposium on the topic at the American Society of Animal Scientists annual meeting in July.

Promising efficiency and marbling results

Date: Jul 12 2019

Paul Dykstra gives inside market updates for the shifting cattle prices. Research shows efficiency and marbling traits in cattle are not related and is good for cattlemen.

Strong CAB growth in retail

Date: Jul 10 2019

Paul Dykstra talks gives a market update and shares CAB booming sales growth at retail. He notes the imbalance in market-ready fed cattle in Texas.

Grid guidance as prime presses higher

Date: Jun 26 2019

Paul Dykstra shares lower market prices for the end of June. See how carcass traits need to be balanced but aren’t equal. CAB Prime pops under demand.

The impossible dream

Date: May 14 2019

Imagine an alternate American history line over the past 16 years, with just an incidental supply of “Angus” beef. There’s a Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand but it began to coast in 2002 and scaled back to maintain flat demand. The 30 other Angus programs at that time struggled to compete with commodity beef; most folded.

Staying on track

Date: Apr 16 2019

Why do we call substantial disasters “perfect” storms? It feels like an oxymoron. The title perfect storm seems a more fitting descriptor for the rain that comes just in time to break a drought, or the swirling clouds that bring rain but never materialize into a devastating cyclone. The drama still unfolds, but disaster doesn’t follow.

Education, change: Beneficial discomforts

Date: Mar 26 2019

A cowman’s response to the ebb and flow of the industry is entirely up to the individual – but a choice is imminent. That’s why Dusty Abney, cow-calf and stocker nutritionist for Cargill Animal Nutrition, called out a few of the areas where producers have had to adapt through the years: volatile markets and regulations for starters.

Really that good

Date: Mar 15 2019

Young kids often have a misplaced sense of confidence. “Wook, how high I jump.” As a toddler, one of my girls used to love to show off that skill. She’d squat down, chubby thighs almost touching the ground and she’d give it her all. Her jump would maybe clear all of two inches. She was always thrilled.

The cost and value of quality

Date: Mar 12 2019

It’s Prime time

Date: Mar 12 2019

There was a time when targeting the Choice grade seemed like a lofty goal. But as the song goes, the times, they are a-changin’.