Master of brand advantages
June 16, 2011
You’ve heard of the Harvard MBA, and the NCBA MBA program (Master of Beef Advocacy); but Certified Angus Beef LLC has it’s own MBA: the Master of Brand Advantages!
The CAB MBA (I’ll try not to get too overloaded on acronyms here) has several components, one of which involves participants making a four day trip to visit ranches, feedlots, packing houses, and seedstock operations to learn more about where our product comes from.
The participants are chefs, purveyors, merchandisers, marketers……folks who are an integral part of the “beef chain”. This particular segment of the program gets our partners out to visit the people who engineer the genetics, feed and care for the cattle, finish the cattle, and harvest them. It allows them a first-hand look at what really happens on the ranch,farm,and feedlot.
They can interact with real people, telling the real story, of their commitment to the animals they raise to meet the demand for high quality beef.
One of the three ranch visits that I had the opportunity to be involved with was CB Farms at Preston, KS, owned and managed by Berry and Carla Bortz. Wow! What a super visit; they made me tired just by hearing about the integrated farm and ranch operation’s day-to-day activities. Berry, in the center of the photo to the right, explains how he and Carla manage the commercial cows to some of the participants.
The Bortz’s manage about 450 commercial Angus cows, and finish the steer calves and non-replacement heifers at their own feedlot. With CAB plus Prime rates bumping 80, 90 and 100% on some harvest groups, you can be assured they are doing something right. Berry and Carla are believers in the Program, and it shows. The participants, many of whom have little or no farm or ranch experience, learned about the Bortz’s care of natural resources, of the cattle, and of the land. Super testament to the care of livestock.
Next stop: Crown Point, New Mexico, where I will speak to a group of ranchers involved with the Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture. Till then, adios!
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