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Self interest, shared goal
Being good at what you do every time is no accident. “My dad said anyone can sell something once,” Prof. John Siebert told his ag business class. “It’s selling something multiple times to the same person that takes a lot of work and expertise.” On March 19, the Texas A&M agricultural economist asked four links in the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand supply chain to share their experiences: CAB president John Stika; rancher James Henderson of Bradley 3 Ranch; Joe Boutte, director of business development for Houston-based Freedman Meats Inc.; and Ric Rosser, concept/executive chef for Saltgrass Steakhouse and West Coast Claim Jumper.
Uniform cattle increase profit potential
John Simons ranches with his family near Enning, S.D., where they’ve focused on reducing variability in their Angus-based cowherd for the last 20 years.“If your calves all look the same, they’re just a pretty package,” he says. “And pretty sells.” Sticking with one breed and bloodline for several years lets Simons produce calves that not only have the same phenotype but also perform similarly in the feedlot and on the rail.
CAB’s Erickson ‘Woman of Influence’ in food industry
Since its inception in 1978, the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand has become perhaps the most recognizable worldwide. And for the past 21 years, Tracey Erickson has had a major hand in that unprecedented rise in the food world. She guided CAB’s entry into male-dominated foreign markets in the early 1990s as International Director, and since then, as Vice President of Marketing, Erickson has led the initiatives that resulted in today’s global presence.
Genetic bootstraps
You decide. Each time you buy a bull, keep a heifer or cull a cow, you choose a future for your herd and, collectively, for a beef industry that is either blessed or burdened with high prices. “I don’t want record prices because of the lowest beef supplies in 50-some-odd years, said a University of Missouri livestock economist. “I want the highest price because demand is pulling us along.” Most everybody in the cattle business would want what Scott Brown wants. There were certainly nods of agreement at the March 12 Midwest Section, American Society of Animal Scientists meetings in Des Moines, Iowa.
End meats help drive
T-bones, sirloins, filets and strips—these are the beef cuts referred to as “middle meats.” Such steaks make up 12% of the carcass, but represent just under half of its total value. That and the difference in cooking method lead many to believe it’s the only place where beef grades matter. Not according to experts like longtime market reporter Bruce Longo, of Urner Barry, and the data he tracks.
Value-based cattle marketing dominates
Selling fed cattle on a live basis is no longer standard practice, and some day it could end up as no more than historical reference. “The old selling-them-live method has given way to formula sales,” says Mark McCully, assistant vice president for Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB). Data from Cattle-Fax and the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows a sharp decline in cash sales in the past seven years, from 52.1% in 2005 to just 26% in 2012. The inverse of that is the steep gain in negotiated sales, like grid marketing and other arrangements, which moved up from less than half of sales to more than three-quarters during those years.
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