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Let the CAB Cattle Crew keep you up to date on what’s happening in the beef community. We’ll share industry insights to help you maximize your profit potential.
Latest Headlines
Raised with Respect™ Rewards Producers with Current BQA Certificates
Taking care of your herd is part of the job of every stockman, and it’s the right thing to do. While you’re not committed to cattle care for recognition, you could be rewarded for holding a current BQA certification. Through two incentive opportunities, CAB and Sysco are recognizing producers who go above and beyond to show commitment to their herd.
Chef Coats and Cowboy Hats
Two worlds collide, with one focused on raising the best beef and the other crafting dishes that honor it. This innovative program unites students from Johnson & Wales University and ranchers from across the United States, offering an immersive look at the beef industry.
Marbling, Feet and Fertility: Are they related?
The Angus breed has enough genetic diversity to allow breeders, and their commercial bull customers, to make progress across multiple traits simultaneously. One bloodline may be high in marbling but does not check the boxes you need for other traits. That does not mean marbling is the cause—it simply means your search for the ideal genetic pairing is not done.
Mark Ahearn Completes Term as CAB Board Chairman
Mark Ahearn admits his role as the chairman has meant a lot to him and his family. He expresses gratitude to those who believed in him throughout the past year and looks forward to seeing the future successes of the premium beef brand.
The Second-Best Sales Year for CAB
While the total fed cattle supply declined by 1.6%, this year a record 5.96 million carcasses, up 2.4%, were certified for the brand, with 37.4% of all Angus cattle meeting the brand’s strict quality standards. A record 730,000 carcasses qualified for Certified Angus Beef ® Prime.
Noble Research Institute and Certified Angus Beef Launch Partnership Centered on Promoting Land Management for Livestock Producers
Land Stewardship, launching November 2024, is an extension of Noble’s educational curriculum and offers an introduction to soil health principles and its effects on ecosystem processes. This free, online program is available for producers of all sizes and locations to gain insights into healthy soil, better grazing animal performance and a more resilient and profitable operation.
CAB Insider
Seasonal Shifts in Beef Item Demand
Seasonal demand shifts for different cuts constantly change the percentage of total carcass value that each cut represents. Often those changes are subtle, but January is typically characterized by more dramatic adjustments with contribution from several cuts shifting total carcass value.
2024 Regional Premiums and Discounts
Launched in early August 2024, the USDA’s Live Cattle Mandatory Reporting dashboard is still a relatively new tool. The purpose of the web platform is to keep market participants informed of trends in price distribution across regions and between differing quality and yield classes of cattle.
Success Stories
Humble Growth
Customers from around the world file into the Shamrock Shack beside their sale ring each spring and fall. They’re not just buying into Connealy cattle, but the customer-service guarantee. For getting that and a lot more right, Connealy Angus was recognized with the 2024 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence award.
Feeding Better Cattle Better
Not everyone is cut out to be a cattle feeder. It’s an art and a science that comes with a need to overcome risk. Wayne Carpenter fed his first pen of steers in 1980 and lost money. But he stuck with it. Today with their sons’ families, he and wife Leisha run the 15,000-head-capacity Carpenter Cattle Company.
Working for Premiums
The commercial Angus rancher from Collyer, Kansas, came back for daily homework in 1999 after a year at college. For 25 years now, he’s studied all the ways to grow his family’s W6 Cattle cow-calf herd with Angus at the base. Guided by data, Walt worked to improve the herd from zero Primes to averaging 60 percent. Learning what drives premiums prompted improvement.
Consumer Connection
Sustainability Cents
Sustainability is an all-encompassing term for social, environmental and economic business needs. The popular, updated term describes many of the same best practices cattlemen have put to work for generations.
Driving Demand: International
Selling U.S. beef to buyers in other countries means carefully maintained contacts and planning to avoid sea squalls. Adding COVID to that scene creates a perfect storm that can wreck the best plans. For those skilled in navigating the waters, however, it’s just another day on the boat.
Driving Demand: Foodservice
“What costs most for a restaurant isn’t the meat, but an empty seat.” That statement resonates even more after rounding a year of a pandemic. But before COVID-19 shutdowns and meat shortages, serving CAB was about competitive advantages and so much more. Loyalty breeds loyalty, creating a demand not only for the product, but the company.