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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
Rob Shuey Joins Certified Angus Beef Board
Shuey knows the product and understands sales and how CAB partners view the brand. This extends internationally, given he retired from Tyson as the senior vice president of international fresh meats, lending him a global perspective for CAB’s licensed partners.
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.
CAB Insider
Prime Trends Up
As Prime supplies leapt higher in 2018, continually increasing, the retail grocery sector woke up to the fact that Prime beef cuts could be accessed dependably throughout the year. Prime was no longer reserved for only the high-end restaurant customer. Simply put, creating availability at the grocery level unlocked consumer demand where it hadn’t been tapped before.
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.
Success Stories
Showing Up, Every Day
Thirty-five thousand cattle may fill these pens, but it’s the Gabel family who set the tone for each day. Steve and Audrey persistently create a people-first culture, echoed by their son Case and daughter Christie, who work alongside them in the yard office. The Gabel’s drive to effectively hit the high-quality beef target earned Magnum Feedyard the CAB 2023 Feedyard Commitment to Excellence award.
From the Ground Up
Benoit Angus Ranch, a seedstock operation that markets more than 150 bulls annually, is a multi-generation family business with sons Doug and Chad now heavily involved. Focused on serving the commercial cattleman, the Benoits built a reputation for high-quality cattle that perform on the ranch, in the feedyard and on the rail. With always-improving cattle to support that renown, and the will to back it up, Benoit Angus Ranch earned the CAB 2023 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award.
Future Focused Business
Pilot partners in CAB’s Ranch to Table program, these North Dakota ranch families took some of the market volatility into their own hands in April 2022. Their leap of faith provides high-quality beef options for their communities and diversifies their income. Now they sell their finished cattle, as well as those of their customers, through Dakota Angus, a direct-to-consumer beef business.
Consumer Connection
Trading Places
Tagging by Dawn, Dishes by Dusk South Carolina rancher and chef trade places 7 Trading places It’s a near 3-hour drive from big-city Charleston to Ridge Spring, S.C. With every mile, people become fewer and cattle take their place. It’s a new commute for Jeremiah...
The Ground Beef Market and Price Signals
Beef’s getting better, to judge by the uptrend in quality grades and resurgent consumer demand. However, an increasing share of that demand has been for ground beef – and an average pound of that versatile staple now sells for more than $4. Last year a Rabobank AgriFinance white paper entitled “Ground Beef Nation” (GBN) questioned the industry’s priorities now that Americans consume 11 billion hamburgers each year. It called for greater efficiency and retooling to fit a changed market for one-third to half of young cattle, and warned business as usual could lead to weakened market share for beef over time.