Partners in Mexico; partners in progress
October 18, 2011
On the road, but not far from home! Recently, I assisted the Wooster, Ohio crew in hosting some folks from Mexico associated with ComNor, a group that is a beef wholesaler for our product, Certified Angus Beef.
Our company has invested a lot of time, money, and effort in educating our customers about our product: where does it come from; who are the producers; how are the cattle treated; what are they fed; do they receive humane care, and how much does it cost to raise one? The group from ComNor was was no different.
On this particular trip, we visited a CAB-licensed feedlot (Pratt Feeders, Pratt, KS) and an Angus seedstock producer (Gordon Stucky at Kingman, KS). In addition, the group got a tour of one of our many packing partners, Cargill in Dodge City, KS.
Gordon Stucky did an excellent job of explaining to the group the process of designing a genetic program takes time; he spends hours studying Expected Progeny Differences, talks to other seedstock producers, and visits with his bull customers to determine which A.I. sires he might use on his purebred cows. Once the semen has been purchased, and cows synchronized and bred, 283 or so days later, those cows have a calf. Eighteen months after that, he has a product (a bull, or rather several bulls) to finally sell. He told the group that if he doesn’t make sound decisions on genetic selections, and produce the kind of bulls that his customers demand, he has just spent a great deal of time and energy wasted if he cannot please them.
Jerry Bohn, manager of Pratt Feeders in Pratt, KS, stressed that when cattle arrive at the feedlot, they are fed a diet that is designed for them to perform AND grade on the direction of a Ph.D. consulting nutritionist. Sick cattle are treated; large pens are sorted into harvest outcome groups, and marketed on grids which reward the owners with premiums for those calves sired by bulls sold to them by seedstock producers like Gordon Stucky!
The export market is growing, and Mexico is a huge importer of U.S. beef. It is important to them, and to us, that we communicate the design, implementation, feeding, and merchandising of Certified Angus Beef is JOB 1 with us, and that they can rest assured they are receiving only the highest quality beef from cattle that have been cared for and fed by those who have the experience and knowledge to do so.
Until next time, I’m On the Road, once again to western Kansas with a group of producers from Virginia looking for feedlots to merchandise their calves to! Adios!
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