Experience wins Kansas Angus Carcass Data Project

by Kaitlin Morgan

Winners of the Kansas Angus Association’s 2014 Carcass Data Project (CDP) are old hands at raising high-quality cattle.

The top three contestants had elite level scores, but John Wendling’s winning entry stands out above the rest.With all 10 of his steers qualifying for the Certified Angus Beef^® brand and four of them grading Prime, he collected the $500 champion prize for the second year in a row.

But no matter the placing, the real prize to all was the data they can use to further improve their herds. Wendling runs a registered seedstock operation near Halstead, Kan.,with his father, David,and the carcass data received through the project has helped show them where their cattle excel and whether they need a little more ribeye.

“Our main goal is to raise bulls,” says Wendling. “I turn the data into the Angus Association to help improve the EPD accuracy on our cows and herd sires, and it proves that we’re doing a good job raising our cattle.”

For the past four years,the cattle in the project were fed at McPherson County Feeders, a CAB partner yard near Marquette, Kan. All animals entered the yard in December 2013 with a minimum of 5 head per contestant.

The Wendlings used to finish all their cattle at a small feedyard on their operation, but have switched to McPherson County Feeders to gain better market access.

“The reason I entered in the project the first time was to get the carcass data and it was a place to feed a small group of cattle,” says Wendling. “We did it again this year and we actually also fed another pen of cattle from one of our customers in the project. We could have just fed them all ourselves but I think they need as many cattle as they can to keep the project going, it’s important to us to support this project,and it gives us a comparison of how we perform compared to other top producers.”

Those would be like Jeff Klausmeyer of Clearwater, Kan.,and his brother Todd Klausmeyer of Wichita, Kan., who won second and third in this year’s contest with steer pens that achieved 89% and 85% CAB. That was after the K3 Angus family placed in the top three the last two years.

Overall, the CDP cattle were 98% Choice and 58% CAB, which is down from past years but the cattle performed exceptionally well with an average daily gain of 3.56 lb. across the board. In the end, all contestants made money and were rewarded for raising high-quality Angus beef.

There were 59 head entered by seven participants this year, including those from Hazelton Angus, McPherson, Kan.; (Jeff) Klausmeyer K3 Angus, (Todd) Klausmeyer K3 Angus, (Thomas) Klausmeyer K3 Angus, Conway Springs, Kan.; Wendling Angus; Hobbs Ranch, Penokee, Kan.; andBryan Lies, Halstead, Kan

Thorpe honored for beef industry achievements

There is no man more associated with the words “cattle market” than Topper Thorpe, who left his mark on the industry during a 32-year tenure with CattleFax. His contributions and leadership will be noted as Thorpe receives the Feeding Quality Forum Industry Achievement Award in August.

“The uniqueness of the cattle feeding industry is that we supply almost 80% of the fed cattle produced in the world,” says Larry Corah, vice president of supply for Certified Angus Beef^® brand, who began his own career when Thorpe was a rising star. “That is a pretty impactful industry, and CattleFax and Topper have had a strong influence on how successful it has been.”

Raised on a diversified livestock and crop operation in southern New Mexico, Thorpe earned degrees in business and economics from New Mexico State University before becoming one of two original employees of CattleFax in 1968. As the first analyst at the start-up company, Thorpe laid the foundation and served 30 years as CEO of what became “the nation’s premier market information, analysis, research and education service, owned by cattle producers and feeders.

“His leadership in creating the organization of CattleFax and putting market power in producer hands helped the feeding industry grow and become what it is today,” Corah says.

“Topper understood the value of data, of information, and he could take that aggregate data and do the analysis and then weave a picture of what this industry looked like and what it was going to look like 5 to10 years down the road,” says Randy Blach, current CattleFax CEO, hired by Thorpe in 1980.

Friends and customers always appreciated Thorpe’s candor in bringing transparency to all sectors of the cattle industry. He led CattleFax through the farm crisis of the 1980s, ensuring company analysts always told the honest truth, even if it wasn’t what customers wanted to hear.

During his leadership, CattleFax evolved with technology that “accelerated the learning curve” for producers.

“I think really all the credit goes to Topper,” Blach says. “CattleFax wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him. And it wasn’t always easy–there were a lot of lean years, but his wisdom and guidance got us through those years and developed a foundation that we still benefit from today.”

Beyond his talent with the market and business, Thorpe was known for the emphasis he put on relationships, multiplying himself through others who knew him as a great mentor. “You always knew where he stood,” Blach says. “He showed he was genuinely interested in his people.”

The former CEO may have stepped down in 2001, but his vision sustains CattleFax and the cattle industry today.

McPherson County, as in Feeders

Last Saturday afternoon, Gary ventured down to McPherson County Feeders, a stellar CAB Partner located south of Marquette, Kan., licensed since 1999.

MCF 3006 award FB — Allan and Deanna Sents with manager Landon Shaw, and awarded rifle.

Allan Sents and company have been Partner of the Year twice, in 2005 and 2010. Since then, MCF has captured carcass and feedlot data on more than 57,000 head of cattle, with a 20.9% CAB acceptance rate. That may not sound exactly like what we would call “stellar,” but keep in mind that from 1999 through 2007, they averaged right around 15%. From 2008 through 2012, the feedlot averaged more than 25% CAB, and the last two years that has been more than 30%–a real commitment to feeding cattle that meet the brand’s 10 specifications.

Each fall, feedlot owner and general manager Allan holds a customer appreciation night. He serves a meal of CAB strip loin steak, calf fries, beans, dessert and drinks to about 150 people. Gary doesn’t always get to attend, but this year he did, because he had the distinct honor of presenting Allan and managner Landon Shaw with a Henry Golden Boy rifle in a walnut case with a plaque honoring them for achieving the “Gold” status in the 30.06 program. Their 2,000 elite, On-Target cattle exceeded 46% CAB and Prime.

There have only been three feedyards (out of a current base of 70) that have achieved this status: Beller Feedlot of Lindsay, Neb.; Chappell (Neb.) Feedlot–and now, McPherson County. Since this program is transitioning to a new “35-10” model, we will no longer be presenting this award. MCF is the final recipient of this award for feeding a cumulative 2,000 cattle or more the make at least 30% CAB with no more than 6% outliers. True friends of the brand, Allan and his wife Deanna are super CAB Partners.

Congratulations to all the folks at MCF!

Competing with quality

CAB honors Vermilion Ranch for Commitment to Excellence

by Miranda Reiman

From the bright lights and shining hardwood of a basketball court to the cedar shavings of an auction ring, if there’s one ideal Pat Goggins believes in, it’s competition.

Growing up the youngest of six boys born to sharecroppers can do that. It could come from his love of athletics or his early start as one of the most sought-after purebred auctioneers in the country, but whatever gave him that drive, the result is somewhat of an empire around a Billings, Mont., base.

At the center is the Vermilion Ranch, where adding value to customer cattle helped earn the 2013 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award at the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand annual conference in Palm Desert, Calif., Sept. 18-20.

Many in the cattle business know the Goggins family story. Pat went to college on a basketball scholarship, graduated with an animal science degree and married Florence “Babe” Becker 62 years ago. They scraped by for many years while he worked as a field man and later as a self-taught auctioneer. That was all before purchasing the Western Livestock Reporter, three Montana auction markets and then the Vermilion Ranch.

Just east of Billings this place would be the Goggins patriarch’s real foray into the Angus breed.

“They were discriminated against for a lot of years,” Pat says, even though the former Vermilion Ranch owner with Herefords used to buy all the black cattle coming through Public Auction Yards (PAYS). “The black-hided cattle just out-gained and outperformed, whether you had them for breeders or for feeders.”

And today they command a premium, but Pat says it’s about reputation.

“Performance testing and EPDs [expected progeny differences] are meaningful and people are paying attention,” he says. “And they should because there is a difference within the breed of Angus cattle.”

Traveling the country to sell at purebred sales and sitting in his own sale-ring bleachers gave Pat a solid idea for “the look” he wanted: clean and long, with good muscle expression.

“He saw lots of cattle. He knew cattle, and he knew what he wanted and that’s never changed,” says Bob Cook, who married Coreen, the eldest Goggins daughter, and manages PAYS and many activities at the ranch.

Today, Pat’s twin sons, Joe and John, have the opportunity evaluate a large number of cattle and specific bloodlines through their work: Joe as popular cattle auctioneer and John as publisher of the family’s paper, the Western Ag Reporter.

They add their expertise as they continue to hone the herd that started with 200 pairs purchased from the Ross Ranch near Jordan, Mont., in 1968. Today they market nearly 7,000 registered and commercial Angus cattle in the annual spring and fall production sales.

“Dad always beat it into our heads on the seedstock side of things, that you can’t upgrade,” says Joe. “You’ve got to start with the very best ones and you don’t cheat on the bulls. He always said you might buy a used pickup, buy a used tractor—cheat where you can—but don’t cheat on your bull and your cowherd.”

The breeding has followed that plan all along, from Oscar to Right Time and VRD, to name a few.

“If we’re going to use an outside bull, we want to breed at least 100 cows to him,” Cook says. “If we’ve got enough confidence to select a bull, we’re going to breed him to at least 100 cows.”

Quality is always a key. Cook worked for the American Angus Association when CAB was just coming in. “There’s been hundreds of brand programs for the last 35, 40 years, but there’s only one that has kept quality its No. 1 criteria. That’s the one reason CAB has prevailed, and that’s why we maintain a high-quality standard.”

Vermilion cattle have changed over time, but customers still come expecting the same things.

Spencer Cooney, of Harlowton, Mont., is a third-generation Vermilion customer. His family’s Cooney Brothers Ranch has built up the predictability in their herd through half-sibling bulls.

“We always strived to have as high quality, functional cattle as we could,” Cooney says. “My grandfather always wanted quality and bought quality bulls, so when my dad started buying it was the same deal.”

Now Cooney and his brother Cavan have begun to source the genetics for the large straightbred Angus herd, and they’re sticking with tradition. For the past couple of decades, they’ve sold much of their calf crop to Goggins.

“A lot of people in the business offer marketing opportunities,” Cook says. “But we’re a little more unique because we’ll buy a lot of cattle from our customers. We own them.”

That enterprise became a key as properties were added in the 1990s, starting with the Diamond Ring Ranch near Miles City, Mont. The 50,000-acre spread is used for backgrounding calves purchased mainly from customers. Cattle are typically resold as part of January’s Diamond Ring Sale, which included 40,000 Angus-influenced steers this year.

At their Pryor Creek Ranch, the family also develops 2,300 commercial and 500 registered heifers.

“We really get a good handle on how our cattle are doing for our customers and how they feed and finish,” Pat says. So it’s a symbiotic relationship: the family gets a snapshot of how bulls work out in the country and commercial ranchers have an outlet for their calves. Those services help build long-lasting relationships, too.

“Because we’re in the auction business and we’re in the video business and we’re in the newspaper business, it’s all part of being in the people business,” Cook says.

The family credits their various industry successes to Pat’s vision and that core philosophy.

“Breeding cattle is a lot like playing a ball game,” Joe says. “There’s a competitiveness to it. The businesses that we’ve really thrived in all have to do with competition.”

Still at the top in beef quality

Performance Blenders repeats with Quality Focus Award from CAB

by Jill Dunkel

It’s hard to stay at the top.

But the “coaches” at Performance Blenders of Jackson, Mo., found ways to work with their team of 130 or more cattle producers to keep a traveling trophy. That’s the Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) Quality Focus Award for feeding partners with up to 15,000-head capacity.

Last year’s drought and resulting high corn prices forced the team to modify a few strategies, but those challenges did not overcome efforts to raise cattle that hit the CAB and Prime target.

Performance Blenders won the award for this second consecutive year, and owner-manager Gerry Shinn and wife Jane accepted at the CAB annual conference in Palm Desert, Calif., Sept. 18-20.

Shinn and his son Geoff work with retired Missouri Extension cattle veteran Roger Eakins to help producers make more money increasing beef quality and marketing finished cattle to reap the premiums.

Gerry Shinn says the company utilized more commodity-based alternative such as distillers grains and corn gluten over the last year. But moderation and superior genetics allowed for much success.

“We concentrate on cattle that are genetically bred to marble and grow. The breeding probably went a long way to keeping our [performance and grade] numbers up,” Shinn says. “But it really wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”

Part of that notion could be the high bar he set last year, when 507 enrolled cattle made 84% Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime. This year 518 enrolled could “only” manage 83.4% CAB and Prime. The share of cattle that graded Prime eased from 22% to 21%.

At these quality levels, channeling cattle from so many individual small producers, nobody could do it better. Certainly no other CAB partner yard enrolling at least 500 head got into that neighborhood of quality.

But Shinn always aims higher: “We had some cattle that didn’t grade quite as well as I thought they should, but by the same token, we had some others that did well. All in all, we had a good year.”

Distillers and gluten byproducts in some rations held the line on cost, but Performance Blenders kept to a corn tradition for the last 60 to 90 days. It’s not entirely about cost of gain.

“We think there’s more to it. We’re trying to add dollars and hit value on top of the cost-of-gain variable,” Shinn says. “When you can get $100 extra and hit premiums for quality, that makes it more worthwhile to spend a little more on feed sometimes.”

Not everyone was able to pull in a profit this year, however.

“It did minimize the impact,” he says. “Most all of the people in this data set, they’re cow-calf people. We work with them on their breeding program, stacking the pedigrees for carcass traits and getting them to fit a grid. They are collecting carcass data to make breeding decisions.”

Although not all customers take advantage of the carcass data, Shinn encourages its use.

To make any premium beef program work, “they have to grow and they have to grade, because that’s where your premiums are at,” he says.

While some producers have their eye on the Choice-Select spread, Shinn says the Prime-Select spread is where it’s at.

“If we can get 15% to 25% of the cattle into Prime, we’ve got a lot more dollars coming back. That’s what I always tell people,” he says. “If you want to put a bulls-eye up on the wall and have something to shoot for, shoot for Prime. There’s a tremendous demand for it. Do that and everything will come out fine in the wash, day in and day out.”

Bechtol wins Industry Achievement Award

By Steve Suther

When David Bechtol is honored at the 2013 Feeding Quality Forums with the Industry Achievement Award, colleagues and clients will catch a glimpse of recent history that laid the foundation for many of the ways they handle cattle health today.

“As one of the very first veterinary feedlot consultants, he evolved with a very young cattle feeding industry as it was starting up and maturing,” John Pollreisz said. “The role of the veterinary feedlot consultant grew as the industry did – it went hand in hand.”

Pollreisz, now managing veterinarian for beef cattle at Zoetis, started working for Bechtol at the Palo Duro Consultation Research & Feedlot practice in the late 1980s, when the practice had 11 years of work behind it. Bechtol began the consulting business after nearly a decade in general practice in Dimmitt, Texas.

It was in Dimmitt that he realized a different approach to cattle production called for a different approach to animal health. One of the first “bad wrecks” he saw in cattle health was near the first attempt to feed tens of thousands of animals in a confined system – reducing death loss became a very apparent priority.

“I knew at that time I was going to have to get more involved with the total program – not just the individual animal – and really come up with some ideas,” Bechtol said. “All of a sudden, I became a feedlot consultant rather than just an individual animal treater.”

But his influence didn’t stop with the animal.

Bechtol was well known for his human customer service, too, and a knack for connecting with feedlot employees to help them help the animals under their care.

“He’d spend a lot of time working in the feedlot itself, very hands-on, working with the cattle health personnel, helping them identify health problems and medication,” Pollreisz said. “Dr. Bechtol is very innovative and service-oriented in his approach to his feedlot customers.”

As he spent more time in the budding feedlot business, it became clear that more research, data and assistance would be needed to allow the industry to continue to grow in a healthy manner. Bechtol found a solution to that, too.

His “Cattle Accounting System” was one of the original record keeping systems for animal health in the early ’70s.

“With that, we could become more precise in what we were trying to do, what our goals were, and also evaluate our processing and treatment programs and come up with better answers in the feedlot,” Bechtol said. “So we progressed from being an individual animal treater to a person that had computerized records and was setting up goals.”

But even that wasn’t enough to satisfy his desire for data and research-based health decisions. In 1979, he founded a private research facility, Agri Research Center, Inc., to perform research trails in his own scientifically-controlled environment.

“Because of his work, we’re making far more objective, science-based decisions on health and how that affects economic parameters within the cattle feeding industry,” Pollreisz said.

Since its inception, the research facility has conducted more than 575 trials, Bechtol said, including research on vaccines, antibiotics, implants and more. But he, said, some advances and results from the decades of trails still shine above the rest in his mind.

“The thing I would be most proud of is the way we have been able to set up a Bovine Respiratory Disease complex,” Bechtol said, “And, it set up a model that we can evaluate products that would be repeatable and show good statistical design.”

Larry Corah, Vice President of Supply for the Certified Angus Beef^® brand, explained that is wasn’t just Bechtol’s desire to acquire animal health data that made him unique in those early years, but his interest in then sharing it for the improvement of the entire industry.

“He played a key role in not only working with those feedlots, but also knowing that data needed to be collected and shared,” Corah said. “Having that documentation – and also the analysis of what problems they may have had – allows them to create health procedures that played off past issues and dictated future health programs. That was huge in developing the feedlot business.”

As a charter member, first president and now lifetime member of the Academy of Veterinary Consultants, Bechtol used that data and information to bring the young, emerging industry together.

“When we graduated from veterinary school back in the mid- to late-’60s, we weren’t taught feedlot medicine on a routine basis. So there were several of us who got together and said, well, we need to exchange some ideas on, what are you doing here? How are you doing that?” Bechtol recalled. “Now the Academy has grown from that original 11 or 12 people to over 750 veterinarians and more than 40 states involved.”

Bechtol is also past president of the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Bovine Practitioners, American Society of Agricultural Consultants and committee and council member in the American Veterinary Medical Association.

“In every profession there is an identified leader, a pioneer, an individual who is really looked up to by the profession,” Corah said. “David Bectol is truly one of those industry leaders. You always hear a positive response to the mention of his name, not only because of his incredible skill set, but also for his leadership in the industry.”

Bechtol will be honored at the seventh annual Feeding Quality Forum Aug. 20 in Omaha, Neb., and Aug. 22 in Garden City, Kan., where he will share insights with the audiences. For more information about the educational event or to register, visit www.cabcattle.com or email mconley@certifiedangusbeef.com.

“He’s shown us all what a good veterinarian looks like,” Pollreisz said. “He really set the stage for subsequent vets to see a very ethical, service-oriented, high-integrity approach to veterinary medicine.”

Innovations in health diagnostics

by Morgan Boecker | Oct 7, 2019

John Richeson presented on his research in BRD diagnostics at the 2019 Feeding Quality Forum. Focused on metaphylaxis and new technologies that may aid in faster identification of clinically-infected animals.

Rising to the challenge of ideal

by Morgan Boecker | Sep 30, 2019

Certified Angus Beef LLC President asks the question, “Have we outpaced consumer demand for premium beef?” John Stika’s short answer is “no”. The ideal quality mix changes as consumers preferences change, but we are close to ideal as ever.

The new (dis)order in today’s markets

by Abbie Lankitus | Sep 10, 2019

“There’s a solid demand for our beef, both in terms of the domestic market and the export market,” he said. “We think USDA is understating U.S. beef trade, so there’s a real argument of a demand bull market that’s developing as U.S. cattle prices tighten.”

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Flashback Friday: Quality in the high-mountain desert

Out of all the hard-working, dedicated commercial Angus producers across the country, each year just one is selected as our Commitment to Excellence Award winner. They’re usually doing something innovative and most certainly targeting high-quality beef production. The recognition is for what they’re doing at that time, but when we get to write those stories we always find a common thread: a quest for continuous improvement. In our “Flashback” series, we’re checking back in with some of our early award winners to see how they’re coming with those plans. Today, summer intern Katie talks about her chat with the 1994 Commercial Commitment to Excellence honoree. –Miranda

Maybe it’s because I’m from southeastern Ohio, but talking with Wyoming cattleman Mike Healy gave me a whole new perspective of ranching in the West.

This 100-year-old cow-calf operation spans 150,000 acres in the foothills of the Absaroka mountain range, where annual precipitation is 5 to 7 inches and cattle graze at elevations ranging from 4,500 to 8,500 feet. There are fascinating elements and challenges surrounding the land, operation and genetics.

The LU Ranch near Worland, Wyo., is home to 1,400 cows and 300 heifers, all managed to profitably meet the needs of packers and consumers. Mike says they focus on marbling quality, ribeye size and carcass weights, and that begins with breeding.

He is looking out for the characteristics that pay: like producing cattle that meet Certified Angus Beef brand specs. “If you can produce more CAB qualified meat then that is one way to ensure your cattle are accepted at feedlots,” Mike says. The herd averages 32% CAB, but progeny from heifers selected with the help of DNA testing made 47% CAB this year.

The calf crop from the ranch is sent to Decatur County Feedyard near Oberlin, Kan., where Mike appreciates the individual cattle management and return of individual data.

Having 1,400 cows running on 150,000 acres comes with many challenges. Pasture rotations and water development on this scale take a lot of planning and timely action. Being nestled against the mountains that go into Yellowstone National Park means there is plenty of wildlife and that requires more management.

Mike admits he is “getting up there” in age and is trying to figure out how to stay busy while backing off on some of his duties on the ranch.

I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Mike and only hope one day we can meet in person. I don’t need to explain his personality and how he feels about his land, cattle and wildlife because these words say it all:

“Whatever humans do, we have an impact on wildlife. Sometimes we are slow to respond, but we do and hopefully can clear things up that we have changed and lessen our impact on wildlife.”

–Katie

PS–Be sure to watch the Angus Journal this fall to get the scoop on Mike and the LU Ranch.

CAB’s Erickson ‘Woman of Influence’ in food industry

By Bryan Schaaf

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.

Those are some of the reasons Erickson was recently announced as one of this year’s “Women of Influence in the Food Industry” by Griffin Publishing (http://www.griffinpublishing.net/index.php) with support across the U.S. food industry.

“I’m deeply honored to be selected to this list, and that my peers saw it fitting to nominate me,” Erickson said. “The beef business has provided wonderful opportunities to meet and work with an amazing network of ranchers, distributors, retailers and restaurateurs – each influencers in their fields – who have taught me so much. I’m proud to have had a part in their success with the Certified Angus Beef^® brand.”

Erickson joined CAB in 1992 after completing graduate studies at Colorado State University, stepping into the new role as Director of International, the only employee in the division. The Farmingdale, N.Y., native worked to grow brand partnerships in the North American and Asian markets.

“Twenty years ago, a young female traveling alone in the Asian market was a bit unique,” she said. “Honestly, I never felt it was a roadblock, just something to be aware of and an opportunity to open doors. I felt fortunate to be given this opportunity.”

Today, Erickson oversees the brand’s marketing initiatives – which can be experienced in 46 countries. She has been a driver in the CAB effort to tell the stories of its vast network of farmers and ranchers, and more than 14,000 restaurant and retail partners worldwide.

Erickson lives in Smithville, Ohio, with her husband Brett and their five children.

Four things I’ve learned from Busby

2009_6_24_mr_TCSCF-30 cropped — Darrell Busby

A lot of people have asked Darrell Busby a lot of questions over the years.

I’m one of them. He’s not only a great interview source, with years of knowledge and a knack for breaking down research into “why it matters to cattlemen,” but he’s also just plain one of the nicest guys I know. He’s answered questions on cattle health, disposition and carcass quality. He’s answered questions on retained ownership and feed programs.

Last week, he was recognized for those years of answers by some of his own. The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association inducted Darrell into their Hall of Fame.

But the retired Iowa State University Extension specialist says it’s more the questions he’s asked, than the ones he’s answered.

He’s been leading the Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF) since its inception.

“All of the research work we have done has been retrospective. We try to do the best job we can with the cattle, and then we go back and ask ourselves why we see some differences,” Darrell told me back in 2009 when the futurity won an annual award from CAB.

Under Darrell’s direction, the TCSCF now collects more than 40 individual data points on each animal fed through the cooperating feedlots. Everything is recorded, from breed type and birth date to temperament and carcass data, allowing for several after-the-fact analyses. These help everyone in the beef business.

I couldn’t begin to recount all the times I’ve drawn information from Darrell and that database for articles. It’s one of the most complete sets that follows cattle from origin to packing plant.

Rather than dig all that up, I thought I’d share four things (of the countless number) I’ve learned from Darrell Busby:

If you do a little extra as a rancher, you ought to think about retaining ownership. “We find many producers have spent time and effort selecting genetics that are high-quality, fast-gaining cattle and have gone through the rigors of preconditioning their calves–retained ownership offers them the opportunity to take advantage of the genetics and management that they’ve put into their cattle,” he says.
If you’re going to wean, do it right. “What we found was that the calves that had not been weaned the full 30 days got just as sick as the unweaned calves. That’s one of the management traits that we picked out: if you’re not going to wean the calves more than 30 days then don’t wean them at all when you send to the feedyard. Weaning is big.” He also points to data that strongly supports the use of modified-live vaccines as opposed to killed ones.
Disposition matters. After having a couple of workers get hurt, Darrell thought about a way to measure that and found: “Calmer cattle are faster-gaining cattle. They’re higher-quality grade cattle and they’re more profitable cattle. They make about $56 more/head in the feedlot than the wild cattle do.”
It’s about more than just cattle. “This is a people business and the cattle happen to be what we are using to try and produce a better quality product. This is about people helping each other solve problems and create opportunities.”

I can firsthand vouch for his ability to do just that: help solve problems.

From the Black Ink team, thank you Darrell for your service to the industry, and congratulations on your recognition. Well deserved!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Big beef business in the Little Apple

Last night, something big happened in the Little Apple.

A local restaurant in the Sunflower State had a party. But not just any kind of party. As you would expect from this blog, it was a beefy party.

The Little Apple Brewing Company celebrated being named the 2011 National Beef Backer Award winners. We couldn’t have been happier for or prouder of Little Apple for this well-deserved recognition.

Co- part-owners and managers Russ and Kelly Loub accepted the award earlier this month in Nashville at the National Cattle Industry Convention with partner Lori Fink, who also co-owns the restaurant with her husband Galen.

The Fink family is no stranger to the award stage. That special connection they have between the cattle business and selling steaks in the Manhattan, Kansas restaurant has made them a shining star to the Certified Angus Beef® brand for years.

This winter, I got to visit with Russ and Kelly about the restaurant business, their connection to CAB and their affinity for serving incredible beef dishes to their customers. Their passion for quality food service and inherint pride in satisfied beef eaters was inspiring.

Of course, my favorite open-faced steak sandwich was also inspiring:

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Russ and Kelly from my interview that day. If you get the chance to travel through Manhattan, Kansas, make it a priority to stop in and say hello to them. These folks are working hard every day to make sure your high-quality cattle are in demand by hungry customers. Tell them “thanks,” and “congratulations.” And for heaven’s sake, order the open-faced sandwich!

“From day one, we aligned ourselves with CAB and became a licensed restaurant. That was really where we put our focus, on having great steaks. We needed to be aligned with a brand that was nationally known, that had its own quality reputation. There was no other place in town that was doing that kind of thing, putting their steaks out front, saying ‘Yeah, these are the best you can get, right here.’”

“You drive down the highway and see lots of cows in the field, but don’t really think about what’s going on there. Behind the scenes – we just see meat in a box, but there’s an awful lot that goes into that, way more than I ever imagined. From breeders to production people to packers — it’s just amazing how many people are involved in this industry. When I think about that, I just say, ‘Wow!’ There are an awful lot of people out there really looking to put out a great product.”

“We salivate knowing we had a really great food and eating experience, and we want to relive that again. I think that’s what we’ve always stived to do here — have consistancy, consistancy, consistancy. The Certified Angus Beef® brand has certainly provided that.”

“That’s what delineates a great resturant from just any resturant: the ability to replicate the same thing over and over and over again, thousands and thousands of times, and have it still comes out as good as it did the very first time. CAB has been there to do that for us.”

“What’s made it work more than anything else is our staff, the loyalty of our staff. Our customers like seeing those same people. It’s like home for them. People love that they come in and see the same person they’ve seen for five years taking care of them. We’ve been so blessed that way – people come back to see us when they’re in town. That’s really been a godsend for us, the loyalty of the staff.”

Read more about the Little Apple Brewery in the March issue of the Angus Journal.

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