On the safe side with quality

by Miranda Reiman

The insurance premium in the beef business has recently gotten cheaper.

Insurance? Sure, that’s one way restaurateurs think of the premium paid for high-quality beef, because it helps ensure their customers will leave happy about their center-of-the-plate selections.

“The lower quality products have gotten more expensive at a faster rate than Certified Angus Beef^®,” says the brand’s president John Stika.

That’s not to say any beef category has gone down in price. In fact, for the first seven months of the fiscal year starting last October, Certified Angus Beef^® brand cutout was up 8.6%, from $203.02 for fiscal year 2013 to $220.46 for October to April. But that’s a smaller price hike when compared to lower quality alternatives like commodity Choice, which went up 10.9%, or Select, up 12.5%. Select beef jumped from a 2013 seven-month average of $180.25 to $202.83 for those months this year (See Chart).

“There’s no doubt a sticker-shock in a lot of items,” says John DeBenedetti, president of Del Monte Meat Company and Ports Seafood, in San Francisco, Calif. The specialty meat distributor works with its customers to reduce portion sizes or introduce “value” cuts, rather than pulling beef off the menu or downgrading.

“We very much try to steer people away from trading down on the quality of their products,” he says.

That’s easier to do when the higher-grading beef is not much higher than commodity Choice.

“It’s not worth taking a chance on having a bad eating experience for 25 cents,” DeBenedtti says, noting that’s what the spread amounts to on some cuts. “It doesn’t make sense. If you have one bad meal a night,and you have to comp that meal, then it pays for itself over and over again.”

Adding to the pressure, Mark Polzer, CAB vice president for business development, says although overall food service sales are up, that’s just a reflection of food costs. Actual diner counts are down.

“With a declining number of people going out to restaurants, they’ve got to figure out a way to get people and keep them coming back,” he says.

That’s how Polzer explains the 8.5% jump in the brand’s food service sales compared to the same period during the 2013 fiscal year.

“Customers are saying, for these price points, I can step up toCAB for a few more bucks and I’ll get abetter product at a better value,” Stika says.

CAB middle meats (mainly steaks) sales increased by 250,000 pounds (lb.) this March compared to 2013.

“If you go back to February the numbers are even more dramatic 1.3% higher, and in terms of raw pounds it would be 257,000 lb. purchased,” Polzer says. “We have a consistent trend each month that more CAB middle meats are being purchased than a year ago, even at stronger prices.”

The Choice-Select spread, or the price difference between the two, and the CAB-Choice spreads have both decreased significantly from last year, the latter down almost 27%. “But look at how much more a CAB carcass is worth compared to a Select one,” Stika says.

The seven-month average shows an 850-lb. Select carcass worth $150 less at $1,724.

“We don’t have to give up performance or pounds,” he says, noting carcasses that meet the brand’s specifications are, in fact, heavier than average.

And today’s pricing offers an opportunity for new accounts to get a taste of premium products.

“Big spreads are great for a while, but you never get anyone to ‘trade up’ when it’s really, really wide,”Stika says. “We have a tier of customers that wouldn’t see the economic feasibility of trying the product because they’re more focused on price.”

If they take a chance on it now, they may put more emphasis on the latter part of the price-value relationship when the price structure changes again.

DeBenedetti says many people just won’t accept lower quality offerings anymore. Premium Choice has become the gold standard of the industry.

“When you look at the differentiation between CAB and Choice, there’s no reason for that owner not to take that step up, especially when you know that the average person is not eating as much beef as they once did,” he says.These times call for insurance more than ever, says DeBenedetti, and today’s prices make that a pretty convincing sell.

Know all about CAB?

I thought I knew all about “CAB” 16 years ago when I was editor of a national beef magazine and a Kansas commercial Angus producer. I certainly didn’t. But then I made a career change…

After 15 years at the helm of Industry Information, now I DO know pretty much ALL about the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand. That includes how it works to add value to our cattle, what each of us can do to help and why we’d want to do that (see adds value to our cattle).

My first day on the job in 1998 was spent in Wooster, Ohio, learning about the brand along with other cattlemen, chefs, beef specialists and retailers from across the U.S. It was an educational seminar.

You’ve probably been to a few of those, but this was the best I had ever taken in. Over the years since, seminars in Ohio and across the country have helped explain CAB to hundreds of the cattlemen who own and/or produce for the brand.

They have only gotten better, more educational, more compelling, more relevant to what any seedstock or commercial Angus producer aims to do on the ranch each day.

If there is any way you can make it to the new, interactive Cattlemen’s Capstone, July 16 to 17 in Wooster, Ohio, commit to it now. The changes it will inspire in your business goals and strategies could make a big and positive difference for you and those with whom you do business in the tradition of win/win/win.

You’ll join CAB chefs, meat scientists and marketing experts at the CAB Education & Culinary Center for an inside view of how it all works:

• Break down a side of beef with industry-renowned meat scientist Phil Bass.

• Learn about innovative beef cuts, specialty items and cooking techniques.

• Go behind the scenes to see how the brand is marketed to consumers.

• Learn about consumer loyalty to the brand.

Registration is free, including hotel accommodations for two nights and meals, but space is limited. Future seminars are planned as well. For information contact Marilyn Conley at 330-345-2333 ext. 398, email mconley@certifiedangusbeef.com, or check out the event on our webpage.

I’ll be there. Hope to see you, too, as we keep on building tomorrow together.

~Steve

Cooking up world class leadership

Chef Tony Biggs joins CAB® as director of culinary arts

By Crystal Meier

A chef to hotel guests and dignitaries around the world, Tony Biggs has joined the Certified Angus Beef^® brand team in delivering the very best beef to carnivores everywhere. As the brand’s new director of culinary arts, Biggs will lead the company’s culinary expertise and outreach, helping chefs, retailers and consumers interpret premium beef trends and apply them on menus, in meat cases and in kitchens around the globe.

“We are excited about the scope of experience Chef Tony brings to the Certified Angus Beef^® brand, truly allowing us to continue shaping our culinary vision,” says Tracey Erickson, vice president of marketing.“His international experience, in particular, resonates with our brand partners and with today’s consumers, who have more global palates and the desire to also enjoy great-tasting beef.

A one-time dishwasher, oyster shucker, singing waiter at his father’s Buffalo restaurant, wine steward and valet, Biggs knows the hard work, dedication and passion needed to bring good food to the table. He has 35 years of U.S. and international hospitality management experience, most recently as director of culinary hospitality and executive chef for the royal family in Amman, Jordan. Prior to that, he served as director of food and beverage and executive chef for the Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans,where he helped construct and run the community kitchen after Hurricane Katrina.

The graduate of the Culinary Institute of America has also ventured to Asia, where he was executive chef at the Tokyo America Club and then hospitality director for Casino 5-Star Resorts in the Philippines.He launched his professional career with Hyatt Hotels in the U.S. and Caribbean in the 1980s and has worked in independent restaurants, even cooked on an oil rig in the North Sea. Biggs has appeared on Food Network’s “Chopped,” the “Late Show with David Letterman” and for nine years on a cooking show in Savannah, Georgia

“I’ve met a lot of great people working as a chef,” Biggs says. “I’m excited to be part of the Certified Angus Beef brand family and look forward to meeting the ranchers, distributors, chefs and retailers who work together to make this delicious beef possible.”

Founded in 1978 by Angus cattlemen, Certified Angus Beef^® brand is the only beef brand owned by the American Angus Association^® and its rancher members. Ten strict quality standards make it a cut above USDA Prime, Choice and Select. For details, visit www.CertifiedAngusBeef.com or www.cabcattle.com.

Beef market wants more Prime

by Steve Suther

When corn prices moved up a few years ago, many predicted cattle finishers would reduce days on feed and quality grades would suffer. Neither happened.

Instead, a paradigm shift swept through the U.S. feeding industry: those last days on feed are not so inefficient because cattle are growing carcass weight to sell on value-based grids. Supporting factors included the growing use of beta-agonists and the shrinking supply of feeder cattle that made replacements more costly.

That’s all part of the picture that shows a dramatic, 11.3-percentage-point gain in the share of Choice and Prime cattle in the five years that started in 2007, says Paul Dykstra, beef cattle specialist with the Certified Angus Beef^® brand who follows that data weekly in his “Rearview Mirror on Quality.”

“In the last two years the Choice and Prime share has settled into a steadier average above 65%,” he says. “But Prime and premium Choice brands have been garnering an increasing share of the declining supply.”

That had meant an even more dramatic decline in the share of the lower grade, Select beef, reflected in its recent run-up in price.

Rather than dig into those percentages, Dykstra charted reported loads of Prime and Select beef sold along with boxed beef prices for those grades (see Charts 1 and 2). Results illustrate the crossing lines of supply and demand that pushed Select higher, particularly in light of the demand from hamburger grinders.

“In contrast, the supply and market data for Prime beef shows higher prices paid in the face of more pounds of Prime beef sold,” Dykstra says.

Kansas State University economist Ted Schroeder attributes that disparity to the “niche” nature of the market.

“A small change in the relative supply of Prime would cause more of a price impact than a similar change in supply of Select,” he says. “That’s because Prime demand is more inelastic, and a small change in volume of Prime is potentially a sizeable percentage change.”

Jim Robb, Livestock Marketing Information Project director, attributes much of the initial grade improvement to the transition from human to camera grading. More recently he allows, “Some is genetics, but a lot of it is the removal of Zilmax from the system.”

Professional Cattle Consultants (PCC) president Shawn Walter disagrees on the impact of that beta-2 agonist. The market analyst based in Hydro, Okla., says most of the grade enhancement is linked to genetics.“

A lot of the uptrend in Prime grading came while we were feeding Zilmax to cattle that had already achieved their quality potential,” he says. “Then we removed it from the market and fed a little longer—not much—and we only overfed to the extent that it’s profitable. Grades are holding steady.”

Premium Choice is doing better. Some weeks this year saw a record 29% of Angus-influenced cattle qualify for CAB, double the ratio just a decade ago.

Premium Choice is doing better. Some weeks this year saw a record 29% of Angus-influenced cattle qualify for CAB, double the ratio just a decade ago.

Dykstra says market incentives play a key role. In 2013 the average Prime grid premium was $17/cwt. over Choice, on top of the $10 Choice-Select spread for most of the last two years. Thirty percent of the $450 million packers have paid in CAB grid premiums since its start in 1978 were in the past three years.

“Those are strong market signals,” he says, noting the Prime grid premium has averaged $20 over Choice for much of 2014. “It doesn’t look like those signals are easing up.”

Pratt (Kan.) Feeders manager Jerry Bohn credits a genetic focus on higher quality across all breeds.

“CAB has made inroads to the commercial cowherds, and competition has had an impact to where even the hybrid bulls aren’t just black but have higher marbling,” he says. “Drought liquidations culled the bottom end from a lot of Texas herds, too.”

Gage, Okla., feeder Dale Moore, Cattleman’s Choice Feedyard, credits drought.

“We don’t want a drought, but starting in south Texas and moving into Nebraska, it has made better cattlemen out of all of us,” he says. Culling started with obvious targets. “Then it came down to the wilder and less efficient. Finally it came to just keeping the best.”

Cattle feeders are more confident in the combination of better genetics and accurate carcass grading, Bohn adds. “We used to split a pen of cattle and find a 20-to 30-percentage-point swing in Choice grade from one plant to the next, but it’s a damn sight more consistent now.”

Meanwhile, the lower cost of gain and the removal of an aggressive beta agonist haven’t hurt. The shift to more and heavier cattle selling on value-based grids put the spotlight on premiums and cattle capable of earning them.

The Prime premium remains strong because that demand can’t be filled with the flip of a switch. Walter says cattle feeders recognize seasonal patterns in the Choice-Select spread and may incorporate that into planning. But they are not sure what to do about that constantly ringing Prime bell.

The industry reacts

“It’s not like they can just feed their cattle a couple weeks longer and make them grade Prime,” he says. Known genetic potential to gain and grade is a prerequisite for any plans to answer that call and collect the rewards.

Robb says cattle feeders have substantially changed management and marketing in the last five years as carcass weights increased through last fall, shifted gears and recovered since last fall.

“Having beta-agonists in the system moved the market to more grid and formula selling with less negotiation,” he says. “But holding onto the cattle longer this winter and spring paid off for feeders. Packers had to come chasing them and feeders reacted to that. It’s a complicated, biological system but lower cost of gains, adjusting implant programs and beta-agonists have all entered in.”

Walter says tight supplies mean volatile prices and greater risk will continue as well.

“People talk about commodity prices and ground beef, but quality is driving the market, and we might see quality premiums exaggerated this year,” he says. “If you maintain 4% Prime, that’s a smaller number of carcasses and demand is based on pounds.”

Break-even cattle feeding strategies are further complicated with $2,000 on the line for each animal and most of that paid for the calf.

Robb sees more of a lid on the price of beef and finished cattle than on the price of calves in the near term, with increasing “differentiation by ability to grade.”

“Buyers for the big feedyards were in Montana by January this year, buying unborn calves for fall delivery. Those are all calves with a known history for performance and grade,” Robb says.

Demand for CAb more than doubles 2002 levels

by Steve Suther

A consumer demand model for high-quality beef shows the market power behind a leading premium brand.

The Kansas State University (K-State) model uses 2002 as an index base and charted demand for commodity USDA Choice beef near the 110 level for most of the following years. It jumped to 120 in 2010 before eroding for the past three years and last year falling below 100 for the first time since 2004 (see chart 1).

Consumers apparently turned toward a premium brand, according to the K-State paper, “Defining and Quantifying Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) Brand Consumer Demand,” which can be viewed at www.cabcattle.com/research. The CAB index shot upward for the past four years to more than double the index, surpassing 208, compared to the 100-point base.

Economist Ted Schroeder and 2010 Master’s student Lance Zimmerman conducted the initial study that year and updated the paper in 2013.

Zimmerman, now a CattleFax analyst, continues to update his college project as new data becomes available, and recently added the 2013 information.

The charts were expanded a year ago to include a CAB comparison to demand for all premium beef, which eclipsed that for the brand for seven years but fell behind in 2012 and 2013 (see chart 2).

The recent “divergence of demand patterns… suggests there are perceived differences in CAB relative to its greater product category in the mind of consumers,” the paper says.

When compared to Choice and higher, to include Prime and branded premium beef, CAB demand has seen a 54-point increase in four years, compared to a 29-point drop for the category in general. In fact, CAB demand jumped nearly 28 points in the single year 2012-13.
Demand for CAB increased by more than 108% in the last 10 years as Choice-and-higher beef demand grew by 51% and demand for non-branded commodity Choice fell by 1%, based on amounts sold rather than produced.

Sale time

Resources for both commercial and seedstock ranchers

We’ll be well into bull sale season soon. For our readers who are commercial producers, thinking ahead to those sales, it seems like the perfect time to bring this blog post back up: Bull buying made simple.

GMX jacket photo — We’ve seen quite a few of these jackets out at stock show. This post tells you how you can score your own.

If you’re a registered breeder gearing up for your 2014 bull sale, you aren’t alone. This week at the National Western Stock Show, I’ve heard lots of breeders discuss their sale preparations – and progress toward the goal of a completed sale catalog.

This is a great time to remind anyone in the planning stage about sale catalog resources from CAB.

Every sale catalog layout has extra space here and there. Why not fill it quickly while educating customers about the genomic tools available to them? Investing in YOUR registered Angus bulls is their first step, but they can capitalize on that investment by incorporating DNA tools like GeneMax™ (GMX).

We have print-ready GMX “ads” ready to fill those spaces of various sizes, color or black and white print. If you decide to use one of these ads in your catalog, be sure to send us a copy! We’d love to send you some free GMX swag as a way to say thanks!

To access the print-ready file of your choice, please contact me at Klee@certifiedangusbeef.com or 330-345-2333.

~Kara

Where realistic meets high quality

Kansas family roots feed CAB Feedlot Partner of the Year

by Steve Suther

Ford County Feed Yard is a big one. In fact, Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) has never licensed a larger feedyard, but the 50,000-head-capacity business runs like a collection of smaller yards.

Maybe that’s because it is family owned and operated, and 22-year manager Danny Herrmann is the youngest son of a founding partner. Wheat-stocker and feeder George Herrmann went in with four others, including three from what later became National Beef in Dodge City, to build the feedyard 15 miles to the southeast, near Ford, Kan., starting in 1972.

Big from the start at 15,000 head, it doubled a couple of years later and was added to in sections to reach current capacity by the time its current manager took the reins in 1990.

That made the alleyways seem like neighborhoods for different types of cattle that came in off the wheat or up from Mexico or in from auctions and farms in the fall—and there were more Herefords than Angus for many years.

Or maybe, Herrmann suggests today, “When you have to get in 100,000 head a year, you’ve got to dance with everybody.”

Seeing more and better Angus cattle coming in, Herrmann decided in 2010 to do more than dance and became a CAB partner yard. He gradually built up to enrolling 5,000 head by last spring, and 15,407 head in the 12 months ending in May this year.

Herrmann still feeds a huge number of cattle that are not eligible for the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand, but he and the staff of 45 at the feedlot committed to the program and showed the greatest increase in single-year enrollments across the U.S. with a respectable 21.4% CAB and Prime level.

Ford County Feed Yard channeled several thousand cattle into the CAB supply chain in the last year, while expanding data feedback and sharing with customers for herd improvement. That’s part of the reason the company was honored at the CAB annual conference in Desert Palms, Calif., Sept. 20-22. Herrmann and his wife Colleen accepted the CAB Feedlot Partner of the Year Award for yards with more than 15,000 head capacity.

The feedyard has fed all kinds, but if there’s one breed that is most likely to do it all, in terms of feedlot performance and grade, “that would be Angus,” Herrmann says. “There are herds that will gain, convert well and also do well in the packinghouse.”

He wasn’t feeding many of those in the early 1990s when he and Colleen were on vacation in The Cayman Islands and gained a favorable impression of CAB.

“I remember seeing the brand and being surprised first, and then I remember what a good eating experience it was,” Herrmann says.

In the years since, he saw more Angus cattle doing it all, and other leading feedlots building on that fact in their yards.

“So I thought, why can’t we participate in this?” Herrmann says.

Bryan Adams, Welda, Kan., was a college roommate back in the 1980s and has fed with Herrmann for 28 years. His AAA Farms backgrounding yard has room for calves from his own 400 commercial Angus cows, plus those from several neighbors using Angus genetics, bought to fill trucks for load lots.

“My dad started with nothing and traded his way up, but calves were usually one-third good, a third medium and a third runts,” Adams says. “Twenty years ago I got more involved and we built on a set of 30 Montana-origin Angus heifers.”

Making use of feedback from Ford County and registered Angus bulls mainly from the Gardiner, Hinkle and Ratcliff Ranch programs, Adams developed half spring- and half fall-calving Angus herds that do not produce runts.

Closeouts on two loads of heifers this year show average daily gains of 3.82 pounds (lb.) in February and 3.58 lb. in July, both converting dry matter at better than six to one. CAB acceptance was 40.3% and 34%, respectively.

Relationships like this are the reason Ford County Feed Yard is thriving. Herrmann enjoys sharing information because it’s good for customers and good for the beef industry.

“I say give them everything we know about what stuff does here, so they know. That’s the best thing for a producer,” he says. “Otherwise, they’re always assuming, and usually assuming calves are better than they are.”

“By working together, optimistic assumptions can become reality,” Herrmann adds.

More than business

Beller Feedlot wins CAB Small Feedlot of the Year

by Miranda Reiman

Nobody likes to lose a customer, but to see a cattle feeder get emotional over the thought of a ranching client having to sell out… that’s when you know his heart is really in the business.

Terry Beller, of Lindsay, Neb., can tell you the last time the Sandhills and points west received a measureable rain. It matters to his bottom line, certainly, but the owner-manager of the 6,000-head Beller Feedlot talks about ranchers dealing with drought as if one of his own children were facing a major obstacle.

Beller’s cattle management and marketing reflect the care he has for those customers. For that attitude, level of cooperation and success in producing high-quality beef, his family business earned Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) honors this year. At the brand’s annual conference in Palm Desert, Calif., in September they were named Feedlot Partner of the Year for yards with less than 15,000-head capacity.

After nearly two decades of sending cattle to Beller, some regular suppliers are looking to sell their entire herds for lack of grass.

“That would be devastating,” Beller says. He means it. Not because the western Nebraska ranchers typically load more than 300 yearlings on eastbound trucks before they’ve even entered into price discussions; not because they regularly grade and gain right alongside the top cattle in the yard; but because Beller has gotten to know their family, watched the next generation start to take over the ranch.

“They’re really struggling out there; it’s just a terrible drought,” he says.

This is just one of dozens of relationships Beller has cultivated through the years.

“When I do good for them, they’re going to keep coming back,” he says.

Easier said than done with high input costs and hard-to-predict markets, but Beller says he’s learned a simple truth: “It’s all about margins. You’re not going to hit home runs anymore, especially with $7 corn, that’s not just going to happen, so you’ve got to take those small margins.”

Some of that philosophy comes from discipline learned over 37 of years in the business. It was also passed on to the third-generation cattle feeder.

“My dad always said, ‘When people are running, you walk, and when they’re walking scared—that’s when you dive in,’’ Beller says. “It’s been true to fact when the market is down and things look like heck, that’s when you want to put the plow in as deep as you can.”

Perhaps as a testament, they’ve added a large machine shed and a new office in the last few years and there’s talk of pen expansions.

From ordering materials to installing the office cabinets and completing the trim, Beller’s right-hand man, younger brother Mike put sweat into the entire project, all while maintaining the computerized cattle records and carcass data.

That includes enrolling more than 15,000 head of cattle in CAB’s feedlot database, which reveals an overall CAB acceptance rate of 41% CAB and Prime.

Yet the brothers say that’s not good enough.

“That’s what keeps us going: always wanting to be better,” Beller says. “Our goal is to have a group hit 100% CAB.”

Right now the bar is set at 92% CAB.

“We’re pretty much known for feeding the good black Angus cattle,” Beller says. “That’s gotten us some customers who were leaning on the fence.”

Beller not only specializes in feeding for a high-quality endpoint, but he’s willing to share data back to help customers improve.

“When the numbers change, I’m the first one to ask, ‘What happened from last year?’” he says. They talk genetics, health and feeding programs. “I do a lot of comparing from year to year, but they’ll take that data and pick it apart one by one.”

When Beller purchases cattle, he likes to go back to a known source.

“I get in the rhythm of buying the same people’s cattle,” he says. “I know how what they do, I know how they grade.”

He also can expect good disposition, which is a benefit in more ways than one.

“It’s directly related to grading—a calm animal is going to be tastier,” Beller says. And easier to handle.

“I’ve got my own kids working out here. I don’t want anybody getting hurt,” he says.

They compete against themselves, but beyond that, Beller says the “make a quick buck off somebody else” nature of the business has gone by the wayside the past few decades.

“They know we need everybody in this business,” he says. “I want to give them as much as I can, yet I need to buy within reason. I want them to come here because I’m a competitive bidder.”

Beller makes on-location visits when he can to meet the people he’s buying from. “It means a lot to me and I think it means a lot to them to put a face to the check blank that’s buying their cattle.”

It could be weather or health issues or just plain bad luck, but whatever it is that’s plaguing a customer, it weighs heavy on Beller.

“They count on us and we count on them,” he says.

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.

What are you passionate about?

What really, really trips your trigger? What gets you excited? What kind of activity(ies) really causes those beta-endorphins to flow and your adrenaline pump out to the ends of your fingers and make your hair stand on end?

That one is easy for me. Of course, they’ve changed over time, and with advancing age. Your goals aren’t quite the same (translate: common sense and joint pain).

It is not difficult for me to remember the rush I would get when I used to ride bulls at the amateur, college and professional levels. Although I never went to the NFR, or any finals of any kind, or won any major titles, that (rodeo) was what defined me. That’s what I was all about. Honestly, while I hate to admit it now, I sacrificed a lot of other things to pursue it. And it was what I cared most about and spent my money, time and efforts toward. The sights, the sounds, the smells of the arena. The leather, the rope, the thrill of it all. Sizing the bull you drew in the pen and discussing his habits with others…..does he turn back? is he ok in the chute? does he try to kill you? Hanging your bullrope with the cowbells on the bull you were about to ride. Easing down onto his back; warming the rosin on your rope and glove while your buddy pulls your rope tight; wrapping the tail of the rope around your hand; the smell of the excrement, rosin and leather; scooting up close to your rope, getting your feet set on the slats of the chute…..the chute boss yelling, “he doesn’t get any better than that!” when one doesn’t stand or when he’s crushing a leg against the back side of the chute. He doesn’t stand up straight; he’s trying to cheat you out of the box; so someone rattles the slide in front of him to make him stand right; and you finally nod your head……and the action begins! Wow! Electric city!

Kansas City, Missouri at the Abdallah Shrine Rodeo, Kemper Arena, July 1987.

Sometimes you ride one and win; sometimes you ride one and don’t win, sometimes you get bucked off before the tooter blows. But, when I rode one and won some money, I was as high as I could have been if I was on any drug in the country!

While that ended a long time ago, I still got on one about three years ago; much to the chagrin of my wife and other family members…..I found out later that Karol covered her eyes and never even watched a second of it! I decided then that, while I would still get on one this very day at age 52, I probably should be thinking about my family’s welfare should something happen to me, rather than about that rush of adrenaline I was getting.

So, what drives you? Is it the cattle business? Is that what you spend all of your time thinking about? What are your goals? What are your passions? I’m guessing if you are reading this blog, you have a passion for the beef industry, maybe the Angus breed, and for producing a product that will make you money, support your family, and satisfy the consumer.

I’d be willing to say that you enjoy the sights, sounds and atmosphere of the rural farm and/or ranch lifestyle. Working cattle, being horseback or on a four-wheeler; helping a heifer or cow deliver a calf; being out in the snow or cold or the searing heat and loving it. The difference, however, between loving that lifestyle and the sights and the sounds and actually creating a living out of it can be two entirely different things.

I couldn’t make a living riding bulls. I simply was not that good. I loved it, I ate, slept and drank rodeo. But it was a tough business; you were totally on your own, and I couldn’t make it. I think the beef business is a much better bet, but it doesn’t mean that challenges don’t remain. A big part of that equation is making sure that you have a customer for what you are producing.

Certified Angus Beef enjoyed another record year ending September 30th: 811 million pounds. Currently, most packers are paying $7 to $8 per cwt (on the carcass weight basis), which equates to $56 to $64 per head in premiums (800 lb carcass). Primes are paying like a slot machine at $22 to $25 per cwt; or $200 over a Choice on that same 800 lb carcass. Consumers prefer it; demand is great, and the time is now.

Folks, if you have a target endpoint in mind, and aren’t just raising cattle because it’s cool; or because it gives you self-satisfaction and a “rush,” then it might behoove you to target the Certified Angus Beef brand. It’s here to stay, and your wife or husband won’t close their eyes when you make that move!

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by Miranda Reiman

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