Plan, monitor and cool it

by Kylee Kohls

It’s a hot topic every summer.

“Heat stress is the largest impediment to efficient animal agriculture,” said Rob Rhoads, Virginia Tech. He presented with University of California-Davis colleague Frank Mitloehner for a symposium on the topic at the American Society of Animal Scientists annual meeting in July.

Rhoads focused on what happens inside cattle as they respond to a detrimental heat load.

“Cattle start to change their nutrient partitioning and their fuel selection, in terms of fatty acids versus carbohydrates or glucose,” he said. “It takes a lot of energy for muscle to grow and for lean tissue accretion—during heat stress, we’re seeing changes that prevent the animal from using fuel substrates for energy use and protein deposition appropriately.”

The metabolic impact of heat stress is more than reduced feed intake, once considered the main driver, Rhoads said.

Take gut health for example. Excessive panting and drooling from heat stress can upset the gut or even lead to internal leaks and rumen acidosis. Immune challenges initiate an inflammatory response and more injury risk.

Mitloehner addressed the impact on carcass characteristics.

“We found that animals provided with shade have a much higher quality grade,” he said of earlier research. “We see about twice as many Choice carcasses in shaded versus unshaded cattle.”

Rhoads said preparing cattle for prolonged heat or heat waves involves thresholds drawn from resources such as the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) that predicts when that combination will affect animals.

The longtime established 72°F threshold for heat stress has been lowered to 68°F based on recent Arizona research, he noted, partly because more efficient animals produce more metabolic heat.

Two resources developed in Australia include the heat load index for gauging environmental impacts, and the panting score system that correlates with body temperature.

“Right now the biggest thing that cattle producers can do to combat heat stress really revolves around infrastructure and management decisions,” Rhoads said.

Providing shade and cool water, and only feeding or working cattle in the cool of the day can prevent solar radiation and the damaging effects from an elevated heat load.

Cool water is especially critical, particularly if it warms to more than 95°F, Rhoads said. Such temperatures not only impair the ability to dissipate heat, “but then they also want to drink less…that’s going to negatively impact their heat load and affect how the animals respond to heat.”

Shade and ventilation systems have a profound impact on feedyard cattle and profitability, Mitloehner said: “In fact, providing shade led to an $18 (per head) improvement in performance and carcass characteristics.”

While that dollar improvement is the same as the expense to set up, that cost only occurs once so the improvement breaks even after one year. The West Texas shade study showed decreased heat stress and increased performance of Angus cross cattle, and eventual financial advantage for feedyards.

“What’s more important than anything else is what these shades do to the soil surface temperature,” Mitloehner said. “Because what shades really do is not so much cooling the ambient air—the air you would measure with a normal thermometer—but what they do is they cool the surface temperature of the ground.”

Heat stressed cattle will stand to dissipate heat, but if the ground is half the air temperature because of shades, they will lay down. “That’s why they work—and dome shades do an even better job than the metal type shades,” Mitloehner said.

“When I did my PhD almost 20 years ago in West Texas, people felt that there’s no need for shades, and they found all different kinds of reasons as to why one wouldn’t need shade. I disagreed back then, and I even more disagree today because I find profound improvements,” he said.

Seeing shades benefit Arizona, New Mexico and some California feedyards, the researcher said he believes they could have great impact in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, too.

“If people have doubts, then there’s a very simple way of finding out. Install shades in four of your pens,” he suggested, “and you’ll see that not just your cattle, but you will like it as well.”

Education, change: beneficial discomforts

Cargill nutritionist pushes producers to reach for more

by Laura Conaway

March 2019

Change is the new constant. A cowman’s response to the ebb and flow of the industry is entirely up to the individual – but a choice is imminent.

That’s why Dusty Abney, cow-calf and stocker nutritionist for Cargill Animal Nutrition, called out a few of the areas where producers have had to adapt through the years: volatile markets and regulations for starters. That was just before he presented a plan to tackle the looming beast.

At Cargill, he explained, the philosophy driving success is “change before you’re forced to. Don’t be that guy who changes just for the sake of it, just because it sounds fun.” And don’t be the last person to get on the wagon, either.

“Change when the time is right” because it can be hard to stick the landing, he told a Cattlemen’s College crowd at this winter’s Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in New Orleans.

“To know when to change, and to know what to change, you’ve got to do what may be the most difficult thing for any of you in the room to do, ever, and that’s ask for help.”

Stillness came from the seats.

“Do you do your own taxes?” Abney prodded. “Most of us don’t anymore, because it’s complicated. Hopefully you don’t do your own doctoring on yourselves. I know some of y’all do, and you need to quit it.”

Then came the laughter; the point resonating with it.

The same thing applies to the genetics you select for your cow herd, the management practices each one puts in place, he said.

The bottom line is profitability, Abney said. If you’re not paying attention to the metrics that affect it, you don’t know if you are, in fact, accomplishing it.

Here are some traditions to break that Abney said can get in the way of that bottom line:

“When spending money on your program, don’t think of it as a necessary evil, rather what’s needed for your cattle to perform – an investment in future accomplishments.

“Don’t assume everything’s fine. If you’re happy with the status quo, you’re in the wrong session. Okay don’t get it done. Okay doesn’t make your heifers the ones people will pay top dollar for. Okay doesn’t produce the most pounds of beef per acre for the least amount of money. That’s what we should be trying to do.”

In the quest for profitability, it should be no surprise that a cow’s production takes top billing. Nutrition and health play a vital role in the process.

“Plain and simple, every 12 months we need a new calf hitting the ground. If she doesn’t do that, she needs to go to town,” Abney said. “If you love her, take her to McDonald’s and get her a Happy Meal, but don’t bring her home. Don’t make excuses about that.”

Seriously, the key to ensuring she’s not an after-school snack, Abney said, is to keep her nutrition up, particularly right after calving so her hormones can align, her uterus can shrink down and she begins to cycle.

“All you have to do is miss one breeding opportunity, and you’ve chewed up most of the margin in that cow,” – about $50-$60 lost for each cycle delayed – and if she’s open, “we just kept her all year for fun.”

It’s hugely important that she’s bred when she’s supposed to be bred, the nutritionist said.

“The best tradition to start right now is to get better.”

Specifically, that takes in what kind of beef will end up on someone’s table.

“Your name will literally be attached to what you make, soon,” he warned. “Get started producing quality now.”

Lastly, Abney urged cattlemen to keep records, and actually use them to make decisions.

“If you’re not doing anything with the records you take on your cow herd, you might as well fix fence or go fishing.”

Vitamins, part of doing the right thing

by Jera Pipkin

Like pieces of a puzzle, vitamins are essential in keeping cattle healthy year-round. Price spikes in the last year, however, have producers taking another look at how to fit savings into concerns about source and efficacy over time.

Jeff Heldt, with Micronutrients Intellibond, explored cost-effective vitamin and mineral strategies at the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand’s Feeding Quality Forum this summer in Sioux City, Iowa.

“Obviously, we all want to take care of our animals and do the right thing,” he said. “But also, we need to think about our competitive advantage. Where can I save some dollars, or maybe where can I spend a few more dollars to make sure I’m doing the right thing?”

Heldt’s comments were against a backdrop of recent shortages. Vitamin A prices skyrocketed 10-fold last fall after fire damaged a German factory that made precursors of A and E. The market finally returned to normal, after much study of alternatives.

He drew a parallel to the industry’s rethinking phosphate mineral requirements after the ingredient price spiked about 10 years ago.

“Lo and behold, that 12% phosphorous mineral I’m feeding my cows got really expensive and I decided I better do something different,” Heldt said. “Now what’s the common phosphorous level in cow mineral supplements—4% to 6% maybe, and we seem to have gotten by just fine.”

The extra amount was seen as a safety factor, but a price spike drove home the point, “more is not always better.”

That’s true with vitamins as well, partly because the fat-soluble ones have a three- to six-month storage buffer in the liver, and the others, C and the B complex, cannot be stored in the body at all, Heldt explained.

Vitamin A is the most critical for cow-calf operations, with its connections to reproduction and immunity.

Particularly since the price spike, producers want to know what vitamins their feedstuffs are actually delivering and how to balance rations without unnecessary added cost, he said.

The National Research Council publishes recommendations but diets of “good green growing feeds” generally provide adequate vitamin A and E, Heldt noted, as does a ration of at least one-third corn silage and the rest grain. “If we’re just feeding all grain, we’re going to be short on the requirements.”

Vitamins are often part of a free-choice mineral supplement or premix where reading tags gives an accurate measure of the initial levels. Cattle need 40,000 IU of vitamin A each day and most mineral on the shelves today provides more than that.

“Again, more is not always better,” Heldt said, but he allowed the safety margins help compensate for storage losses over time.

Environmental factors like water and heat and light, from manufacturing to storage, pose a threat to vitamin efficacy.

“For example, potency loss can double for every 25-degree increase in temperature,” Heldt said.

Mineral source plays a role in the amount of vitamins delivered from the mix, too.

Vitamins that are organically sourced offer more stability, compared to those from oxide or sulfate trace minerals, he said. But storage time may be most critical.

“There could be some of those products that we’ve got in our warehouses that don’t get fed for three or four months,” he said. “Is that realistic?”

Producers should be aware of how long a product was warehoused before they buy and how long it may sit on their farm or ranch before it’s fed, Heldt reiterated. But first, evaluate quality and vitamin quantity of their forage.

“I want you to go home and as you’re driving back, think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” he said in closing. “Make sure you’re doing the right thing.”

Seek answers for better beef

by Miranda Reiman

The world’s a changing. The nation’s cowherd is improving. What tweaks have you made in your own beef cattle operation?

Presenters at the Feeding Quality Forum, August 28 to 29 in Sioux City, Iowa, encouraged questioning the routine. More than 200 took in the two-day meetings, where they got practical tips to use now as well as the “10,000-foot view” to spur thought, said Justin Sexten, director of supply development for Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB).

“People left with some knowledge they didn’t have before and hopefully more questions for their own team of experts, too.”

A dozen experts spoke to cattle feeders and their commercial cow-calf customers.

“We’re making genetic selections today that will impact your cattle herd for at least the next 10 years,” said Dan Moser, president of Angus Genetics Inc. There are more tools and data available than ever to create an animal that fits many environments while producing superior beef.

“Notice that word, ‘while’ – it’s not either/or,” Moser said. “We’ve got to think ahead to what the marketplace will demand.”

Rick Funston, University of Nebraska animal scientist, shared ways to develop heifers into long-lasting herd improvers.

Advanced genetics won’t live up to their reproductive efficiency potential without focused herd management, he said. “What if we expose more heifers than needed but for 30 days only? What if we keep late-calving cows by using CIDRs and a shot of prostaglandin to move them up one, two, even three cycles?”

“Keep in mind we need well-rounded feeder cattle,” said CAB’s Paul Dykstra. The No. 1 reason cattle don’t make the brand is because they lack adequate marbling, but feedlot performance and yield on the rail are part of a calf’s value to buyers.

“At a time when we have dramatically more quality supply than ever before, we’ve increased the premiums because the cattle perform well on several levels,” he said.

John Gerber and Kevin Hueser of Tyson Fresh Meats talked about the source of all of those premiums: consumer demand.

“At Tyson we’re not going to say ‘no.’ That’s how we give the consumer what they want,” said Gerber, the packer’s head of cattle buying.

The trend includes more transparency and higher quality. All cattle Tyson sources are required to come from Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified suppliers by January 1, 2019.

“We’ve got to be transparent. We’ve got nothing to hide,” Gerber said.

Nigel Gopie, of IBM Food Trust, said sharing will get easier.

“A transparent food system matters,” he said. “Today we’re seeing a blurry view—80% of the world’s data is locked up in organizations’ databases. Only 20% is available through things like Google.”

The IBM Food Trust looks to change that using blockchain technology to assign each data point a fingerprint, or “hash,” so users know the information source and that it’s in its original form.

A handful of large food companies from Walmart to Dole currently use blockchain, but it will take innovative thinking to get the masses onboard.

That’s exactly what veterinarian Sam Barringer, a commander on the Air Force Reserves medical team, suggested we need more of: out-of-the-box thinking.

“We’ve been doing the same things the same way for 20 years and we don’t even know why we’re doing it,” he said, drawing on his experience in Middle East war theaters.

Cattlemen can’t look at health and vaccination as synonymous, Barringer said. “If we were to vaccinate for every pathogen facing cattle, it would be 32 vaccines upon arrival. That’s not viable.”

Even the standard health protocols need some scrutiny, said Paul Walz, Auburn University veterinarian.

“We are at a point with evolving BVD that some of our vaccines no longer provide the same amount of protection,” he said, noting a survey of Nebraska calves showed 82% of BVD strains were outside of those on which vaccines are based. Risk varies from herd to herd and strategies may need to vary year to year.

Regardless of vaccine strain, the stress on newly arrived cattle at any feedyard can hinder efficacy, said Brian Vander Ley, epidemiologist at Nebraska’s Great Plains Veterinary Education Center.

“Vaccines are intended for use in healthy cattle,” he said. On arrival, some calves are too stressed to meet that practical definition. University of Arkansas data on high-risk calves showed an advantage to waiting a couple of weeks before administering those shots.

“Go home and talk to your folks, and make sure you’re doing the right things,” said nutritionist Jeff Heldt, with Micronutrients.

Referring to conversations about cattle supplement timing, storage and delivery, he said vitamins are finicky. They don’t like environments that are too hot, acidic, light or wet.

“Feed manufacturers do a good job meeting mineral needs, but storage time of our products is pretty critical,” Heldt said.

Nutrition on the ranch, must be continued with a solid plan in the feedyard.

Dale Blasi, Kansas State University animal scientist, suggested feeders ask their consultants about limit feeding a grain-based ration to calves at 2.2% of their body weight.

K-State work shows many benefits, from decreased cost of gain and better health to reduced labor and manure management.

It was common practice two or three decades ago. It might be time to revisit the strategy, Blasi said: “Something that’s been so in vogue for so long, working, why didn’t we stay with it?”

The world of nutrition may change slowly over time, but markets are the opposite.

Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co., returned to the forum to talk global markets and the causes of volatility.

“The world is really, really focused today on politics,” he said. He predicted fed cattle prices of up to $120 per hundredweight in the fourth quarter, nothing the model did not account for a trade deal with China in the near future. “If that happens, it changes a lot,” he said. “That’s our big hope in terms of the U.S. opportunity, to build demand and really get back to a bull market longer term.”

During the evening reception, longtime Nebraska cattle feeder Gerald Timmerman accepted the Industry Achievement Award.

“Gerald has a long history of putting the consumer first, and using technology and innovation to do it,” said Mark McCully, CAB vice president of production. “We’re proud to honor him.”

Bigwigs in barbecue

With the Fourth of July quickly approaching, it’s prime time for barbecue. Many pit masters pick beef as their meat of choice — think classic, smokey brisket and tasty beef ribs. Yum!

The Culinary Center recently hosted the annual Brand Ambassador Summit, welcoming chefs from all over the country, including a handful of barbecue specialists who sat on a panel with our resident meat scientist, Diana Clark.

What might have been most compelling about the panel was a comment made by Clark. She spoke about getting started with barbecue, because it is still a community despite regional differences. “You ask a question,” she says, “and people are willing to give you all their secrets because they know you can’t do it as well as them.”

How can cattlemen become such good herdsmen and so well-versed in their programs that they can’t wait to share their management or genetic “secrets?” I think that attitude is already in the mix, but how can the beef community continue to embrace it as a young, up-and-coming generation finds the balance between tradition and innovation?

That’s some barbecue food for thought.

Comments below feature a snippet of other discussions had among chefs during the panel.

The balance between tradition and innovation is something that Black’s Barbecue is challenged by and the Chicago Culinary Kitchen writes its own rules for.

Towards the end of the panel, moderator Chef Michael held a speed round. The consensus on those quick-fire questions was that the most popular sides dishes are beans and mac & cheese, everyone prefers low-and-slow cooking with dry woodsmoke, and whether the fat side should be up or down is smoker dependent.

Finally, the debate on sauce or no sauce was simple.

“It has to taste great both ways,” Barrett Black says. “It’s the customers choice.”

Texas, Chicago, Kansas City, Carolina, Memphis or whatever it is — choose your barbecue, but always choose to aim for your best Angus beef. It’s what the customer really wants, and hopefully you see them become a patron like you might be at the local barbecue joint.

Doing my best by beef,

Sarah

Sarah Moyer interns at the headquarters office in Wooster, Ohio. The senior in ag communications at Kansas State University aims to improve her writing by sharing stories of high-quality beef producers, as they work to improve their herds.

Cost-free quality drives beef demand

by Miranda Reiman

“Is marbling a free trait?”

The question was put to Mark McCully, vice president of production for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand at last week’s Beef Improvement Federation meeting in Loveland, Colo.

His answer? Basically.

“The data that’s out there from a cow standpoint says we’re really in a pretty good spot,” McCully said, adding he’d like to see even more research.

There are a few correlations between marbling and some other traits such as milk production, but cattlemen can select accordingly, he said. “It’s a pretty positive story for us as an industry: there’s not going to be a sacrifice of cow function in our pursuit of improving the quality of our end product.”

The cost must show up in the feedyard, critics say, but performance and quality are more simultaneous than mutually exclusive, McCully said.

He shared an analysis of 600 pens of high- and low-grading cattle (10% Prime and 0.6% Prime) fed at Five Rivers Cattle Feeding yards across the High Plains. The June-to-October 2017 closeouts showed feed efficiency and average daily gains were the same with the higher grading pens having a slight cost of feed (COF) advantage at $0.70 per pound of gain compared to $0.72. The lower quality cattle finished at 1,358 lb., giving up more than 40 lb. of final weight to their higher quality counterparts.

“I hear that a lot, ‘These high grading cattle…you’re going to have to sacrifice performance,’” McCully said. “Data we see every day would definitely dispel that idea.”

That’s good news for those trying to match their cattle to market signals.

The National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) suggests the industry should produce 5% Prime and 35% upper two-thirds Choice, but McCully said, “Maybe that’s too low.”

So far in 2018, beef across the United States is grading 7.6% Prime, 23% upper two-thirds Choice and just 17% Select.

“When you think about our competitive advantage, what we can do with genetics today and what the demand signals are,” he ventured, “I believe they’re telling us we need to ratchet those up a little bit.”

Today, packers market more boxes of Prime and branded beef than they do Select. The amount of Prime has nearly doubled from 2010 to 2018, going from 13 million lb. to 25 million per week. At the same time, Select has dropped 40% in eight years.

That “dramatic shift” in the marketplace came while premiums remained steady. The Prime to Select cutout spread was around $40 last year.

The trends hold true for CAB, too, which will certify more than 5 million head of cattle, or 16% to18% of the total fed-cattle supply.

“Packers reported $75 million paid back to the cattle owners on grid premiums [in 2017], specifically for CAB,” McCully said.

He expects the quality trend to continue, because it’s good for all segments.

High-marbling cattle offer feeders marketing flexibility.

“We’ve been dealing with low feed costs for the last handful of years, but if we get into where we need to shorten days on feed, we’ll be able to keep sending a high-quality product out to our consumers while dealing with that,” McCully said.

The changing retail landscape demands more of the best beef in its pipeline. Costco has sold Prime beef for several years and Wal-Mart now carries an upper two-thirds Choice program, for example.

Larger supplies give retailers the confidence to feature beef in ads and “get very aggressive promoting high quality,” McCully said. “I don’t get the sense that they want to go backwards.”

Ground beef sales have expanded with more than 100 million lb. of CAB branded grinds sold annually.

“It’s no longer quality grade neutral,” he said. “That whole burger category is significantly different than it was five to ten years ago. I think that’s a demand driver.”

Together, the increased focus on ground beef and innovative fabrication of end meats have helped elevate the value of those primals.

“The more carcasses we merchandize into those steak items and away from low-and-slow cookery methods, marbling obviously has a bigger benefit,” he said.

In export markets, it’s U.S. beef’s “high-quality, grain-fed” reputation that keeps global consumers coming back, McCully said.

It’s hard to make predictions 25 or 50 years out, but all the clues point in the same direction.

“I have a hard time finding a business model that doesn’t say if you increase the quality of your product, you’re going to increase demand,” he said. “We have the tools available to do this all while improving efficiency and reducing our cost of production.”

The 1st grade approach

Remember when you were six? Being chosen for “show and tell” was a big deal.

My elementary-age kids have brought their class everything from Indian beads dug on the family ranch to a misshapen egg their chicken laid. A newborn baby sister has even made a school appearance once or twice.

As they selected items, they went for the “wow” factor every time.

Grownup show and tell isn’t a lot different. We still go for that when we bring guests into our Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand Culinary Center. But it’s about more than showcasing incredible food and the hospitality to match.

We want people to leave saying, “Wow. I didn’t realize the relevance this brand has to my business.” We want them to leave knowing how high-quality beef can boost their bottom line.

“You read a paragraph to a first grader and they might know what you’re talking about,” says Harry Knobbe, a longtime cattle feeder from West Point, Neb. “You show them what you’re talking about, they get it.”

Harry came into headquarters as part of the 21^st Century Beef Club last month and said afterwards, “I’ve been involved with National Cattlemen and the Beef Councils and everything for a long time. For some reason, I didn’t know that much about Certified Angus Beef until I went there.

“It’s like I was going to the wrong church,” he jokes.

He wasn’t the only one.

“I realized [CAB] was a beef promotion arm of the American Angus Association. I did not realize that it was 100% funded by beef sales from the packer,” says rancher Cody Cornwell of Glasgow, Mont. “I was really shocked to learn that.”

The simple business model makes sense, he says

“Educate the chefs, sell the beef. Let the packers sell the product and the rancher will get his share in the end,” says Cody, noting the brand has helped bring along beef demand for the entire beef community, not just the Angus category.

We talked everything from brand assurance to carcass value (while breaking down a primal in the meats lab). Few producers get to take a deep dive into beef merchandizing or thinking like a chef.

Harry has been in the feeding business for more than five decades. “CAB” has shown up on his carcass data sheets for years.

“We get a premium, but on the other hand, we pay a premium for the cattle, too, but where our windfall is, is that we may sell more product than if we just have USDA Choice,” Harry says.

Cody put himself in the chef’s shoes.

“I was impressed with the amount of support staff there. If I had a restaurant, it would be well worth an additional dollar per pound, for example, for the product, just to have people to do menu development and advertising.” But, he says on top of that, “The quality of the product was also very, very good.”

Building demand.

When you’re talking to cattlemen, that’s the very best kind of show and tell.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

*Thanks to participant Wade Vedeer for sharing the shots of the group in action.

From the beginning

My mom does this thing with movies that I’ve just never understood. She’ll scroll through the channels, find a film and invest in it – even if it’s halfway over.

“Mom! We have no idea what happened in the beginning,” I’ll say with a smile and a tinge of frustration.

In reality, it matters none. The lady works a lot and, after long days of handling cattle and keeping a family business thriving, she knows she likely doesn’t have time to enjoy a full movie anyway.

But sometimes, in real life, knowing and understanding the beginning is crucial. History educates our decisions and reveals the big picture. We move forward, stronger because of it.

In late April, a few CAB staffers (including me) and 40 chefs gathered in the Amarillo area of Texas for CAB Chef Tour. It’s an impressive affair, one where our education team goes above and beyond to create an experience for culinary folks who serve our product in their restaurants or are considering doing so. It’s a time when the beginning is absolutely necessary.

Our stops included 2 Bar Angus, a seedstock supplier, near Hereford, Texas, owned and operated by Steve and Laura Knoll and their family. Then it was the coveted packing plant tour before we headed to Wrangler Feedyard, near Happy, Texas.

“It was fascinating, the whole thing. The whole thing was fascinating.”

That’s how attendee George Motz described our walk through the production side of our business as we sat down for dinner the last night. He’ll take those memories back to NYC and share them in his areas of influence. Forty other chefs will do the same.

As I sat down for lunch that second day, one attendee said, “Wow lunch yesterday seemed so long ago. We’ve done a lot between now and then.”

Indeed we had and I’d say that’s our goal. To take these 40 plus chefs and give them insight into the side of the business we know and love is an honor, but an obligation, too.

Once home attendee Chad Foust, Sweet Lou’s Restaurant and Bar, Ponderay, Idaho, shared, “This past week I spent a lot time thinking back to everything we learned/experienced and just how much I did not know about Certified Angus Beef. The entire process just blows my mind on how precise every portion of the steer’s journey is and how uncompromising Certified Angus Beef standards are. I am proud to serve Certified Angus Beef at Sweet Lou’s.”

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

Around the round

by Jill Seiler

Imagine your job is to sell beef as a menu solution, beyond the classic presentations of prime rib, filet mignon, strips and sirloin. Those are known for tender, flavorful and juicy steaks, but also known for hefty price points. Could your job include exploring new cuts and applications from the underutilized round?

It’s not so farfetched, according to presenters from the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB) brand at its Foodservice Leaders Summit in Napa, Calif., earlier this year.

The 160 beef marketers from CAB partner foodservice distributors and processors who paid to attend the annual educational summit certainly paid attention. After all, they could pay much less for an “end meat” round than any of the middle meats traditionally adorning customer menus. Top sirloin, often listed at the lowest price there, could make way for a new cut procured for $1 less per pound.

CAB Packing Director Clint Walenciak admitted the round has not instilled much sales excitement in the past, but math and knowledge could change that. He noted several cuts such as the eye, inside round, the heel, knuckle and bottom round represent low-cost opportunities.

The company’s slide presentation shared one idea on how to make “knuckle sandwiches” from smoked, slow-cooked and pulled beef from the knuckle.

“Since these items don’t have major premiums on them, you can upgrade to CAB and really increase the quality for customers,” Walenciak said, noting a cut with less marbling would not produce the same satisfaction.

In the bigger picture, selling more of each CAB-accepted carcass as the brand adds more value back to the ranch, he said.

As CAB Corporate Chef Peter Rosenberg finished preparing shaved steak sandwiches from the eye of the round for a tasting demonstration, Walenciak kept the crowd connected with the economics, detailed examples showing as little as $1 beef cost for some $10 to $12 menu items.

Less expensive and ready for diverse cookery to make round items interesting, flavorful and tender, he showed pathways to higher profit margins for restaurant customers.

When it was time to sample the beef, the chef waited to see reactions as tasting overcame the bias that it had to be tough.

“Most of the people couldn’t believe that was an eye of round,” he said, “because it was so tender and since it was sliced differently.”

After he presented highlights on such favorites as the Steamship Round, which can feed a crowd of hundreds via a carving station, it was time for teammate Cody Jones to wrap up.

“It’s easy to talk about the middle meats; they’re sexy,” said the CAB executive account manager. “Sometimes we just forget to talk about the round.”

Its versatility and value have been raising the wholesale cut’s profile, however.

“We want to sell from nose to tail and drive as much value as we can from the chuck to the round,” said Jones, who once worked for one of the foodservice companies represented among attendees. “We make that whole animal worth more if we sell all the cuts for the brand.”

As key strategies, Jones outlined several cultural applications, such as Japanese shabu-shabu, sukiyaki and yakiniku; Korean bulgogi, Hispanic carne asada and German rouladen. He also noted some precooked, value-added products on the market and highlighted uses for the tasty, lean cuts in health care foodservice.

Chef Peter summarized, “Our goal was to show the value of the round other than in ground beef, to bring it to life so there are plenty of ideas and techniques, and then it will market itself. The next time these people look at a round, they’ll think past ground beef.”

The beef industry: a survival guide

I’ve often wished for a guidebook – a map to carefully lead me around life’s potholes and avoid the dead ends altogether.

But you and I both know it doesn’t work like that. Faith requires a bit of stepping out, sometimes lunging to get to the good stuff – the reward far greater than the process to get there.

At this year’s Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, a Cattlemen’s College session titled, “True Stories of Beef Business Survival” piqued my interest.

As a young person hoping to survive in the beef industry, I’ve found there’s no golden ticket there either, but I’ve sure tried to listen a lot.

Here’s what I learned that day:

Have a plan

For both day-to-day and worst-case scenarios. “If you wait until you’re in the middle of the drought, it’s too late,” Joe Leathers, manager of 6666 Ranch, near Guthrie, Texas, said. “If you wait until the fire has completely devastated your country, you’re going to be sitting there in the middle of smoking ashes.”

For the practical-minded, it’s about being on the same page with your family and partners, Lydia Yon said. The matriarch of Yon Family Farms, near Ridge Spring, S.C., said, “People around us were building a new house and we were building a commodity shed. Someone was buying a new car and we were buying a new mixer wagon.” Everything they made, they put right back into the operation and avoided purchases of non-tangible things they couldn’t pass on to their children.

dalebanks perrier seedstock commitment to excellence

See the big picture

Not just what’s outside your door, Lydia said. It’s the little, everyday things that have been their key to survival. Her family applies that to their role as a seedstock producer, paying special attention to the genetics they stack in their Angus herd. “They need to be the right kind of genetics that will provide that end consumer with the delicious eating experience they crave.”

“The decisions you make, I don’t care how small your operation is, affect a lot more people than just you,” Joe added. Be conscious of that.

Learn from others

“Glean from those who have survived in the past; go talk to them,” Joe advised.

“The very smartest day of our lives was the day we graduated with our animal science degrees,” Lydia joked. “Ever since, we’ve learned how dumb we can become.” Listen to those older and wiser.

Relationships are key

Jerry Bohn, owner and recently retired manager of Pratt Feeders, Pratt, Kan., tied it all back to the men and women he’s worked for, alongside and hired. “It’s the people,” he said. “People, relationships, being a part of the community, that’s really what it’s all about and what made my career successful.”

For Lydia, relationships and the awareness that others observe your actions and results drive her toward success. Both led to land offered for lease and an owner’s willingness to finance cattle. “People are watching what you do,” she said. Because of those relationships, “we expanded without a lot of huge investments.”

Think outside your fences

With decades under his hat, Joe encouraged young people to “be an independent thinker. Too many people aren’t,” he said.

People told Lydia and her husband, Kevin, they couldn’t start a farm with 100 acres and basically nothing. “We got experience, got involved and got busy,” she said.

Choose good partnerships

“What can you do to be different?” Jerry asked. He credited partnerships with CAB and U.S. Premium Beef as some of the best Pratt has made. With CAB, “our involvement caused us to do a paradigm shift,” he said. Prior to 2003, Pratt Feeders was selling more commodity cattle. “We began to look at high-quality cattle, producing for high-end markets.” Today, he said, close to 70% of the cattle in their feedyards are destined to sell on a grid.

Those were just some pieces of advice from three people who I admire in this industry.

Get experience, manage for risk, figure out your strengths and outsource your weaknesses, they said. Those and more can take a person from merely surviving to thriving.

It’s about being realistic with every decision you make, Joe said, adding that there will be plenty. As young people, “it’s easy to have rose-colored glasses. Survival has a definite connotation of bruises and a little blood.”

“It’s not always going to be fun and you’re going to have to weather the storm.”

See you out on the water,

Laura

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