When the Plan B scores an A+

Before Mark Sebranek was a cattle feeder, he had a small cow-calf herd. He wanted to feed a load of cattle, get information back and capture more value from his genetic investment.

“I was another one of those that some people don’t want to mess with: the small guys,” Mark says, noting he never found an eager feeding partner. Although it might seem like a lifetime ago now, he didn’t forget.

Cattle feeder Mark Sebranek knows what cow-calf producers wonder about, because he was one.

Instead, when Mark took the lead at Irsik and Doll Feed Yard near Garden City, Kan., it propelled him to do more: more sorting, more communication, more watching out for the little guy.

That includes ranchers like Troy Hadrick of Faulkton, S.D.

In last week’s, “Following the Calves” update, we talked about the 2016-born calves making their way to Kansas, but what happens to their heifer mates?

“We retain most of our heifers. About 90% of them, we’ll give them a chance to breed,” the rancher says. After one round of artificial insemination (AI), he turns bulls out for one cycle before ultrasounding the females in August.

“We leave it up to those heifers, ‘Do you want to be a mama or not?’ We put a fair amount of reproductive pressure on those heifers to get bred,” he says. “It really sets up the rest of their career because they’re going to calve as early as anything in the herd that following year.”

When they don’t stick, Hadrick has a “Plan B.”

Last year, 23 open heifers shared a trailer with calves from another area ranch, arriving at Irsik and Doll on August 18.

“That way they can still make money, just in a different fashion,” Hadrick says.

The heifers were harvested in December, after gaining 4.83 pounds (lb.)/day and converting at 5.15 lb. feed/lb. of gain. They made 74% Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime, with 954 lb. average hot carcass weight (HCW).

These 2016-born steers made it to Irisk and Doll Feedyard just about a month after the heifers from the year before were harvested.

“At the end of the day, you have to pay the bank of Rome. That’s why I’ve always thought the total dollars per head is a very valuable number,” Mark says of the final analysis. These heifers gave up some yield grade discounts, “to help increase the dressing percent because the performance was so good,” he says, noting the quality grade was a bonus.

When Troy posted those results on his personal Facebook page, some wondered what’s the catch?

Print “We try to measure as many things as we can,” he says. Everything from an increasing pregnancy rate and ribeye area to a flat yield-grade trend and decreasing mature cow size tells him there have been no trade-offs. “All the numbers tell us that we haven’t really given anything up, but the trait that pays us a lot more at the end—marbling—has increased a lot.”

These kind of results are why the cattle feeder is happy to field questions from first-time customers and to work with ranchers of any size.

“You go through a lot of discussions with them about what you do with the information you get back, how we do stuff, how we sort,” Mark says. “There’s a lot of questions.”

But those questions, they lead to answers. In Troy’s case, they’re leading to pretty steep improvements.

Check back next month when we see how the next generation is shaping up during a calving season update to our series.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–To catch Troy’s story from the start, read “Rapid change,” “Proud to pass it on,” and “Not in South Dakota Anymore.”

You can also visit ranches in Oklahoma and Montana in our other “Following the calves,” series installments.

Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away

Ranchers living in these parts of rural America know a thing or two about “long distance neighbors.”

After all, the small eastern Montana town of Circle has laid claim to “the location farthest from a Starbucks in the continental U.S.” Montana and Nebraska ranked third and fourth in one report of the states with the least populated counties in America.

When we first checked in with the Keaster family in Belt, Montana, Bruce told me he needed a good relationship with his banker and feeder to be successful. That goes both ways.

“He’s a good friend, basically a neighbor – we just happen to live 1,000 miles apart,” cattle feeder Ryan Loseke says. He’s been buying and finishing Bruce’s cattle for 20 years.

Ryan Loseke has fed the Keaster calves for 20 years. He knows what to expect in terms of health, performance and carcass.

This October, four loads of steers and two loads of heifers made the 958-mile journey from Keaster Land & Livestock to Loseke Feedyard. Steers averaged 675 pounds on arrival, with the heifers coming in between 625 and 630. As Bruce has focused more on his Angus genetics, Ryan has enjoyed receiving cattle that reduce variability.

That consistency is especially valuable in markets where cattle feeders may be leaning on a good relationship with their banker, too.

“I know what to expect from a health standpoint, carcass, performance. So when that market goes from $1.70 to $1.05 in a quick hurry, that’s one thing that’s consistent. I know the health will be solid and the mortality will be next to nothing. That helps,” Ryan says.

A preconditioning program that’s been perfected over the past 20-some years keeps the mortality rate nearly non-existent in the feeding phase. There’s no doubt feedlot health impacts the animals’ end quality grade.

“I know exactly what they’ve had at birth, branding and pre-conditioning, and I know it’s been done well,” Ryan says, so he doesn’t have to duplicate efforts. “There’s nothing we don’t know about them before they get here.”

That connection doesn’t end when the last cattle truck leaves the yard. Bruce calls about every other month. That came most recently while Ryan was implanting Bruce’s calves. They’re looking good – exceptional, in fact – and some might be ready for market as soon as late March.

“He asks about health, different sire groups. He’s interested in any information he can get. Just like all of us, he wants to do something better the next year than he did the last year,” Ryan says. “He’s trying to get as much information as he can, which tells me he’s in it for the long haul.”

Those frequent phone calls are well-peppered with family updates. Bruce checks on a colt he sent back to Nebraska on a cattle truck one year – it’s Ryan’s daily mount now – and Ryan looks forward to hearing about Bruce’s new grandkids and the expanding roles of his daughters. Laura and Rachel are both working full-time next to their dad on the ranch now.

2016_10_Keaster-12 — The Keaster family includes (L to R) Rachel and Kreighton Heberly (husband Steve not pictured), Bruce and Janet Keaster, Laura, Mason and Drew Coffler.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s daughter Liz is studying to follow her mom and dad’s footsteps as a veterinarian. There are stories to share about the time her Canadian internship paperwork hit a snag at the border, and Bruce and Janet jumped in the pickup without hesitation to head north and assist. The Losekes try to make an annual trip to Montana to throw some steaks on the grill and catch up.

“It’s just like neighbors around here – like I said, they’re just 1,000 miles away. They’re good friends and neighbors, and that’s almost as important to me as the cattle part of it,” Ryan says.

Until next time,

Laura

Laura Nelson is based in Big Timber, Montana, where she writes, captures images and tells farming and ranching stories. She’s a former CAB Industry Information Specialist who became passionate about the brand and the pursuit of high-quality beef while working at the company headquarters in Ohio. Then wide open spaces, small-town living and those beautiful Crazy Mountains wooed her back west.

PS–We’re “Following the calves” across the country, too. Travel from Oklahoma to Montana in these installments:

Cattle feeding chat builds bridges

Kansas brothers address beef marketers

by Miranda Reiman

When it’s just not possible to bring 600 people from across the globe to the feedyard, the next best thing is to bring a little of that Herington, Kan., family operation to them.

Cattle feeders Shane and Shawn Tiffany took the stage during educational sessions at last month’s Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand annual conference in Tucson, Ariz. The brothers gave foodservice and retail professionals a glimpse of life in a feedyard, often one of the most misunderstood parts of the beef community.

“It gives us an opportunity in our supply chain to bring those calves together from different genetics, different environments, different weights, shapes and size, born at different times – and create uniformity,” said Mark McCully, CAB vice president for supply during their introduction. “It allows us, as a beef supply chain, to have a 52-week supply of marketable finished cattle for your business.”

The Tiffanys have an open-door business model. They’re happy to talk about any part of the feedyard, they said, so they started at the beginning.

“Shawn and I literally grew up there,” said Shane. Their dad managed the feedyard for 14 years, and as boys they started out washing waterers and cleaning “boot [grain-receiving] pits” in the mill. “There was no such thing as a snow day. When school was cancelled, you went to work.”

Then they both went to college and on to other careers before forming a partnership to buy what is now the 14,000-head Tiffany Cattle Company.

“We took the chance and we jumped in,” Shane said. “The last nine years have been a whirlwind and it’s been a fun ride, but really we’ve just been incredibly blessed as we’ve grown the business.”

They gave a backdrop for the 45-minute conversation by explaining the typical schedule and chores at the yard.

“We’re in our office chairs by six in the morning. We expect the feed trucks to be rolling and dropping feed in the bunks before 7 a.m.,” Shawn said. “Cowboys are out saddling their horses in the dark and getting ready to go inspect every single animal in the yard, every day, for any health issues that may arise.”

They talked about their customers and the quality animals they receive into the yard.

“We’re 99% customer-owned cattle, so we provide a service for our customers that own the cattle. So think of a bed and breakfast,” Shawn said. “We sell food and rent a room.”

The chefs, beef marketers and others had a chance to text in questions for the cattlemen to answer live. Inquiries ranged from the transition to grain from forage and defining “feed conversions” to the kind of legacy they wanted to leave and future challenges.

“Your focus is pretty narrow when you’re young and broke and you’re trying to get a business off the ground,” Shawn said. “The goal is to stay in business until tomorrow.”

Now, there are eight kids that make up the next generation. They said that forces them to look longer-term, and makes them more determined than ever to share their story.

“The ruminant animal has the wonderful ability to take low-quality proteins, such as grass or corn silage and produce some extremely high-quality protein products that we can consume,” Shawn said, noting that most people just want to learn more about that process.

“If somebody will give you the time to explain your story and why you do what you do and how you do it, every single time people go away with a better feeling and better understanding of our industry,” he said.

The men and their wives spent the three-day conference interacting with people from very different geographies and diverse backgrounds.

“The moment we got off the stage, the rest of the weekend, we were constantly talking to somebody,” Shawn said. They chatted about cattle and everything in between, from grinding hamburger in San Diego to cutting steaks in Toronto. “There were just some great conversations with people who are from a considerably different segment of our industry, but are every bit as passionate about it as we are.”

To see more from the CAB annual conference, watch this special edition of “The Angus Report”: http://cab.info/2qx.

Big on quality

Poky Feeders wins CAB Feedlot Commitment to Excellence Award

by Steve Suther

One of the largest cattle feeders in the country aims for high-quality results and hits that target every day. Poky Feeders, Scott City, Kan., turns 3,700 head per week, and nearly 37% of 120,000 Poky-fed Angus cattle earned the Certified Angus Beef^® brand at National Beef Packing last year.

Manager Joe Morgan says there’s still room for improvement, but the business has come a long way since he started in 1985. That was a few years after cattlemen from near Pocahontas, Iowa, named and founded it – unfortunately coinciding with the worst farm recession in decades.

Morgan and a dedicated staff rose from those precarious times to grow into a huge, but family-oriented business dedicated to “the people side” and premium-quality beef.

Wayne Anderson, Williams, Iowa, who maintained an interest in Poky from the start, joined Morgan in Tucson, Ariz., Sept 22-24, where their business was honored with the 2016 CAB Feedlot Commitment to Excellence Award at the brand’s annual conference.

“Most of the cattle were company owned” in the 1980s,” Morgan says, contrasting that with the current 5%. That shift was gradual as customers wanted to own more of a growing herd. Now, Poky only owns the high-risk pens, which alleviates some customer worries.

It speaks more to the consistent quality in the Poky system today than a shift in risk, says Grant Morgan, son and assistant manager who came back in 2008 after a few years in allied industry.

From the start, his father says, “We figured that to grow, it was going to be more and more important to do the right things and promote the right things. It was going to make us more successful and our customers more successful.”

Ranchers had little incentive to retain ownership or improve cattle when they all sold for the same price, but Morgan hit the road to start building relationships. The confidence to travel was “thanks to a lot of good, reliable people who have devoted their lives to us and the success of Poky,” he says.

The yard grew to 30,000, then 40,000 head in the mid-1990s when friends in the area began meeting to kick around ideas that helped create U.S. Premium Beef (USPB) a couple of years later.

Investing heavily in USPB shares with the right and obligation to supply many thousands of cattle, Morgan took that risk to reduce it and reward quality going forward. Obligations met opportunity as the

cattle feeder redoubled efforts to build relationships with producers from Arkansas to Oregon. That led to another wave of expansions to current capacity.

Ideas of grid marketing and strategic alliances were sweeping across the beef industry.

Morgan says he watched CAB’s creation as a young Angus producer near Atlantic, Iowa, later seeing its growth across the industry and in the registered herd he maintained at Scott City until recent years. But CAB really stepped up to realize its potential “when it became a line item on the packer grids,” he says.

“If you put a target out there with a reward, a farmer or rancher will get there – it’s just their nature,” Morgan says. “Everybody thought they had the best steer in the West until they fed and found out.

“When one guy got a $30 or $40 premium over a neighbor’s cattle, it didn’t take long for people to realize they had to improve their genetics – the message was passed on to the ranch pretty fast,” he says. “Once they knew marbling was highly heritable and didn’t affect the maternal side, they were able to meet their goals.”

Poky customers in the last year number more than 300 in 13 states. They include scores of ranchers who, like the Morgans, understand the great advantage of Angus cattle in providing both functional cows and premium beef.

There are second- and even third-generation managers still making handshake deals. Klint and Lori Swanson, of Shipwheel Cattle Co., Chinook, Mont., represent hundreds in recollecting the roots of their link.

“I’m guessing it was around 20 years ago when Joe came to our place,” Klint Swanson says. “I remember him sitting down at our kitchen table and visiting. He said that he had heard about my family’s [Apex Angus] cattle and was very interested in purchasing our steers.” A deal was struck, and “we’ve been sending them cattle ever since.”

Steers from Shipwheel’s balanced program regularly grade 90% to 100% Choice or better with 65% CAB, and the Swansons lead customer tours to see Poky and National Beef plants where all learn more about their cattle and industry.

With a nod to those balanced genetics, Morgan says, “We are feeding the fastest growing, best grading cattle we have ever fed.” Poky and its network of like-minded partners will gladly feed more of those, but not by building more pens. The main yard is at a practical limit for feed mill size and its seasoned crew.

Departmental foremen, a risk manager and a longtime chief financial officer assure continuity there while Joe and future manager Grant Morgan look to the broadening avenue of partnering.

Grant “keeps pushing” his father to grow the business.

“His coming back sure gave me a new reason to continue at this pace,” Joe says. “We’re not going to take a step backwards.”

Following the Calves: Starting over

Shipping day.

2015_05_18_mr_evert-steers-harvest-will-feed-137 — April was rainy, so when the skies cleared on the day the last of the Evert calves were set to ship in early May, I headed to Will Feed.

It’s like a home builder handing over the keys. An artist, painting the last stroke. An actress on opening night.

For a cattle feeder, shipping day is not only the culmination of months of work, it’s also payday.

“It’s one of the most difficult things I do as a cattle feeder,” Anne Burkholder, Cozad, Neb., cautioned, as she welcomed me one spring day to photograph the Evert calves—the ones I’d followed since October. There was a stipulation: I must stay out of the way. It takes focus to load 1,400-lb. critters onto a truck.

For ranchers in the next county over, that shipping day went unnoticed—they had sold all their steer calves to Will Feed in the fall. But as the Everts took cows to grass, they thought about that feedyard milestone with some anticipation, because after shipping day comes report-card day.

“We do our homework when we go to a bull sale, so getting that feedback has been very beneficial,” says Virginia Evert.

2015_05_18_mr_evert-steers-harvest-will-feed-98 — I don’t like pre-dawn alarm clock alerts, but I do like capturing good cattle in good lighting.

This year’s tally? The steers reached 40% Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime while the heifers were 49% CAB and Prime. They outgained the steers as well, racking up 4 lb./day.

“We’re getting consistent, raising consistent cattle,” says Rachael Evert.

It would go down as an uneventful year; rains spread out, the grass enough. Calving went smoothly and summer left them in good spirits.

It would be uneventful, except that this fall finds them looking at new marketing options.

Anne recently announced that she is closing the feedyard.

“This has been a long and difficult decision, but I am confident it is the correct one,” the feeder says.

The Everts credit their relationship with Anne for teaching them what feeders want, and they’ve adjusted weaning, health and implants (or lack thereof) to her standards.

Now, it’s something like starting over, but different this time.

The ranchers hope to find another feeder to work with directly. They like knowing price is not determined by which buyers are in the seats or that day’s auction order, and they especially like the two-way information flow.

2016_9_mr_evert-wrapup-39-1-2 — No spring floods, then well-timed rains on summer pastures helped ease typical ranch worries.

“Everything was ‘preconditioned’ and all they had are a shot in the spring,” Virginia says of competing against others in the ring. Of course, now they have more information to share, too. “Knowing our carcass data, now I can honestly say we have ‘quality cattle.’”

Before, they just didn’t know.

The Everts have delayed preconditioning until they know exactly where their cattle are going. They want to match health and implant strategies with the next buyer. If they invest in EID (electronic identification) tags, they want to be sure they’ll get feedback.

From the moment the women took over day-to-day care of the family cowherd, change was evident.

“Change is nothing new for us; it will be a new adventure,” Rachael says, shrugging off the initial disappointment.

evertwrapup-collage — During the past year, as I’ve followed the cattle, Emma has tagged along each time. Virginia and Brandon’s, and the youngest of all the Evert cousins, Emma is growing into quite the little hand around the ranch.

The one thing that shows no sign of wavering? A commitment to constant improvement.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

It’s been fun “Following the calves” from last October, until now with a new calf crop looking towards weaning. If you want to catch up on the Evert family’s story from the beginning, you can read their feature, “The Best Rise From Ashes,” or check out these blog posts:

Our “Following the calves” series will also take you to Arizona and Florida in these posts:

High quality is the BIG picture

Pulling into the expansive yard at the 80,000-head-capacity Poky Feeders south of Scott City, Kan., a few months ago, I wondered how a giant feedyard like this can be famous for high-quality beef. Clearly, this was not the image of family farming cultivated by mainstream media.

But it didn’t take more than a few minutes with manager Joe Morgan (or later with his son, Grant) to realize it’s all about people and a shared vision of doing things right from start to finish.

You feel a kinship when you hear their story. First of all, the Poky name comes from an endearing nickname for Pocahontas, Iowa. Founding partners are from the Hawkeye State. Morgan, too.

Then it turns out Morgan and friends were a driving force in founding U.S. Premium Beef in the 1990s, because they wanted to find a way to reward higher quality in customer cattle.

Not surprisingly, the Poky crew developed a knack for getting high-quality cattle in the pens. They spent more than 30 years building a people-focused business and cultivating relationships with hundreds of like-minded families in a dozen states.

Most people don’t think of a huge feedyard being a family business, but Grant Morgan started doing odd jobs around the yard his dad managed when he was just eight years old. Ten years later, he saw a degree in airline science from the Salina, Kan., campus of Kansas State University as an escape.

But agriculture kept calling him back. Rather than American Airlines or United, he worked in Denver for ag data company IMI Global for years before returning to the feedyard in 2008.

Now an heir apparent to manage the enterprise that includes leases and partnerships from Oklahoma to Montana, Grant recalls the disconnect he saw in Denver friends a few years ago. Friends who did not believe “big agriculture” could really care for animals.

“I always told them to come out on Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, when we’re all out here feeding the cattle,” Grant says. “Most people don’t hear our story properly, they don’t know only 5 or 6% of our cattle are ever treated with an antibiotic, or that we have our consulting veterinarian out here every week for a full day.”

Talk to Joe, who devoted his career to building a big company that cares about people and quality. Talk to his son, who’s committed to carrying on a family tradition. If you listen, you can’t help but see it’s a good thing these folks have cast a wide net to include many thousands of cattle from across the country into a common vision and commitment to excellence.

Let’s keep building tomorrow together!

Steve

Feeding Quality Forum challenges norms

More than 200 hear from marketing experts, animal scientists

By Miranda Reiman

If you think you have the cattle feeding business all figured out, you’re probably mistaken.

That’s according to speakers at the Feeding Quality Forum in Grand Island, Neb., and Amarillo, Texas, last week. The experts addressed what they “used to know” that’s no longer so.

“After decades of slow change, the North American cattle and beef industries are undergoing rapid transition,” said Pete Anderson, director of research for Midwest PMS, at the event that drew more than 200 at the two locations.

In the last 25 years, the use of expected progeny differences (EPDs) have allowed Angus birth-weight trends to remain flat while growth continued upward, Anderson noted.

Quality improved at the same time, but that had to mean more than just grading Choice.

“The difference between Choice and Select is no longer the distinction of quality; it’s between Choice and the branded programs,” he said.

Cattlemen on this continent are best positioned to exploit that shift if they can maintain their recent focus.

“North America must stay in and dominate the world high-quality beef market,” Anderson said. “Exports are key.”

Dan Basse, president of AgResource Company, also noted the significance of the U.S. as the leading source of corn-fed, high-quality beef. But he warned that the rest of the world is catching up: “We’ll see the shift, more grain being fed and more focus on marbling and quality than before. That differentiation will be diminished.”

The market analyst made those comments as part of his overview of global factors affecting U.S. agricultural markets this year.

World-wide corn, soybean and wheat yields will be strong, he said, predicting 547 million metric tons for the combined harvest.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s bearish on prices.

“It’s not as bad as we thought this time around. This time, we not only have big crops, but we also have big demand,” he said.

Weather challenges abroad and strong export demand explain part of the picture. If corn price dips below $3.25/bushel, feeders should lock in prices, Basse said. However, he did not recommend hedging fed cattle.

“As we think about [Chicago Mercantile Exchange] futures, they’re too cheap relative to our modeling. The fourth quarter, we think it’s about $10 too cheap, relative to where the market should be today,” he said.

During the past few years of “expensive” corn, economists predicted carcass weights would tail off as feeders struggled to cut feed costs. That didn’t happen, said Robbi Pritchard, South Dakota State University animal scientist.

He addressed the question, “When are your cattle done,” though of course there is no set answer. He said the old rule was to sell finished cattle before their feed-to-gain ratio tanked.

“Energetic inefficiency is not what it used to be,” Pritchard said, noting genetics and technology have changed. Big cattle are not automatically inefficient cattle, but they do require different management.

“We have to feed to higher growth potential or they won’t grade,” he said.

Yet, adding days on feed and carcass weight creates challenges from the packing plant to the consumer.

“The high school kid who can eat a 16-ounce steak can’t afford to buy it,” he joked. “What’s my definition of done supposed to be? When I make the most money, or when I create the right product?”

Indeed, the cattle of the 1950s are drastically different than those of this century, but they’re still valued on equations developed more than 50 years ago and based on data from 162 head, said Ty Lawrence, West Texas A&M meat scientist.

“Those five loads of cattle determine what we now use as the USDA yield grade equation,” he said. Data shows that the yield equation could benefit from tweaking to more accurately predict cutability.

“We have revised the guidelines of how to feed cattle seven times, but have never revised how we estimate red meat yield,” he said, referencing the Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle.

Robin Falkner, managing veterinarian with Zoetis beef technical services, said that’s not the only part of the cattle business that deserves a second look.

“Just because we’ve been doing something for 100 years, doesn’t mean it’s right,” he said.

Getting prepared for the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) is simply a good chance to evaluate details like transportation and placement protocols and pen size.

“Health solutions don’t come in a bottle, aqueous solutions do,” said the veterinarian, challenging the group to think creatively. “Stockmen offer management solutions.”

So do educators.

Larry Corah, former Kansas State University (K-State) animal scientist and long-time Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) vice president, received the forum’s Industry Achievement Award during a lunch program.

“A branding iron is designed to leave a mark, and through his career, Dr. Larry Corah has left his mark on the cattle feeding industry,” said CAB vice president of supply Mark McCully, at the Amarillo meeting. McCully presented his mentor with branding irons featuring the CAB logo and K-State’s “Flying K.”

The meetings were co-sponsored by Zoetis, Roto-mix, Feedlot magazine, Micronutrients and CAB. To view presentations and summary information, visit www.feedingqualityforum.com.

You can think that, but you’d be wrong

Brace yourself. Prepare. That was the message I took from last year’s Feeding Quality Forum (FQF).

Before that came other themes: Manage your risk, there’s some glimmering good news amidst the bad; and high prices don’t mean high profits.

I’ve been to all but one of the forums, which we’ve held with allied industry partners since 2006, and the overwhelming summary is LOTS of good information.

But I might lean on Zoetis veterinarian Robin Falkner’s statement to wrap-up the 2016 meetings: “Just because we’ve been doing something for 100 years, doesn’t mean it’s right.”

2016_08_23_mr_FQF 2016-59 — Cattle feeders and allied industry gathered in Grand Island, Neb., and Amarillo, Texas for the Feeding Quality Forum meetings this week.

He was talking about improving stockmanship as a preventative measure, rather than relying solely on veterinarian medicine, but I thought it applied to all topics covered. Especially if we adjust that statement to its positive inverse: “We’re learning new things, and ways of doing things, all the time.”

Here are some myths of yesteryear that our speakers told us are simply not true in today’s year.

Record yields mean limit down pricing. Not so fast, says Dan Basse, president of Ag Resource. “We not only have big crops, we also have big demand,” the market analyst told us. He predicts record yields of 547 million metric tons of corn, soybeans and wheat. It’s the third year of record grain storage, but still: “I’m really not that bearish on grain price.”

That’s mainly due to weather challenges abroad. Boiled down: If you see a break in the market, lock in your feed price, he says.

Yield grade was perfected a long time ago. While the measurement was first implemented in the 1960s, it is not exactly perfect as it stands. Ty Lawrence, meat scientist from West Texas A&M University noted, “Carcass weights today are comparable to the live weights of the cattle that were used to develop the yield grade equation.”

Among the other reasons he questions its accuracy: small sample size on original study it was based on (162 head), changes in cutting and marketing methods and improved technology to help with estimates.

The longer you feed cattle, the more inefficient they get. Maybe once upon a time, but, “Energetic inefficiency is not what it used to be,” Robbi Pritchard, South Dakota State University animal scientist, told the group. Genetics and technology have changed, so feeding cattle longer to improve carcass quality and get more saleable weight per head makes economic sense, regardless of what corn price is doing. Of course, that is at odds with consumer preference, he said.

Also: the idea that calf-feds don’t grade? False, he said. Chalk another one up to genetics.

2016_08_23_mr_FQF 2016-87 — Think young cattle can’t grade? Think again, says Dr. Robbi Pritchard.

The day ended with Pete Anderson, Midwest PMS, who told the group that the Choice-Select spread is no longer the distinction of quality, “It’s between Choice and the branded programs.”

Basically all the rules are getting rewritten. “After decades of slow change, the North American cattle and beef industries are undergoing rapid transition,” he said.

Consider that a warning or perhaps more of a motivating statement. You’ve got to learn, keep up, adapt.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS — Thank to our partners – Zoetis, Roto-mix, Feedlot magazine, and Micronutrients – who helped us put together such an informative program.

Corah honored by Feeding Quality Forum

by Steve Suther

Seven years ago when Larry Corah suggested adding a people element to the Feeding Quality Forum (FQF) he helped launch in 2006, he certainly didn’t expect to be a recipient of the Industry Achievement Award one day.

Now “mostly retired,” Corah was an easy choice for the FQF committee, which moved to honor one who served the beef community – from ranch to consumer – for more than 50 years.

He grew up in North Dakota in the 1950s, when technology was reshaping agriculture. His parents attended school to 8th grade, but they never stopped learning on a farm that included a small feedlot. The family cooperated in many Extension research trials to see how electricity, silage unloaders and hybrid seeds could make life better.

Corah loved to learn by doing, whether in animal science at North Dakota State University, as a local county Extension agent in 1964 or digging into the feedlot side for his Master’s in ruminant nutrition at Michigan State University. There, he met an Australian guest lecturer who made an irresistible offer a couple of years later.

Soon Corah, with wife Mary and two children, were living on the southeastern edge of the Outback for two years while he served as technical advisor for an Australian program to develop a cattle feeding industry.

Coming back in 1970, Corah worked in Extension in Minnesota before the family moved to Laramie, Wyo., while the young scientist earned a PhD in bovine reproductive physiology. In 1974, they moved to Manhattan, Kan., to stay.

He joined Kansas State University as a feedlot specialist, with a first mission of traveling the state to meet people and see the booming industry.

“I had seen 1,000-head feedlots, but not the 20- and 30,000-head operations,” Corah recollects. “The first time I saw a pit full of high-moisture corn, I said ‘what the heck is that?’”

He established relationships quickly, helping each new contact think about what they’d like to know with K-State’s assistance. He felt a kinship with each cooperator as they sought to adapt new technologies to their feedyards.

Corah also developed a little-used summer internship program into a network of a dozen committed young people placed at leading yards across the feeding belt.

“Not only did we get a lot of science done, but it was a good training ground for students,” he says.

The feedlot specialist became beef section leader at K-State in 1979 and head of cow-calf research in 1985, becoming the first Wildcat to earn the Extension Achievement Award from the American Society for Animal Science in 1987.

For all the cooperative research Corah was getting done, across 20 years he also mentored a wave of 30 graduate students who went on to take leading positions in the beef industry, academia and allied industry.

His easy-going personality helped him build a thick Rolodex of industry contacts over the years, and those helped launch his own “retirement” careers. Corah left Extension after 25 years to head up producer education at the newly unified National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in 1997.

There he established strategies and programs as a foundation of NCBA efforts to this day, including an expanded Cattlemen’s College.

In 1998, when former grad students with the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand suggested their mentor to lead the company’s outreach to ranchers and cattle feeders, Corah signed on as vice president of supply development, based in Manhattan, Kan.

The next year, he and new staff members that included current CAB president John Stika launched the CAB Feedlot Partners program, and later teamed up with allied industry sponsors to hold the first FQF seminars in Nebraska and Texas.

Always looking ahead more than back, Corah predicts the growing trend of individual cattle management will lead to more of a “supply chain focus, where feedyards will really target a lot of their production” toward specific value-adding programs and brands.

“The fact that we put cattle on feed for 100 to 150 days of a high-concentrate diet creates a really intense flavor profile that has established our beef as not only something that the U.S. consumer wants, but globally it positions us,” Corah says.

These are exciting times for a career teacher and student of the industry.

“It amazes me how dramatically we’ve changed cattle,” Corah says. From breed makeup to performance gains, their evolution didn’t leave carcass quality behind.

“Today nearly 70% of the cattle grade Choice or Prime and CAB acceptance rates – years ago we set a target at 30% and thought that’s just unachievable,” he notes. “Now we’re seeing weeks and months where we’re doing that.”

The many who reach out to congratulate Corah will likely hear the disclaimer, “I’ve always been surrounded by talented people.”

Those would invariably reply they owe much of their own industry achievements simply to being on the same team.

Corah will accept the award just prior to the noon CAB brand lunch in Grand Island, Neb., Aug. 23 and two days later in Amarillo, Texas.

The meetings are sponsored by Zoetis, Roto-mix, Feedlot magazine, Micronutrients and CAB.

Online registration is available at www.feedingqualityforum.com, or contact Marilyn Conley at 800-225-2333 or mconley@certifiedangusbeef.com.

That is adaptability

Adaptable (adjective): able to adjust oneself readily to various conditions

On Monday evening a few weeks ago, I began my internship with the Black Ink team. I was nervous. While it’s exciting, the unknown terrifies me, and the possibility of making mistakes and the nagging thought of being in over my head weighed heavily on my mind.

That Wednesday afternoon, we traveled to Stratton, Colo., where we met Jerry Hasart and I heard how Top End Farms stepped into the unknown several times throughout the years and adapted.

The 99-year-old family operation switched to running straight Angus commercial cows 14 years ago, and seven years ago went to a natural program. Jerry’s reason for the change was mere resources….or lack thereof.

“It was just me and my brother with kids that were still in high school. That was my work force,” Jerry says, noting it was as not a large ranch. It required more paperwork to meet the qualifications, but they knew could make up in premiums. “We thought this opportunity would work well for our program.”

And it has, although Jerry is the first to admit that the hardest part was failure.

“Failure of not meeting the standards through humane handling or documentation. Still there. We’ve been doing this calf deal before. But this was a lot different.”

Low-stress weaning and handling has been a big part of Jerry Hasart’s success since deciding to raise cattle for a natural market.

Jerry had to take another look at how they handled their cattle. After attending a few Tom Noffsinger schools on low stress cattle handling, Jerry and his family ditched their hot shots and perfected their skills.

That is adaptability.

“You didn’t have to whoop and holler. The rule of thumb is, they don’t know any curse words,” Jerry explains. “They do not know Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish or American. All they know is how you react to them.”

Throughout our visit the grey-haired, Colorado-weathered cattleman constantly had a smile in his eyes while talking about his cows. “It’s been fun,” he says repeatedly of the Angus genetics they have developed, and even of the drought that hit Colorado in 2011 and 2012.

It was during that weather challenge that Jerry and his brother decided that they could either expand locally—but risk future water shortages—or they could expand elsewhere, to a place where water was more readily available. That place happened to be nearly 400 miles away, near Valentine, Neb., where Jerry’s brother currently runs nearly 700 Angus cows.

Adaptability.

While the drought forced the family to learn how to run cattle together in a long distance partnership, it’s not the first time that Top End Farms has been inventive in dealing with challenges.

Without antibiotics, weaning proved difficult, but just last year the Hasarts held sickness to just 1%, which means very few calves received treatment, and few were removed from the natural program. Both ranch locations have developed low-stress weaning systems that work for them.

The Hasart brothers had to learn how to communicate while being long-distance partners in the cow business.

“It’s all still a big learning process,” says Jerry. “The most exciting thing about feeding Angus cattle and watching them grow, is when they go on the truck. When they fill up the chute, going into the truck, it’s a happy day.”

And with the way Top End Farms can adapt to what comes their way, I think they have many happy days ahead of them; not very different than myself, having finally adapted to my internship, which isn’t nearly as scary now.

Adaptability.

–Hannah

Although summer intern Hannah Johlman was born in northeast Kansas and is now a senior studying ag communications and animal sciences at Kansas State University, she claims Sheridan, Wyo., as her home. Hannah tributes her grandfather and uncle involved in farming and veterinary medicine as her largest ag influencers, inspiring her to the career path she has chosen.

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