The Resistance Part II: The bacteria battle

Antibiotics have their work cut out for them

by Miranda Reiman

April 22, 2020

Penicillin was introduced in 1928, antibiotic resistance followed in the decades after. Methicillin came next, a year later its first resistant bacteria were detected. So it’s not surprising that common cattle cures are now subject to the same fate.

“For many years, the bacteria that caused [bovine respiratory disease] didn’t seem to be becoming resistant,” says Amelia Woolums, Mississippi State University veterinarian. New data from the last decade show they’ve not only developed it, but “surprisingly, they have developed resistance to multiple different antibiotics, and that can become evident even when we treat cattle with just one.”

Treatment with one drug may lead to less effective options the next time around, no matter the class.

“If a cow has an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that’s causing an infection, the cow many not get better if we treat it with antibiotics,” she warns.

But how does it happen in the first place?

Different classes of antibiotics work to defeat bacteria in different ways, like disrupting the cell wall or membrane, inhibiting protein synthesis or DNA replication, or altering the metabolism.

“Antibiotics basically block or prevent different things the bacteria have to do to live, or destroy structures of the bacteria,” Woolums says. “If the bacteria change those things so the antibiotic no longer works, that’s how they become resistant. The sensitive ones are killed and that just leaves the resistant ones, and they get together and say, ‘Let’s have a family.’”

They use several different tactics for building resistance, such as:

Genetic mutation. That’s the spontaneous change in a portion of the DNA of the bacteria. “If the protein changes, and that’s the target of the antibiotic, it no longer works,” Woolums says. That change is coded into the bacteria’s progeny, too, so it passes on the resistance.
Efflux. “That basically pumps the antibiotic right out,” she says. The drugs aren’t in the cells long enough to work.
Destruction by enzymes. “Many bacteria possess genes that then produce enzymes that chemically degrade or inactivate the antibiotics.”

“Research shows bacteria are very generous with their DNA,” Woolums says, noting they can share them across different kinds of organisms.

A Pastuerella or Mannheimia can pass along resistant chunks of DNA—called integrative and conjugative elements, or ICE—to E.coli or salmonella, for example.

“Bacteria replicate at crazy rates,” she says. So when one of these mutations sticks, very quickly there are millions of cells with the same tactics. “It’s survival of the fittest.”

Producers can help in the battle against resistance.

“Keeping cattle healthy really should be the first focus,” Woolums says. “We were so lucky in the last half of the 20th century to come up with new antibiotics that did some amazing things.”

But the penicillin example is bound to keep repeating itself.

“We really should try to focus on husbandry and things that keep cattle healthy,” she says, “using antibiotics only when we really need them.”

Read part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

The Resistance Part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

Combating antibiotic resistance in cattle

by Miranda Reiman

April 22, 2020

Antimicrobial resistance might sound like a challenge straight out the headlines, but it could become awfully personal when you find routine antibiotics no longer cure a sick calf.

“I think we thought, in the arms race against bacteria, that we could win it,” says Amelia Woolums, Mississippi State University veterinarian. But bacteria replicate quickly, and disclose their tricks to other bacteria by sharing DNA. “It’s really not a race we are winning.”

It’s been a concern in the medical community ever since penicillin debuted early in the last century, but cattle health protocols have been seemingly immune to the challenges….until now.

Studies show antibiotic resistance is on the rise, especially in the last decade.

“There are diseases cattle get where in the past we might have said, ‘Well, let’s just give an antibiotic, just in case,’” Woolums says. “That’s the attitude we’ve got to get away from.”

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) provides one complex case study, she says. There are four main bacteria that cause BRD, and 11 antimicrobials on the market are labeled to treat the most common one: Mannheimia haemolytica.

That’s where much of the research rests.

Studies from 1994, 2004 and 2011 showed an increase from virtually no resistance. Then work from Kansas State University’s diagnostic lab caught the attention of the animal science community.

Nearly 400 samples across a three-year period, from 266 unique locations, gave insight into possible trends.

In 2009, only 5% of the bacteria were resistant to five or more antimicrobials; by 2011 that jumped to 35%.

Treatment history of the animals was unknown, “but these data still worried a lot of people,” Woolums says.

That inspired studies in live cattle.

At the University of Georgia, 169 high-risk stocker cattle were measured at arrival, given metaphylaxis—or preventative antibiotic treatment—and swabbed again two weeks later.

Three-quarters of the cattle came in with bacteria that would respond to any antibiotic they were given. Two weeks later, that 75% number was down to 1%.

“Ninety-seven percent were resistant to the antibiotics we use all the time,” Woolums says. At that point, “they’d only been given one antibiotic.”

Concerning but, she says, “It’s important to note that this was not related to an unusually high rate of morbidity and mortality.”

More research is needed to determine the level that would cause a treatment failure.

Woolums and her colleagues completed an additional study that took those same swabs at four points from day one to day 21. It showed the number of cattle shedding the bacteria went from 10% on the first day to 88%.

“That’s textbook,” Woolums says. “But what we didn’t really expect was that the pattern of multi-drug resistance would completely follow it.”

By day seven, 80% of the bacteria were resistant to multiple drugs, and they were genetically diverse, meaning they didn’t just proliferate from one carrier calf.

This isn’t meant to be a dire warning, Woolums says, but more of a caution sign. More research is needed and best practices need to follow suit.

“The No. 1 goal is efficient use of antibiotics, that we’re really heading off problems before they start,” says Brandi Karisch, Mississippi Extension beef cattle specialist. “Good animal husbandry and hygiene practices, routine health exams and vaccinations.”

To lessen the chances of needing treatment, limit stress, improve nutrition and identify disease earlier, she says. “So, doing a good job of monitoring those cattle.”

Then use antibiotics sparingly—only for the sick or highest-risk cattle—and use them right: follow label instructions, work closely with your veterinarian and observe proper withdrawal times.

“Treat for the recommended time period,” Karisch says. “How many of you know someone who starts feeling better and stops taking the antibiotic?”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has already flagged this as a growing area of concern.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time,” Karisch says, citing the CDC. More than 2.9 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year. “So this is a very serious threat, not just on the livestock side of things, but in human medicine as well.”

There’s a chance every tool your veterinarian has today will work for years, and there’s a chance it won’t work next week.

“We don’t really know yet. The negative impact on morbidity or mortality has not been clearly evident,” Karisch says. “But there’s that ‘yet’ that goes along with that.

“In the meantime, it’s really important that we’re doing a good job taking care of those cows,” she says.

Read part II: The bacteria battle

Don’t wince

Scientific evidence, economic incentive for sustainability

by Abbie Burnett

April 15, 2020

William Shakespeare wrote about every plot line ever told—betrayal, love, mystery, drama, tragedy, comedy—but he didn’t invent them.

Humanity has been telling the same stories for ages. But as each new generation walks the earth, they find new twists on the same basic tales. And we don’t grow tired of them.

Sustainability is an old story to cattle producers all over the world, but they’re finding new ways to talk about it.

Protein upcycling is a recent term that adds science to the narrative.

“The vast majority of what we do is take a resource that is largely un-utilizable by humans and turn it into something that humans can utilize,” Tryon Wickersham, Texas A&M University ruminant nutritionist, said at the 2020 Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio.

“Everybody in the room knows that,” he said, “but the majority of people outside of this room don’t know it—so we need to speak to that.”

Humans need essential amino acids, and a shortage can stunt physical or mental development.

Corn, wheat and soybeans contain amino acids and human edible proteins (HEP), but meat provides more per calorie, Wickersham said.

Protein sources’ capacity to meet nutritional needs are ranked by digestible indispensable amino acid scores (DIASS). Animal proteins tally more than 100 DIASS versus corn at 36.8, so you need much less from animal sources to meet requirements, he said.

But at what cost? Are the resources consumed worth what those animals deliver?

No question, really. Wickersham calculated that a 1,000-head cow herd is fed just 24 pounds (lb.) of HEP during an entire year while producing more than 62,000 lb. of HEP.

“For every pound of HEP we put into the system, we get 2,600 lb. out,” he said. Taking that times beef’s protein quality ratio gets to a net protein contribution of 8,000. “Anything greater than 1 means the industry is not competing with humans for human edible protein.”

While it may take 770 lb. of corn to finish a steer, he put that in perspective.

“If I took that corn and I fed it to children, how many children could I feed?” he asked the audience.

Three. That would meet the toddlers’ amino acid requirement, but it would be difficult to consume that many calories from the grain and would lead to obesity.

Through protein upcycling—feeding that HEP to livestock—beef cattle feed 17 children with much fewer calories.

“We’re contributing to society by converting these low-quality sources of protein that humans can’t utilize into something that tastes amazing and does a great job of meeting their nutritional requirements,” he said.

But there are other measures and “sustainability is a balancing act,” Wickersham said. So his team tracks methane production per unit of HEP, too, demonstrating higher quality diets in feedyards help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Anything we do from a production efficiency standpoint generally improves net protein contribution and the ability of cattle to feed people,” he said.

The underlying themes are timeless, but evolving technology and discoveries mean it’s time to share the story again.

Not only are consumers devouring it, but stakeholders are pressing for it, according to Wayne Morgan, Golden State Foods executive and president of the company’s protein products and sustainability branch.

As a $5 billion supplier to more than 125,000 restaurant chains and retail stores on five continents, Morgan feels the pressure sustainability questions are putting on companies like his and those it serves.

“Consumers say a lot of things and they don’t always respond with their wallets the same way they answer questions, but still, we can’t deny they’re an important part of this beef industry. We need to listen to what they’re saying,” Morgan said.

Investors, on the other hand, are responding with their wallets.

One of the biggest investor groups is BlackRock, controlling $7 trillion of the $80 trillion on earth.

“So when they announced they’re going to avoid investments in companies that present high sustainability-related risks, well, that ought to get your attention,” he said. “Anytime a major player in any business makes a shift, everybody else comes along.”

Morgan gets regular calls on Golden State Foods’ sustainability initiatives.

“How are we going to do better? How are we going to make improvements on greenhouse gas emissions? Save water? Reduce packaging?”

The Golden State Foods plan includes logistics, environmental scorecards, third-party audits, pilot projects and new data tracking technologies through IBM Blockchain.

How does he want the cattle community to answer those questions?

For starters, “don’t wince” every time you hear the word sustainability, Morgan advised.

Shakespeare wasn’t the first storyteller and neither are producers.

“We want you to embrace it,” he said, challenging the audience to change the sustainability narrative and make it their own.

Beef cuts reposition at retail

MARKET UPDATE

The federally inspected cattle harvest last week was dramatically lower by 50K head, with a 626K head total. The vastly different week to week trend was a bit of a recoil after packers had responded to recent retail product clearance with a massive 676K head harvest two weeks ago.

Packing firms are grappling with necessary precautions for their workforces as the need to create distance between employees continues. The packing plant environment, particularly the fabrication floor, is an environment where workers typically stand elbow to elbow on the dissasembly line. The need for healthy distancing is requiring slower production speeds and some adjustments are being made to manage this.

4-8 urner barry

Lest we forget that price is an important piece in rating the speed of production, the pullback in spot market cutout values last week was a clear indicator that volume was sufficient. The bottom line is that retailers largely had their buying needs met and were content to push back on packers to move prices lower. This being the case, a trend toward a smaller weekly harvest volume is likely in the short term. Early this week the daily head counts are proving this to be the case.

Replenishment of beef supplies has been occurring at retail stores although shortages of certain items were still a factor for some last week. A massive shift toward consumers cooking at home continues to create redistribution of demand across the beef carcass.

End users need to adjust their procurement styles to include a different mix of muscle cuts in order to properly value the carcass. Continuing with a normal mix of items suited to retail grocery outlets will leave value on the table with middle meats and thin meats discounted in today’s market.

Ribeye and tenderloin prices, for instance, are showing their weakness with the loss of foodservice demand. Great values can be found on those cuts as well as briskets, which have been a foodservice darling but generally more of a task to prepare at home for uninitiated beef connoisseurs. Thin meats such as skirts and flank steaks have found little price traction at retail to this point as well.

The hot items last week remained unchanged along the lines of traditional items sold at retail. The large week-on-week decline in carcass cutout values barely affected several chuck and round muscle cuts. Ground beef demand has been sharp, driving much of this end meat utilization.

Beef cuts reposition as retail becomes focus

One does not need to look far to see the gyrations that COVID-19 has brought to the beef supply chain. Beyond the paramount human health fallout, businesses are undoubtedly impacted from the farm and ranch to the restaurant.

With a nod to those very real challenges, we know that the bulk of domestic beef sales in the near term will be at retail. Since the industry in total needs to move product to get through this trying time, let’s take a look at how trends are redirecting across the carcass.

Chuck and round beef cuts have always been a retail favorite. The utility of roasts and lower price points of many end meats have made them a natural for at-home preparation. Many end meat whole muscle cuts and trim also find their way to the in-store grinder to fulfill America’s propensity toward ground beef consumption.

We’re seeing this come into full focus currently as the nation’s dine-in restaurant activity came virtually to a halt just weeks ago. In March and April 2019 the round primal contributed 17% of total dollar value to the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) carcass cutout. Recent events and the retail scramble to restock the meat case has driven the round primal up from 18.5% in early March to 22% of the CAB cutout value in early April.

Similarly, the contribution of the chuck to the CAB cutout value in March and April 2019 was 26%. The move this spring has been more exaggerated than that of the round with the chuck moving up by a significant 6 percentage points to 32% of the CAB carcass total. These highlights do not displace the importance of middle meat sales, but the fact of today’s market picture is that middle meats have been devalued in favor of end cuts.

Beef demand is top priority for all stakeholders up and down the chain as the country works through the issues at hand. With the heightened focus on retail, it’s topical to point out that CAB has added value to the carcass, where commodity Choice has struggled to maintain a premium above Select. The charts below illustrate price spreads for CAB over Choice and Choice over Select for both the major chuck and round carcass primals.

round primal quality spreads

chuck primal values
It is well known that Choice and higher grade middle meats drive more value into the market during the peak demand times of the year. It’s likely less widely known that Choice and Select end meats generally trade in the same price range, with the exception of a few items. A point of emphasis for the brand is that premiums above commodity Choice are generated beyond the middle meats to the end cuts and even the thin meats like flanks, skirts and briskets.

Current events bring to mind the importance of the often overlooked availability of food. We’re pulling for every supplier, stakeholder and employee in the beef chain to make it through to brighter days. We also hope that consumers, now preparing food at home more regularly than ever before, discover that they can count on the eating characteristics of a high-quality cut of beef.

Production volumes key in near term

Thus far total 2020 U.S. beef production is more than 6% larger than a year ago. This served to keep the fed cattle supply from becoming burdensome, a looming threat through the first quarter. Even with the swift pace of weekly harvested head counts, carcass weights have defied any seasonal expectation for declines. This remains the case today with an estimated 25 lb. year-over-year increase remaining in the recent comprehensive report estimates.

With heavier carcasses we tend to see higher quality grades and this factor rings true with a current national Choice grade at 73%, even with a year ago, and Prime at 10.4%, half a point higher than a year ago. We’re essentially keeping pace with last year’s record high grading for the current period.

Last week’s 50K head harvest reduction pegged production closer to the same volume seen a year ago. The smaller head count trend is spilling over into this week and it looks like it may be here to stay as packers manage through COVID-19 logistics. Carcass weights will continue a seasonal decline into May but will most likely set a record for the heaviest spring low.

CAB certified carcasses

All of this points toward a richer marbling mix and elevated quality grades heading into early summer. CAB carcass certification rates should improve in the year-on-year comparison as the spring carcass weights decline yet remain elevated in relation to history for this season. Pulling steer carcass weights further away from the 900 lb. average will help draw down the portion exceeding the brand’s limits of 1,050 lb. and the 16 sq. inch ribeye ceiling.

The longer view draws attention to February feedlot placements, just 92% of a year ago and an anticipated report for March placements reduced several points more. That trend looks to overlap into April, setting up much smaller finished cattle supplies later in the summer than we’d face with the absence of market turmoil.

Download CAB Insider

DON’T MISS THE LATEST HEADLINES!

A call for backup

Watch

Cattle health via genetics

Watch

Beef up the dinner table

The Porsche of beef

Credit End Meats With CAB Value-Add

by Paul Dykstra | Nov 22, 2023

We focused on fourth-quarter middle meat demand as a beef price driver in the last edition of the Insider. This is certainly the case in the current data as rib and tenderloins are pricing near their annual highs. However, a look at annual price trends across the beef carcass shows increasing contributions to CAB premiums from both ends of the carcass.

Middle Meats and Supply Driving Fourth Quarter Spreads

by Paul Dykstra | Nov 8, 2023

At the retail level, November brings a brief shift in focus, away from beef to turkey and ham, for Thanksgiving meals. Turkeys are the classic “loss leader” item in grocery stores during November as retailers practically give them away to lure a volume of shoppers to spend on the high-margin center of the store goods.

CAB Brand Sales Third Best in 45-Year History

by Paul Dykstra | Oct 25, 2023

In this CAB Insider,shifting market dynamics have already marked trend changes in the 2023 cattle and beef markets. These shifts are most succinctly summarized through two factors, fewer cattle and higher prices, that will further entrench themselves in near term trends.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Restaurants pivot to survive, retailers can’t keep up

MARKET UPDATE

Beef market conditions in the past two weeks have responded with tremendous force in the wake of COVID-19 as U.S. consumer buying at retail escalated to a frenzy. Fear of food shortages is a very real phenomenon for the public, as shoppers come face to face with empty meat cases. When food supplies appear scarce then the momentary reality is that they are scarce. This behavior has driven retail beef clearance to a heightened degree.

March 25 Urner Barry

In the meantime U.S. Federally Inspected (F.I.) beef production continues at record pace with an incomprehensible 6% year-to-date increase over 2019. Just to be clear, this is the largest volume in history.

Back to the market, boxed beef values have skyrocketed beginning mid-March with USDA (0-21 day delivery) and Urner Barry (0-10 day delivery) showing the daily spot market Choice cutout value advancing 25% or 15%, respectively. By comparison, the USDA Choice cutout spiked 12% following the Holcomb plant fire last August.

Last week’s CAB cutout price is listed with an asterisk in today’s table to highlight the fact that this is reported on Thursday whereas Choice and Select are reported through Friday. The abrupt daily price movement last week was such that a one-day difference in reporting creates a discrepancy in the averages that needs to be noted. As such, the CAB cutout value should read a few cents higher on the week.

The other side of this predictable response in boxed beef values is the lack of a similar spike in fed cattle prices. CME Live Cattle futures contracts have been closely aligned with equity markets, following the downward trajectory seen in equity index values since late February. As boxed beef prices moved sideways during the first week of March, followed by the recent spike, the April LC contract moved down from a $120/cwt. price point on February 20^th to the contract low $92/cwt. last Friday, March 20^th.

Plenty of commentary can be written in the margins but cash fed cattle prices have shouldered more than their share of negativity through the futures, reflecting a different picture than the daily beef supply and demand dynamics.

A small light of hope was seen late last week as more than one packer chose to increase the week’s negotiated prices established earlier in the week. By Tuesday this week the market is reflecting the same with $115/cwt. live bids on small volume. Live Cattle contracts were up the limit Monday and Tuesday but mostly negative Wednesday with the only positive being the April contract, up just over $3/cwt. by midday.

Restaurants pivot to survive, retailers scramble to keep up

The biggest shift in U.S. food business today is the sudden and absolute shock to the restaurant (foodservice) sector as establishments are forced to cease dine-in operations. RestaurantBusinessOnline.com features a map showing that all but 8 states have mandated “no dine-in service” policies while 3 of the remaining have county by county policies or capacity limits.

restuarant map

Foodservice companies have cancelled, turned back or reduced orders greatly as the reality of these policies have taken hold. Undoubtedly, many will not survive the financial strain. Still others are pivoting to hang on with take-out meals and reimagined menus to fit shelter-at-home mandates.

On Tuesday this week a coalition of restaurants asked U.S. consumers to participate in “The Great American Takeout” in an effort to gain consumer support and awareness of the challenge that restaurants are now facing.

With so many people facing “stay at home” orders, food delivery has become a focal point for restaurants previously not offering that option. On a restaurant by restaurant basis it’s clear that some will survive on take-out and delivery while other establishments will not.

As so much beef has been displaced from the foodservice sector retailers have run out of beef and other proteins in their meat cases. With weekly beef volume at all-time highs it’s not a matter of enough beef to go around, there’s plenty to feed everyone. The problem that retailers face today is getting enough in the store as consumers stock up not for a week or two, but possibly a month’s worth of beef. The beef industry infrastructure is simply struggling to keep up with the “right now” demand at grocery stores.

Our team here at Certified Angus Beef LLC has been lending support to licensed partners at both retail and foodservice through this changing landscape as best we can. One example of a “win” in the supply chain comes by way of Buckhead Toledo and Sysco Pittsburgh. Normally suppliers to the foodservice industry, these companies stepped out to provide 400 cases of CAB product recently to Giant Eagle grocery stores to fulfill their needs.

The accompanying photo from the brand’s partner, Giant Eagle in Rocky River, Ohio, depicts an empty meat case with CAB product available in “cut to order” format due to exceptional shopper demand.

Similarly, some foodservice distributors have adapted to sell “protein bundles”, in a sense pivoting to selling wholesale cuts directly to consumers. Del Monte Meat Company in California recently partnered with restaurant customers to create variety packs of meat- their Steak and Chop box featured Certified Angus Beef ^®brand NY strips and ground beef. As of a week ago, they had sold 3,000 bundles. Similarly, many restaurants have rebranded themselves into temporary markets, selling not only protein they had on hand, but also dry goods, produce and even, in some cases, cleaning supplies and the ever elusive roll of toilet paper. Many in the foodservice industry have been adape during this trying time in order to stay afloat.

End meats, grinds up big at retail

Stepping away from the bifurcated beef/cattle market for a moment, let’s look at the carcass subprimal price impact as beef supply shifts volume toward retail. We’ll use commodity Choice pricing since price points are reported daily and thus most current.

With almost every item showing price gains in the past several days it’s clear that beef, in total, has seen significant inflation. Yet some might be surprised to learn that the Choice tenderloin has devalued by $1.52/lb. in a matter of 14 days beginning at $9.50/lb. on March 10 to $7.98/lb. this Tuesday. The tendency toward higher value for the tenderloin at fine dining restaurants becomes clear given today’s circumstances. Who would have thought it possible for tenderloins to be 13% cheaper when the Choice cutout is higher by more than 20%? The CAB tenderloin price is down $0.15/lb. in the latest two weeks, but this week’s data will publish tomorrow with that update.

Subprimal cuts that have inflated the most are less surprising. With all of the demand boom at retail we’ve seen end meats gain the most. Some of the main cuts with the largest increases are shoulder clods, chuck rolls, peeled knuckles, inside and outside rounds as well as ground beef. Many of those large-end meat subprimals will see their way to the grinder in the grocer’s meat department to fulfill ground beef demand.

It would seem that the panic buying may subside some as consumers either see meat case supplies restocked or simply gain some confidence in their personal food security. We’re in uncharted territory but suppliers up and down the chain are doing their level best to keep beef moving toward the proper outlets.

Download CAB Insider

DON’T MISS THE LATEST HEADLINES!

BQA creates confidence

Watch

Building the best

Watch

Rising to the occasion

Blog: This too shall pass

Credit End Meats With CAB Value-Add

by Paul Dykstra | Nov 22, 2023

Middle Meats and Supply Driving Fourth Quarter Spreads

by Paul Dykstra | Nov 8, 2023

CAB Brand Sales Third Best in 45-Year History

by Paul Dykstra | Oct 25, 2023

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Mostly there

by Morgan Marley

March 6, 2020

Marbling, marbling, marbling.

Don’t we have enough of this “taste fat” in beef cattle today? Isn’t it time to move on?

It’s still a big deal, especially when more than 92% of cattle don’t have enough to qualify for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand.

“So yeah, we’re going to keep beating that drum,” said Clint Walenciak, director of packing for the brand. At the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show in San Antonio, he explained more Prime grading carcasses would mean more premiums for cattlemen.

“A lot of progress has been made,” he said, “but arguably there’s lots of progress yet to be made.”

Just five years ago CAB brand Prime was averaging 3.3% of the brand total, from 3,500 head per week. Today, he’s seeing an average of nearly 9% Prime from more than 10,000 head each week.

An increase of 285%.

“This is something to be pretty proud of, and I think to be very excited about,” he said. “Not just on the supplier or the production side, but also what this ultimately means to end users.”

While the focus has been deliberate, there was a little push from Mother Nature. Ranchers hit by the widespread drought of 2010-12 culled aggressively to keep their herd cores. The rebuilt herds since then bear the highest quality genetics ever.

Breeding decisions at the seedstock and commercial level were influenced by packer grid premiums available through CAB and other branded programs, even when those were paid indirectly. It just made sense to take an interest in postweaning performance and grade when cattle feeders are paying more for the better end. The market signals blared: Targeting high-quality genetics will pay.

“Look at what just a few generations or a few years of significant focus on the quality side of genetics can do,” Walenciak said, referring to annual averages seen at one cow-calf operation. “Going from essentially zero focus and running about 11% Select, over just a few calf crops it grew to an excess of 30% Prime.”

Annual sales growth in USDA Prime boxed beef is similar to the increases in head count, he noted. Packers were used to a steady 16,000 head per week. But over the last five years that accelerated to more than 42,000 per week. CAB brand Prime accounts for nearly a quarter of that.

“Everybody likes to look at historical averages because it helps you set your compass on where you’re going,” Walenciak said. “But we’re in uncharted waters now. We’ve had such a huge increase, it’s a bit difficult for both packer and beef marketer to get recalibrated.”

“This past year, 37 million pounds of Certified Angus Beef brand Prime was put on the market,” he said, noting a strong trend moving upward at more than 30% annually for four years in a row.

This rapid increase in Prime availability opens doors across the beef supply chain, some of which are still being determined, Walenciak said.

Dollars per pound of Prime beef are near their historical lows of 2008-09, which gains the attention of retail, foodservice and consumer buyers.

“And then the other part of the world they live in is, what’s the spread, Prime to Choice or whatever that metric may be,” he said. “The kind of premium you have to pay to offer Prime may be just as important as the actual price.”

No longer is highly marbled beef reserved for white-tablecloth steak houses.

“Think about the briskets used for barbecue,” Walenciak said. “When you go through the majority of restaurants in Texas that are using CAB, odds are they’re using Certified Angus Beef brand Prime for their brisket.”

Prime brings value beyond traditional middle meats like ribeyes and strip loins. There is an increase in performance when upgrading the quality in chuck and round cuts as well, he said. That’s why CAB brand Prime clods from the chuck are the third-highest volume sold.

Historically, Prime sales were steady in foodservice, but the increase in supply lets retail get in the game, especially when it comes to end meats, Walenciak said.

It allows retailers to run front-page ads that can make for huge local variations in demand.

“Stores either need 5-10 loads, or they don’t need a single pound when they place an ad,” he said. Use of that marketing concept has nearly doubled retail Prime sales in the past year.

It’s a new business model where demand for Prime can run wild—but the seasonal nature of cattle production only supports it for certain times of the year. Starting in April or May, quality grades take a dive until recovering in the fall.

Translating that to head counts may clarify the dilemma.

“Right now a good, steady baseline for Certified Angus Beef brand Prime is in that 10,000- to 12,000-head-per-week range,” Walenciak said. “But from April until fall we saw closer to 8,500 head.”

A difference of 1,500 head a week may not sound like much, but it’s the difference between retailers selling Prime or not, because there has to be enough for the advertising-induced demand swings.

“The industry has come a long way in supplying high-quality beef,” Walenciak said. “But the mission isn’t over yet. There’s still a few kinks to figure out in meeting the goal of steady supplies.”

Better every day

Packer addresses challenges and solutions

by Miranda Reiman

February 12, 2020

“Continuous improvement” has become a catch phrase in livestock production. It’s what we have to do to demonstrate to consumers that we’re committed to getting better. It’s how we measure progress.

But it’s not just for cattle producers.

Glen Dolezal, assistant vice president of technology development for Cargill Protein, says the packing company puts the same pressure on themselves.

“You can make progress if you measure it and discuss it and encourage it.”

Cargill has cameras installed throughout their plants for 24/7 monitoring.

“It’s for our animal handling and food safety interventions. We take a systematic approach to both,” he says. They do regular audits—both internal and external—on everything from stunning to electrical prod usage, and they’ve made measurable strides.

“You watch it every day. You watch it every shift. You watch it in every plant,” Dolezal says. Then they benchmark plants to one another. “So it puts the pressure on employees to do the right thing and that’s how you make progress: both measure and manage it.”

North American Meat Institute guidelines suggest packing plants not exceed 25% electrical prod use. Cargill’s goal was 15% or less.

By last summer, they’d driven that usage down to zero in some plants. Air prods use pressurized air and vibrations to help move cattle, and they invest in handler training.

Cargill is a strong supporter of the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) and Beef Quality Assurance Transportation (BQAT) programs.

Their 2018 goal was to have 90% of the beef supply coming from BQA-certified suppliers.

“We met that goal based on the volume we buy,” Dolezal says, noting producers in Texas lead the way. If it were based on number of suppliers, they’d be about half of that. “We have some room to improve…if you do business with Wendy’s, McDonald’s and others, they’re demanding this now. That’s why it’s become even more important to be able to tell the story that you’re following some sound guidelines and trying to do the right thing.”

He asks cattlemen who have already gotten certified to encourage their neighbors.

“It supports the industry and it’s the right thing to do,” he says.

This year, Cargill will audit truck drivers to be sure they’ve taken the BQAT certification training.

“They’ll get a warning and then eventually they won’t be delivering cattle without BQAT certification,” he says.

Some of the packer’s improvements are addressing needs “right now,” such as working with trailer companies to try modifying trailer-ramp designs to eliminate cattle bruising.

Others are in preparation for the future.

“We are installing both low-frequency and high-frequency readers at some of our plants today,” Dolezal says. If there’s a national traceability program, Cargill will be ready for it.

Some challenges seem to be perennial.

“One of the things that causes us packers to lose sleep is lack of labor. We’re having difficulty running all of our plants, particularly on second shift,” Dolezal says.

And others seem to be building.

“We’re encouraged that suppliers are experimenting and coming up with best practices to replace the need for using medically important antibiotics sub-therapeutically,” he says, noting they have significant foodservice customers voicing concerns.

Some feedyard suppliers are making changes, such as pulling Tylan out of the ration 30 days pre-harvest.

“This is one step forward. We need more like that. Does roughage help? Are there vaccines that are going to address it, independent of medically important antibiotics?” Dolezal says. “That would all be positive.”

Regardless of the hurdles that beef business faces, Cargill knows cattlemen will rise to overcome.

“We can’t operate without them,” he says. It starts with good genetic selection at the seedstock level, then conscientious care at the cow-calf and feedyard level. “We all have to work together to ensure we have viability in the beef industry to continue.”

Mindful management

Reimagining liver health in beef cattle

by Miranda Reiman

January 30, 2020

Undetectable diseases are hard to cure.

You can’t look at a pen of feedyard cattle and know which ones have liver abscesses. Even technologies like ultrasound or blood tests don’t uncover it.

“It’s just impossible to detect that in a live animal,” said Scott Laudert, who studied the condition for years in his long-term role as a ruminant nutritionist with Elanco. “It’s a silent disease.”

He presented, “Liver abscesses: New thinking on an old topic,” at the Feeding Quality Forum, in Amarillo, Texas, in 2019. Laudert, now retired, discussed the challenge, management practices and areas of needed research.

“It’s estimated that the annual liver and visceral loss to the packer is in excess of $60 million,” he said. The livers themselves are only worth a few dollars, so the main cost is trimming adjacent tissue and the time and labor that takes.

The Elanco Liver Check Program data from 2014 to 2018 shows that 18% of fed steers experience abscesses. That’s higher on Holsteins, at 49%, with 29% severe.

“Minor abscesses don’t affect the performance,” Laudert said. “The liver is a very resilient organ in the body. Those small abscesses, it can just work right around them, regenerate itself where they might be taking up space and the cattle will perform just normally.”

Of the cattle affected, perhaps a third will fall into the “severe” category, he said. The data say that’s when feed intake typically drops 5%, with daily gains and carcass weight falling by up to 10%.

The animals themselves might not even feel the disease at work in their bodies.

A recent Colorado study showed no difference in eye temperature, hair cortisol levels or mobility scores as cattle with abscesses exited the chute, compared to those without. Additional study is needed, but in this case, the research suggests “liver abscesses are not causing any welfare or wellbeing issues with cattle in the feedlot,” he said.

Yet, it’s a shared concern for both cattlemen and consumers as antibiotics are used to prevent and treat the problem today.

“This is not something we can take lightly,” commented John Stika, president of Certified Angus Beef LLC. “As we are committed to making sure human and livestock health concerns are addressed simultaneously, this is a place we need to look to make improvements as an industry. But it’s not as easy as turning off the switch. If tylosin is not available tomorrow, cattlemen don’t have another option.”

The beef community can’t compromise animal care, so the balance lies in finding new solutions, he said.

How, why and what to do

Grain-finished cattle often experience a buildup of lactic acid and volatile fatty acids (VFAs), lowering the rumen PH. The resulting acidosis keeps the good bacteria from growing while damaging cells in the rumen wall.

“Bacteria will begin to attack the inner portion of the rumen wall and gain access to the liver,” Laudert said. Moreover, the rumen-wall abscesses open the blood stream to those bacteria, which the liver then must filter out.

Two main, virulent bacterial culprits flourish in the lactic-acid-filled environment. “So we know which two bacteria we need to deal with,” he said. “We just need to figure out how to deal with them.”

Since 1973, that primary source of control has come through the antibiotic tylosin, marketed as Tylan.

If it were taken off the market tomorrow, liver abscesses in feedyard cattle would undoubtedly increase, Laudert said.

Tylan is effective, but as antibiotic-resistance concerns and conversations continue, its future is not assured, so research for different solutions is necessary.

“This is one of those problems we thought we’d solved, but in the era of antimicrobial resistance, it’s probably time to re-solve it,” Stika said. “If you’re only relying on tylosin today, I think you’re on borrowed time.”

Today, Elanco is working to keep herd health products available to cattle feeders, but looking to the future, half of its food animal research and development budget is allocated to finding alternatives to shared class antibiotics.

Other options may include everything from new products like “essential oils,” to vaccinations and new feeding management strategies.

“Cattle are generally predisposed to development of abscesses very early in the feeding period,” Laudert said. “If you’re going to control liver abscesses, you need to start day one or just as soon as possible or the train will have left the station and a lot of your efforts will be to no avail.”

That could mean including tylosin in warmup rations, but tapering off and not feeding it the last few weeks before harvest, he said. Bunk management makes a difference, too: limit-feeding and slick-bunk management may contribute to the challenge.

“They need to be managed so they don’t get too hungry, don’t overeat and don’t produce a lot of lactic acid in their rumen,” Laudert said. “Anytime we have cattle that are backed up waiting for the feed truck to come along is another opportunity for acidosis to occur.”

Different classes of cattle and springtime finishing may also factor in.

Cattle bred for higher feed intake and capacity to gain tend to see higher incidences, as do those harvested in March through May.

“I call that the spring feeding frenzy,” he said, when daylight and temperatures increase. “We see this in wild animals. We see it in beef cattle. Pretty much any kind of animals increase their intake during the spring, and I believe that’s causing the abscess differences. So if some sort of control measure can be applied, that would be the time to do it.”

Laudert said there’s work going on at universities and in industry that could unlock solutions to this longstanding challenge.

“If we can come up with an option that will reduce lactic acid production and enhance lactic acid utilization in the rumen, then we can control those bacteria,” he said. “It’s going to take some outside-the-box thinking among feedyard managers and nutritionists and veterinarians.”

Undetectable diseases are hard to cure… but perhaps not impossible.

Time tested

by Miranda Reiman

We’ve dubbed it the “smiling house.”

On my family’s regular route through the Sandhills, there’s a lonely old place, rain and time have left the wood devoid of color. Yet, with its classic, square farmhouse design—and a little imagination—its two upstairs windows make eyes. It sags so much that the porch looks like it’s turned up in a smile.

Every time we pass the “smiling house,” I do the opposite, however. There are no signs that anybody has cared about the place in quite some time, but I can’t help thinking about a time when someone did. “That was somebody’s dream, somebody’s hope,” as the old Tracy Byrd song goes. “They had big plans, they had no doubts.”

We always wonder when we’ll drive past and find it’s disappeared into the sea of grass, either due to Mother Nature or management.

PastureDriveBy — Someday the “smiling house” will be nothing more than a pasture, but for now it still makes me wonder about its history. (Also, I wish I had a picture of that house for this post.)

Of course, it could be they have a bigger, nicer place more suitable for ranch headquarters, or dozens of other explanations, but my mind often settles on the depressing thought that perhaps that operation didn’t survive a ’50s drought or the ’80s Farm Crisis.

A little way down the sparse highway, I see a ranch that probably dates back to the same period, but it’s a starkly different picture. The well-kept house could look much like it did new, perhaps 100 years ago. There’s a bustle of activity around the place, with evidence that the people living there grow everything from tomatoes and cucumbers to kids and cattle.

As I travel past slices of the country with a past I know only in general, I often wonder about their specific history. What could we learn from the places that failed and the ones that flourish?

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to learn those stories.

Earlier this summer, I sat down with two different cattle feeders. One male, one female. One 96, one close to 80. One in Nebraska, one in Colorado. One large scale, one small. There were many differences in their journey, but also many similarities of how one ends up looking back on a career in agriculture with collectively more wins than losses.

Sandhills_Green_small — If you ever have the chance to ride around in a pasture with a seasoned producer… do. You’re bound to learn a lot.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom:

- Work hard, spend wisely. “First, you’re so busy trying to make a living, you haven’t got time to wonder what’s going to happen in the years to come,” one said. They both talked about the physical labor and mental energy it took building their businesses. They still practice frugality. “Keep enough reserves that you know you’re going to weather a storm,” said the other.
- Challenges aren’t something to fear, but rather something to learn from. “Some of those are good because it will humble you. You get to going along pretty good and you get to feeling pretty good about yourself and you get in one of those and you’ll get a little humility back,” said the cattleman.
- Embrace technology. An adding machine and typewriter have given way to the computer, “but that’s progress; and we’re always for progress, really. Not progress for itself. Not progress because the neighbors have it,” she said. “Progress, that it will fit your business and be profitable in your business.
- Remember your buyer. “If you give them what they want, you can rest assured you’re going to have a profit.” Both feeders have watched quality grades increase and consumer demand follow suit. “You’ll be rewarded for your work. It’s easier to go downhill than it is to push something uphill.”

I’ll be smiling at the gems I picked up from these seasoned producers, long after that landmark house falls into a final frown.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

The Resistance Part II: The bacteria battle

Antibiotics have their work cut out for them

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

The Resistance Part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

Combating antibiotic resistance in cattle

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

Don’t wince

Scientific evidence, economic incentive for sustainability

by Abbie Burnett

You may also like

Beef cuts reposition at retail

MARKET UPDATE

Beef cuts reposition as retail becomes focus

Production volumes key in near term

DON’T MISS THE LATEST HEADLINES!

A call for backup

Cattle health via genetics

Beef up the dinner table

The Porsche of beef

Read More CAB Insider

Restaurants pivot to survive, retailers can’t keep up

MARKET UPDATE

Restaurants pivot to survive, retailers scramble to keep up

End meats, grinds up big at retail

DON’T MISS THE LATEST HEADLINES!

BQA creates confidence

Building the best

Rising to the occasion

Blog: This too shall pass

Read More CAB Insider

Mostly there

by Morgan Marley

You may also like

Better every day

Packer addresses challenges and solutions

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

Mindful management

Reimagining liver health in beef cattle

by Miranda Reiman

you may also like

Time tested

by Miranda Reiman

You may also like

You may also like