Beef supply chain traceability could boost value

by Nicole Lane Erceg

Talk about a national beef traceability system in the U.S. might seem like a broken record. It’s been discussed often, but no efficient structure yet encompasses the entire supply chain.

Advances in technology and evolved consumer buying trends might breathe new life into the idea. As more beef sells under branded programs, consumers expect a promise with each purchase, from cooking performance to flavor and guarantees about how the meat was produced. Brands may be forced to verify additional marketing claims to maintain consumer trust.

According to the National Meat Case Audit 2015, nearly all beef at retail sells under a brand name, jumping from 51% branded in 2010 to 97% in 2015. With a sea of brands now vying for attention in the meat case, consumers buy their beef based on brand loyalty and label guarantees.

Mark McCully, vice president of production for the Certified Angus Beef^® brand, says a traceability system could have merit.

“Traceability itself is not a marketing claim,” he says. “However, I do believe it can be used in the future as a framework for identifying marketing claims that add value to beef products.”

The added information traceability could provide is the opportunity for branded beef, as McCully told the National Institute for Animal Agriculture earlier this year.

The 2017 Power of Meat study showed nearly 70% of meat consumers want more information about a company’s social, economic, animal welfare and environmental practices, and they are willing to pay for it.

“We continue to see consumers looking for more assurances about products. As a brand that operates in a premium category, we believe scrutiny of our brand is probably even more rigid,” McCully says. “There’s an expectation, not just about how our product performs, but the social responsibility we have as a brand around the entire supply chain.”

While some labels make claims like sustainably-raised, humanely-raised or locally-sourced, verification and even definitions of these terms depends entirely on the brand’s production chain. Vague assurances without distinct standards lose their value in the consumer’s mind.

A consistent traceability framework could help verify those claims. Combine quality products with verified assurances and the pull-through demand could benefit the entire industry.

“I believe the economics will support traceability,” says McCully. “Certified Angus Beef is an example of how consumer-driven, pull-through demand can support the economics of verification. The key with traceability will be designing a system that fits today’s current pace of business.”

It’s not just domestic consumers who are hungry for information.

As one of the few developed countries that does not have a mandatory beef traceability system, the U.S. is at a disadvantage when it comes to global beef trade. A new framework could open up American beef to markets around the world where it’s currently not available to countries that require traceability for market access.

Many beef brands have already begun using some traceability systems to add marketing value and CAB is no exception. The Path Proven program enables marketing CAB brand with additional production claims, and labels like Georgia Proud, GoTexan and Fresh From Florida are proving the source state.

However, traceability ends at the feedlot, not the ranch of origin.

In this case, information value is only half captured, because a large portion of the beef journey is still unverified. As one system varies from another, it also creates a lack of consistency across the meat case when consumers compare different brands.

A new traceability method could open the flow of knowledge for beef producers, too, McCully says. If information could move forward with the animals, it could flow back to provide a more robust picture of animal and meat quality.

“The progress we could make on the production side through genetic selection based on carcass quality feedback would be remarkable,” he says. “Traceability could help provide accurate data backwards so that we could link genomics to performance traits beyond the ranch gate and help improve our overall beef product.”

As the conversation continues, the question remains: How?

It’s an inquiry left unanswered for today, but McCully sees a future system as a real possibility because of rapid developments in technology.

“Maybe it’s block chain or other technology, but I think we have the capability today to make it work.” he says. “What I do know is that it needs to be mobile and inexpensively fit into today’s speed of business.”

These doctors have a new prescription

A dozen years ago when my husband got his master’s degree in agronomy, he was doing work in precision ag.

Looking for ways to reduce phosphorus runoff from manure application, he applied it at varying depths. Yield monitors, grid soil sampling and GPS guidance helped chart results.

Ever since, I’ve generally tied precision ag squarely to row-crop farming.

But it doesn’t have to be.

I recently wrote an article on precision backgrounding. It was especially fun because I got to talk to my former animal science professor, Dr. Kelly Bruns, now at the University of Nebraska, and to a legend from my alma mater, South Dakota State University, Dr. Robbi Pritchard.

“Today the genetics are better; they’re going to help us a lot. Our growth enhancement tools are better, and we know a lot more about them,” Pritchard says.

Robbi Pritchard, South Dakota State University — Dr. Pritchard addressed this topic at the 2016 Feeding Quality Forum saying, “If you’re a corn farmer in your other life, you’re perfectly comfortable with precision ag. We can go that way in the cattle business and make big strides.”

In general, calving seasons are tighter than they used to be, so there’s not quite the same need to even cattle out.

Growth genetics have become more common. “If [calves] are coming out of 1,600-lb. cows, they probably don’t need any implants. The DNA is there. The implants just fill in for a lack of DNA,” he says.

Marbling has improved at the same time.

“In the old days to get quality grade, they had to be older,” Pritchard says. “It used to be an adage that calf-feds couldn’t grade. That doesn’t exist anymore.”

2017_06_mr_Darr-601-11 — If you want cattle that do well at the feedyard, the 5- to 8-month backgrounding window is when you can change the final outcome in terms of final weight and quality, the animal scientists say.

Do you background your own calves? Have you changed their diet, days in the program or implants to adjust for improvements in genetics? If you buy grass cattle, chances are you are not growing the same type of cattle you did 10 or 20 years ago.

It might be time for a new prescription.

Smaller to moderate-frame cattle need a more aggressive implanting program than the larger frames. It’s also important to consider final marketing method.

“If we choose to use an implant, are we matching the correct level of the implant, such as low, medium or high potency to what their rate of gain is?” Bruns asks. “Going back to all our previous marbling work, if we use too high potency of an implant and don’t match it up with a high enough caloric diet, we could impede marbling.”

Pritchard says wheat and low-quality forage are meant for commodity cattle. If you want a premium carcass, that 5- to 8-month window is critical.

“If I rough them too much during backgrounding, I’m going to give up the marbling. I’ll get a bunch of carcass weight but I won’t get the marbling.”

As a general rule, early weaning is best for large-framed cattle, and creep feeding “fits best just to fill in the nutritional gaps,” he says.

It might be time to evaluate cattle and select a program based on their genetic potential. A little precision might be just what the doctors ordered.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Tools that work

You need to hang a picture on a wall. As you grab a hammer and swing, I bet you never find yourself thinking, “I sure hope this hammer will work.”

You’ve selected the right tool for the job, you know how it functions and you’re confident it will deliver the intended results.

Yet, I hear skeptics all the time. Take EPDs, or the expected progeny differences, calculated by breed associations. “Those are just numbers. They don’t tell you what the animal is going to do in the real world.”

I’ve worked as an ag journalist for more than a decade and every single rancher I interview who has made significant, directional progress gives a big portion of that credit to studying the EPDs. No matter what trait or suite of traits you’re trying to improve, they provide a clear roadmap. EPDs help you determine ways to avoid problems and help you design exactly the kind of herd you want.

They’ve been studied and accuracy improved for decades. In many cases, these calculations have millions of records feeding into their algorithms. With the addition of genomic information, they’re even more precise than ever.

“The EPDs and indexes are not just numbers on a page in a sale catalog; they’re very accurate tools that people can use,” Kenny Stauffer, Top Dollar Angus, told me while I was asking about a recent demonstration project.

The study was designed to prove the worth of the Beef Value ($B) index. (Often called “Dollar beef,” it was one of first tools to combine EPDs for feedyard and carcass traits with economic measures.)

There was a predicted $187.38 per-head difference between the bottom $B group and the top. In real life, fed the same ration at the same yard to the same backfat endpoint, there was a $215.47 spread.

A big part was due to the quality grade differences, where the group with the highest predicted carcass value was 100% Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand and Prime, compared to the lower group that had zero Primes and just 52% CAB.

Simply put, the tools work.

There are other time-honored improvement strategies that would fall into this category of well-researched, widely tested, proven technologies. “For all the labor, hassle and money spent on synchronization, there’s no way AI [artificial insemination] makes sense.”

2016_05_mr_Bobcat Angus-153 — “The herd that AI changed.” That could be a header on a dozen or more stories we tell every year.

Yet, there are examples from South Dakota to Georgia that say otherwise.

There’s the benefit of having access to better genetics, but beyond that, study after study shows early-born calves make more money than the stragglers. The less variation in calves, the more interested the buyers. Research from a few years ago shows in a herd of 50 cows, with all costs figured in, AI adds more than $7,000 over the course of five years. That didn’t even take into consideration the potential value of better carcass merit.

I’m a proponent of checking facts and scrutinizing decisions, but if a proven technology claims to save you time or money, or add to your bottom line, and it actually does? Don’t be too surprised.

Sometimes it is just this simple: the tools work as intended.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Angus, Angus everywhere

Angus confusion. After more than a decade on the job, it feels like old news.

But every time a new chain carries “Angus beef” it comes up again.

When a retail giant like Wal-Mart announces it’s selling Angus beef, and then some news outlets report somebody’s definition of what that means—Angus confusion is back in full force.

Just to clarify, Certified Angus Beef ^® is not available at Wal-Mart.

Angus is Everywhere — Angus is everywhere.

For a couple years, I did a weekly “Mythbuster Monday” segment on this blog. Then it seemed I’d taken on every high-quality beef misconception I could think of, but sometimes it just feels like the right time to dust off one of those posts.

So here it is:

Myth: “Certified Angus Beef? Ya, I’ve seen that at McDonald’s… [or Wal-Mart].”

Fact: You have not seen Certified, Angus and Beef—those three words, together with this logo at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart or Sonic or the local farmer’s market. (And if you did, let us know and we’ll have a talk with them.) That’s the only way you know it’s Certified Angus Beef ^® and not just Angus beef.

Don’t know the difference? Don’t worry, it happens all the time. Here’s the crash course:

To earn the brand, cattle must pass a total of 10 carcass specifications designed to provide predictably delicious beef.

So, if that beef at Wal-Mart isn’t Certified Angus Beef ^® that begs the question: What is it?

There are 146 programs certified by the USDA. Of those only 97 are Angus programs and only 39 are Premium Choice. Packers want to do something with all the cattle USDA has already identified as Angus-type, so when they don’t make the brand there is a wide variety of programs they might fall into.

Only about three in 10 of these A-stamped carcasses end up as Certified Angus Beef ^®, so the other 70% or so will fulfill the needs of companies like Hardees, Arby’s, Burger King and Mickey D’s.

That’s why we’ve coined the tagline, “Not all Angus is equal.”

Are you ready to bring this good news story to the world? Check out our consumer website to load up on more facts. I could use a little help here.

May your bottom line be filled with Black Ink,

Miranda

Prime: Profitable and possible

by Miranda Reiman

Some think a dramatic increase in Prime grading beef spells oversupply. When will packers have enough?

“I can tell you, we haven’t reached that point today,” says Steve Williams, head of procurement for JBS USA. “I don’t see a time in my lifetime when Prime’s not a big premium. I just don’t see it.”

Supply of the uppermost tier of beef has doubled in recent years, with up to 6% of the nation’s fed cattle harvest grading Prime. That has opened new doors, says Mark McCully, vice president of supply for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand.

“In a lot of cases, supply has fueled the demand, which in turn has given producers incentive to produce more,” he says.

For the last decade, the average annual spread between Select and Prime ranged from $25 to $50/cwt., and about $35 for 2016.

“The last five years our percent Prime has doubled, and those spreads have stayed the same…the demand is there,” Williams says, fending off myths that it might be simply a factor of cattle numbers: “Weights are up, beef production hasn’t tailed off.”

Bringing in his colleague in sales helps explain.

“In years past, consistency of supply has been hit or miss,” says Chris Ross, program director for JBS USA. “Whether cost of gain is up or market factors due to weather—it’s been a tough deal to get a consistent supply of Prime. Now, we’re seeing that turn around and it’s an upward trend, which really helps us from the sales side.”

In the last five years, weekly Prime production on a carcass-weight basis rose 8.9 million pounds, from 13.7 million per week in 2012 to 22.6 million in 2016.

“It’s given us a great opportunity to expand our customer base and really supply that demand,” Ross says.

Cattlemen like Jerry Kusser, of Highmore, S.D., are seeing years of focus pay off.

“We wanted to know if we were going in the right direction and which ones made the most money,” the rancher says of carcass data collection that goes back to the 1980s. He credits that, heavy use of artificial insemination and strict genetic selection for cowherd function and end-product merit for stellar grading ability.

Last year, 88% of his 458 steers qualified for CAB and CAB Prime, including 68% of that highest grade. The average hot carcass weight was 925 pounds (lb.).

“Prime cattle were once considered almost outliers that you couldn’t predict,” McCully says. “But the data we have and the progress we’ve made on genetics and understanding marbling deposition today has really proven that’s not true.”

In the Angus breed, there is a clear upward trend in the average expected progeny difference (EPD) for marbling. From 1972 to 2014, that EPD increased from -0.20 to 0.60, or 80% of a quality grade.

“Genetics would be the most important thing, and then environment goes on top. If genetics are the building blocks, the environment would be the next step,” Williams says.

Drought-inspired culling has “amplified” the quality trend, McCully says. “The oldest genetics were eliminated, then replaced with young, current genetics that have far more Angus influence and carcass merit.”

Wider use of DNA testing in both the seedstock and commercial sectors helps speed progress.

“We have a lot of selection tools with our genetics today that weren’t available even five years ago,” says Kansas cattleman Berry Bortz, who feeds calves from his own herd in a home feedyard near Preston, Kan.. “We can make progress today faster than we’ve ever been able to make it before.”

Producers can make that directional change, while also improving cowherd function and performance.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric in the industry that says these cattle aren’t as good maternally,” says Lee Leachman, Fort Collins, Colo., Kusser’s genetic supplier. “We don’t think that’s right. The mistake a lot of people make is that they’ve seen some of the high-marbling cattle that created females that lacked adaptability in their environment, because they were bigger and heavier milking than what people wanted.”

There is such diversity among Angus cattle that high-marbling, lower-input genetics are out there now, he says, and the same can be said for better ribeye and dressing percentage.

“You can find them and use them. Certainly the database and the EPDs and DNA tests now make all that easier,” Leachman says.

To those like Mike Drury, western region president of Newport Meats, that’s good to hear.

“On the East and West Coast, it’s all about product and service differentiation,” says Drury, Irvine, Calif. “Wanting to play at that high level, and then having inconsistency in there, your risk-reward for the operator is very high.”

Colorado State University research shows, on average, just 3% of Prime middle meats are unacceptable to the consumer, compared to 34% for Select-grading cuts.

Cattlemen initiate that consumer-satisfaction chain.

“We are 100% reliant on what they do,” Drury says. “I would just say don’t waiver from the quality, because at the end of the day, that’s all we have. No shortcuts.”

That’s motivation enough for cattlemen like Gerry Shinn of Jackson, Mo., to keep trying to beat their own grading records.

“That’s why the premium is there. There’s a few times when it will narrow down a bit, but day in and day out, it’s always there,” he says. “I’ve just observed that it’s never difficult to sell a Prime.”

This shoe fits

It was a two-mile walk from the Stephan Indian Mission to the open space of Hyde County, S.D., prairie that Jerry Kusser’s great-grandfather called home. The man knew the walk well.

The German immigrant came west with a wife and young children to build shoes for the pupils at the school, but by night he was building up a homestead.

Last month I was riding shotgun with Jerry Kusser, talking cattle and all the progress they’ve made, as we went by that homestead and the old mission.

2017_04_04_mr_Kusser-38 — Jerry Kusser, Highmore, S.D., used to tag along with his grandpa to bull sales. Today he makes the breeding decisions on his family’s 1,000-head cowherd.

Jerry, along with a brother, two cousins and a nephew, raise Angus cattle and crops on the same land, and I couldn’t help but think of what a legacy that first-generation South Dakotan had given his family.

He could have just made shoes and come home at night to rest. Instead, he put in a full day’s work and then decided to work at something that he could pass on.

Today, Jerry and his family could just raise “good” cattle and stop there. After all, the generation before them set them up well.

“His dad was always on the cutting edge, not dragging his feet on anything,” says Jerry’s fiancé, Jody Landgrebe.

They’d switched to Angus and started collecting carcass data as early as the 1980s.

2017_04_04_mr_Kusser-59 — Kusser has his herd on a 100% chelated mineral program, noting that quality is impacted “from conception to consumption.”

“We wanted to know if we were going in the right direction and which ones made the most money,” Jerry explains.

Complacency just isn’t in Jerry’s genes.

Today, they artificially inseminate (AI) nearly three-quarters of the females, because “there’s no faster way to improve your herd.”

Just under a decade ago, with bulls like New Design 1407 influencing his herd, the carcass data showed nearly 100% Choice.

Good cattle, but Jerry wasn’t going to stop there.

“We don’t chase big weaning weights. We don’t chase big yearling weights, because that just makes a big cow,” Kusser says, noting they were trying to reduce cow size. Yet, they still want all the marbling they can get, with a cow who will keep her job. “If you get too much milk, they’re going to work themselves out of a cycle.”

2017_04_04_mr_Kusser-160 — I wasn’t the only one riding along, checking on the cattle. This young cowdog was happy for the chance to get out to the pastures.

Instead, the cattleman has seen winter feed intake decrease (and he knows because he weighs it all), while also improving quality grade….a lot.

In fact, it was mention of his steers going 68% Prime that sent me up to the Highmore, S.D. ranch. Turns out that was on 458 head, that also had 925-lb. hot carcass weights.

Lee Leachman, of Fort Collins, Colo., has carcass tested bulls in Jerry’s herd for a number of years (and also happens to know a good CAB story when he sees one). He says results like Jerry’s are repeatable.

“It comes back to really studying where your EPDs are and then consciously choosing goals that are going to significantly improve it,” he says.

Now that’s something that the Kusser family can get behind. Their drive goes back a long way….to 1884 you might say.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–Watch for Jerry’s story, the third in my 3-part series on Prime, in the July Angus Journal.

Not there yet

We were bringing a little preschool friend out to our house for the afternoon. She was a town kid and about every three miles, she’d ask, “Are we ALMOST there?”

Turns out 12 miles is a really long way when there’s the anticipation of a playdate.

But I get it. I like that sense of accomplishment when I’ve “made it.” I’m a list maker and nothing feels better than putting a line through completed items.

I understand why it’s tempting for cattlemen to ask, “Do we have enough quality? Can we start selecting for something else?”

Not yet, says the data.

Prime Raw-Strip Steaks-03 — See this Prime strip steak? It’s exactly what consumers want more of, and will pay more to get.

Let’s take just take the Prime grade for example. For the last decade, the average annual spread between Select and Prime ranged from $25 to $50/cwt., averaging $35 for 2016—all while cattlemen produced more of it.

During the last half of that period, weekly Prime production on a carcass-weight basis rose 8.9 million pounds, from 13.7 million pounds per week in 2012 to 22.6 million in 2016.

While working on an article about the whole category of Prime, I talked with producers, packers and distributors.

The cattlemen knew they could make more money by aiming for that highest target, while those in the direct business of keeping consumers happy said the same. The more of that beef they had to sell, the better.

“I don’t see a time in my lifetime when Prime’s not a big premium. I just don’t see it,” a packer told me, as his cohort added, “that’s the highest demanded product we see.”

2013_06_04_mr_Vermilion Ranch-66 — You can have it all: Prime carcasses and solid females. The research says so.

When you can select for marbling and not hurt any other traits, as research says we can, why wouldn’t you?

If you’re making your own list, I suggest you set high goals like, “Get 20% Prime.” When you reach that, try to best your personal best.

Just imagine how satisfying it’ll be to cross that off…only to set the bar even higher.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

P.S. The first in this series on Prime recently came out in the May Angus Journal. Check your mailboxes and get the whole scoop!

The herd that calmed my nerves

I woke up nervous.

Let’s be real, I went to sleep nervous and a few hours of rest didn’t eliminate that feeling in my gut.

I was headed to a ranch, there was a lot of snow and I had never photographed cattle in that white stuff before.

But if there’s ever a family to ease your troubles, it’s the Walters.

Ty, Terry, Becky, Katelyn and Trevor Walter raise Angus as the third and fourth generation on the ranch.

I first “met” Terry Walter, Hudson, Colo., a few years back when we chatted about the success he and his family had found using GeneMax on their commercial heifers.

I say “met” because we only spoke over the phone, but to talk with Mr. Terry for even minutes is to learn the man pretty well.

I needed to see the cattle – perhaps just not photograph them.

“The idea is to raise cattle that work,” Terry says. “No-nonsense cows that thrive on native pasture and require little input.”

The Walters will tell you they raise “working cattle that pay the bills.” On top of using handpicked, quality and performance-focused genetics through AI, they provide their commercial and registered herds with all they need to be successful. Then they expect the cattle to do their part.

“When you come up to a cow and see snow on her, well that is a wonderful cow,” Terry says of the grit his Angus show. Like their owner, they deliver on a promise. Never fake, you see what you get.

After years of running DNA tests and ultrasounds, to boot, culling has become quite the task.

College took Trevor (L) and Ty (R) away to study but both Walter sons returned to work full time on the ranch.

“What’s kicking these cows out of here is the DNA test,” his son Ty says. “Initially there was an easy bottom third to cull. Now there’s a bottom eighth because we’ve been doing it year after year.”

For those that make the cut, they get good handlers. Not to mention some pretty spectacular views.

“The thing we sell is our care,” Ty says.

Of the land, the crops, the cattle, “we’re caretakers,” Ty says.

A recent pen of 80 commercial steers reflect that attitude as 61% qualified for the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand, including 6% Prime and the rest USDA Choice.

“Every time we feed cattle, we think of the end goal of aiming for the brand,” Ty says. “What’s better than being able to provide consistency for the consumer?”

Not to mention a guarantee for their registered bull customers who frequent their February sale each year.

“If I can give my customers the genetic potential for that bull to go out and increase the carcass quality in their herds, that’s what I’m after,” Terry says.

No nerves were involved when taking this photo, or any others, for that matter.

More snow shoots. I’m after those now.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

Where the windmills are

On the phone Richard Hamilton told me a visit to his place would, at the least, prove “interesting.”

“We’ve got windmills and sheep and…” — that was all I needed to hear. I was in.

To drive California, to jet in from its famous coasts and out from its hidden inland cities is a visual experience, the changes in landscape a constant surprise.

Then I saw the windmills. And the sheep. And I was captivated.

For generations, Rio Vista, Calif., thrived on agriculture, but this “Gateway to the Delta” was sheep country. Today, it’s a collisional mecca where warm air from the valley blends with cold air from the Coast.

Richard and David Hamilton never set out to stand out. Their years of raising livestock in the wind tunnel that is Rio Vista, Calif., meant there were plenty of chances to make choices. With each decision, they kept an open mind — resulting in one of the more unique ranching setups I’ve seen.

Yet long before I set foot on the hilly soil with windmills, the Hamiltons had built an empire of more than 4,000 ewes. The industry was shrinking, though, and as the flock grew, so did their frustration with its lack of producer incentive to improve.

At the Hamilton place sheep and cattle share pasture, along with four kinds of wind turbines stretching 300 feet to the clouds.

Sheep quality hadn’t waned. In fact, the Hamiltons had enhanced genetics in their flock, but the industry had withered along with all market premiums. Committing to quality meant straying further away from where that industry was headed.

It was time for cattle to come back to the ranch.

“Quality is always going to sell. Don’t ever ruin quality or you will suppress the market,” Richard says. “I tell cattle guys ‘be in the sheep industry for a while and you’ll appreciate what you have.’”

“It was an easy decision,” Richard says of purchasing a group of 4-year-old Angus cows from a rancher to the North. Those original 4-year-olds served as the seedstock for an otherwise closed herd of 435 commercial cows that’s growing.

In cattle, the family saw opportunity: the marriage of two species sharing the same space and a market that rewarded those who produce quality. In Angus, they found the availability of strong genetics, the progressiveness of a breed, the quality of a product and value-based marketing.

“The Angus breed takes advantage of its opportunities,” Richard says. “Having a carrot out there like Certified Angus Beef ^® means there’s great opportunity for us if we can efficiently produce it, and we can.”

To suggest the two species can’t live in unison would be silly, Uncle Dave says.

“People always used to say ‘sheep and cattle aren’t compatible.’ Well, that’s a bunch of hooey.”

“We’ll finish up lambing about the 10th of December, we give them a little break and then we get into heavy calving,” Richard (right) says, pictured with wife Stacy and uncle David Hamilton.

The family took the good they learned from decades in the sheep industry and applied it to the newer species.

“We know from experience with sheep, consumers want the same size lamb chop at every eating experience,” Richard says. “Our cattle may have some diversity in genetics, but they look uniform when they fill a load.”

In 2013, the Hamiltons tested heifers with GeneMax Advantage® to cull the bottom end. It helped validate cuts based on docility, too. With bulls, they run the HD50K test to track and build on successful sires.

“We look at longevity of production, ease of maintenance, ease of disease resistance. The less we have to spend to keep them healthy and productive, the more it helps our bottom line,” Richard says.

“We’ve always been a little progressive,” Richard says, standing below heavily-debated wind turbines he says have kept families in agriculture. “We live by the belief that bigger isn’t always better, and quality is more important than numbers.”

“I’d rather have 100 acres of strawberries on the highest market than 10,000 acres of wheat. I’d rather have 50 quality head than 500 others any day.”

Touché.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

P.S. — If you’d like to read more about the Hamiltons, check out this month’s Angus Journal story, Where the Windmills Are.

You read it here

We’ve covered a lot of ground this year, from California to Florida, from Arizona to Montana. We’ve been “Following the calves” and we’ve checked on “Footsteps worth following.”

We’ve told your stories, and you’ve tagged along for the ride. So, thank you, for reading, for enjoying, for interacting and most importantly, raising the best darn beef on the planet.

As we head toward 2017, take a trip down recent memory lane with snippets from our seven most-read blog posts of the year:

2016_05_mr_Springvale Ranch_Christensen-166 — Shawn and Jen Christensen, Hot Springs, Mont.

7. When dreams grow up. “We are raisers of beef, but you still have to raise cattle that can calve out on the range,” Shawn Christensen says. His bride let me in on a secret: you won’t find Shawn reading the latest best seller. Instead, free time is devoted to the research for perfecting matings. He starts looking at them in the fall, but the cattleman might make a change or two right up until breeding day.

6. Just call Terry Harris. Two sons and eight moves later, followed by Terry’s retirement and open-heart surgery (his first words waking up were “Will I still be allowed to AI my cows, Doc?”), Angus cattle now take up one of the largest chapters of their lives – that is until the grandkids pull down the dirt road.

5. You can think that, but you’d be wrong. 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 Feeding Quality Forum attendees. 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.

2016_03_mr_Bruning Farms-53-3 — Reiss and Heather Bruning, Bruning, Neb.

4. The evolution of a lead, Bruning-style This is what coming back to the farm is supposed to look like. A mom and dad (and grandpa and grandma, too) supporting the next generation. Giving them guidance and advice and the reins to run an enterprise as they see fit.

I have full confidence that even when they’re officially Mr. and Mrs. [they are now!], when the remodeling dust has settled and the novelty of a sale have worn off, Reiss and Heather will still be using their individual strengths, working toward a common goal:

“Consistent quality,” Reiss starts, as Heather finishes, “narrowing the playing field for a uniform, product for essentially everyone.”

Kotubas02-small.jpg EDIT — Matt Kotuba, and his father Steve, Giant Eagle

3. Footsteps worth following: More than just a job

Matt Kotuba can still remember the smell of meat on his father’s hands when he’d come home from work every night.

“It wasn’t a bad smell,” he says, fondly. “I love that smell.”

All grown up now, his father Steve still comes home sporting the familiar aroma — but now Matt does, too. After growing up the son of a meat cutter, Matt now has a store he calls his own.

2. Setting precedent, part 1

“I always liked the cattle, but when you’re starting out and wanting to grow, you have to have a subsidized livelihood. I knew if I was ever going to have anything, I was going to have to work to get it. I wasn’t going to inherit it.”

So he went to law school. And for years he purchased neighbor’s land and later his own cattle. Throughout it all, he worked.

And the most read post of 2016? Well, it had to do with a tiny house and lots of love.

Titus and Erika Jaeger and family, Ingalls, Kan.

1. Tiny house, big dreams

“Both of our parents were farm kids, and that’s something that I always looked for, was a farm girl,” Titus says of Erika as she wrangles the toddler and baby, preparing for a trip out to the pasture.

We have talked in the tiny house’s tinier parlor, hearing and seeing many examples of how the family lives out the mission statement printed on the back of their business cards.

Serving God. Loving and teaching our children. Honoring our heritage. Caring for the land, livestock and wildlife. Contributing to the community.

The last line in that post, sums up what we love about so many of you we get to cover…your respect for the job in front of you:

“When you want high-quality beef, that includes taking great care of your cattle and great care of the land that we’re on,” Erika says.

From the Black Ink team to your part of the world, we wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2017!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

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