Welcome to the table

Investments in cattle, people and the mission to share

Story and photos by

Abbie Burnett

September 25, 2019

You may not notice the beautiful wooden table in Steve and Ginger Olson’s well-lit dining room. That’s because it’s usually just set up to seat four, maybe six. But there’s a story behind the custom-made heritage table, expandable to seat 24.

The Olsons had it built because it’s important that every single person in their family gets a seat at the table. No second table in a different room for their seven grandsons.

And if they could sit everyone at the same table, when guests come to tour the Olson Land & Cattle Angus seedstock ranch near Hereford, Texas, they absolutely would. For close to 30 years now the family has hosted ranch tours for the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand.

At the brand’s request, they’ve also been attending media events and other venues where the public can interact with ranchers. Every time, people find the Olson hospitality, a quiet comfort and gentle service to others wherever they go. They intermingle with chefs and distributors, answering questions about ranching and how cattle are raised, making each person just as welcome as if they were back in Texas gathered around that table.

These are some of the reasons the Olsons received the 2019 CAB Ambassador Award.

More than education

The whole concept of ranch days for CAB is sharing the gate in “gate to plate.” When guests arrive midafternoon, they sit on hay bales in the working barn and get an overview of the brand. Then they split into smaller groups and start rotations out to the pastures and back, learning the nitty gritty from every family member they encounter.

Steve, a member of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, will cite four points of sustainability at his station: animal welfare, protecting the land, caring for the people, and profitability to keep it all going.

“I think the cattle industry is sustainable in every aspect, but I also believe that we, as cattle producers, have that responsibility to share with others,” he says. “It’s other people being inquisitive about where their food comes from—and certainly there’s a need for that—and if we don’t fulfil that need, then they will find answers from other people that maybe don’t know all of the truth about cattle production.”

Steve does not shy away from consumer concerns related to antibiotics. First, he likes to hold up a 100-cc bottle of an Draxxin and tell them it’s $450 just for the one bottle.

“That statement alone will get some wide eyes across the room,” he says. It soon becomes clear that ranchers don’t use antibiotics without good reason but only to help cattle recover from illness. Better yet, he tells them how they keep most cattle from experiencing illness.

“We regularly vaccinate all of our calves and cows,” he tells guests. “The veterinarian has helped us with a protocol to prevent cattle sickness and disease. It seems like we’re always doing something down those lines to ensure their health.”

Son-in-law Scott Pohlman will walk the chefs through cattle handling, husbandry and what they eat while daughter-in-law Kristi might demonstrate artificial insemination and embryo transfers. When they gather back together, the Olsons’ grandsons will have their show heifers set up, a demonstration to the chefs about the next generation of ranchers.

Through each phase, the Olson family has a way of bringing complicated concepts to common understanding.

For example, Scott relates calf weaning to sending your kids to their first day of kindergarten. It’s hard at first, there might even be some crying, but at the end of the day everyone’s happy. Guests invariably go, “Oh, okay. I get it now.”

And through all the conversations on care, health and challenges of raising Angus cattle, Ginger and daughters are there to provide the “Southern Hospitality” worthy of capital letters. Every last detail is covered. Everything from prepping the food and setting flowers on the table helps welcome their guests with open arms and big smiles.

Scott has also contributed to gatherings as cowboy chef, cooking up a mean ribeye on his homemade smoker for up to 300 people. Served on old-fashioned white enamel plates, tin cups for tea and coffee, bandanas for napkins and Mason jars for wine, guests line up to wait for their ribeye while asking about cooking secrets.

People of faith, the Olsons pause while Steve says a prayer before dinner, and then guests are reminded to “keep their forks” for dessert. The grandsons begin waiting on tables, filling drinks, picking up plates and engaging in conversation about what it’s like to grow up on a ranch. The Olson family will spread themselves out across tables, answering questions and creating personal relationships with each interaction.

“It’s just like being at your grandparents’ for Sunday dinner,” says Danielle Matter, CAB senior education and events manager. “It’s always so cool to me that they could make this big group of 50, 60 people feel like we’re sitting down at their kitchen table.”

While the purpose of the visit is to educate chefs about the beef community, Matter says it’s not about learning facts and figures.

“What they’re going to take home,” she says, “is a little bit more of that come-to-the-table feeling of open arms and the understanding that Steve and Ginger are doing everything right because that’s just how they’re going to be.”

Going beyond the call

What makes the Olsons stand out as ambassadors, says Deanna Walenciak, CAB director of marketing education, is their absolute willingness to help out whenever they can – extending way past ranch days.

She called them about doing a photo shoot on their ranch in July one summer. It was over 100 degrees that afternoon, but they got the cattle out and worked them in the cooler morning hours.

“They knew it would help us be able to tell the story,” Walenciak recounts. “I don’t think on a hundred-degree day they would’ve been working cattle, but they found a time to make it happen and were so kind in the process saying, ‘Oh, no, no, we’ll do this, we’ll do this!’ and I think that’s really cool.”

At the brand’s 30^th anniversary party back in 2008 at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, the request went out to CAB board members to interact with chefs and distributors. Steve and Ginger got a call to join but needed to be on a plane the next morning.

“Absolutely,” they said to Walenciak. “If that’s what you would like us to do, we will be there for you.”

At the event, she watched the Olsons connect with anyone and everyone, carrying on conversations and making them feel welcome. They brought a little bit of Texas right into New York City, that spirit of welcoming everyone to their dinner table.

Over and over, Walenciak says it’s the same humble, willing attitude when the brand or Angus breed needs them. “Their heart is always about giving.”

Steve was elected to the American Angus Association Board in 2006, followed by time on the CAB Board in 2007 and two years as Chairman. In 2015, he was elected Association president.

All three of the Olson children were on the National Junior Angus Association (NJAA) Board, and both daughters wore red jackets as Miss American Angus.

While in college, eldest daughter Moriah and her husband Scott both worked as CAB interns.

And as they raise the grandsons to have the same ownership in the brand and what they do, it’s truly become a family affair of ambassadorship.

The God-given path

Whenever they travel, they look up friends from past visits to the ranch, cherishing another opportunity to share a story and a meal.

The Olsons find open arms, readily available tables and the fun of catching up. It’s those valued relationships made around the dinner table that their friends remember and cherish, too.

The couple say being part of CAB and telling their story is not for the payback opportunities, but all for the pleasure of sharing their lives.

“It’s always important to tell our story to others because they need to know how much the cattle mean to us,” Ginger says. “They need to know it is our life, that we give it our best. We want to share our story to bring others to have a part of it and be part of our story.”

“We’ve been blessed as a family,” Steve says. “We’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of production agriculture, to live on the land, to raise our family and take care of God’s resources. And to interact with other people and share with them what it’s like to be here and to do this—Ginger and I feel blessed every day that God has given us this path.”

For new friends, shared stories and great beef, all a visitor to Olson Land & Cattle need do is pull up a chair.

Originally published in the Angus Journal

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Built on a breed

A century of focus earns Spring Cove Ranch the CAB Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award

Story and photos by

Nicole Lane Erceg

September 25, 2019

Art and Stacy Butler shouldn’t be here. Hearty pioneers on the Oregon Trail traveled across the land they ranch on today and passed it by, sure there were better spots to build a life.

A wide-open slice of the West near Bliss, Idaho, Spring Cove Ranch is still rugged. Yet carved out of the sagebrush and hills is an oasis the Butler family built with registered Angus seedstock.

“When my grandpa homesteaded this place, there wasn’t a tree on it,” Art remarks from the shade of a Linden tree in the front yard.

When the first Angus sire arrived in 1919, no one could have predicted his legacy. Old, handwritten herd books trace the first pedigrees of the Butler herd to a time when cattle were traded for a saddle and a good meal. The yellowed pages reveal registration numbers with only 4 digits, traced as forebears of cattle grazing these high desert ranges today.

Self-proclaimed “number nerds” Art and Stacy inherited the craving for information documentation on their herd of 800 cows.

“Data collection, and specifically EPDs (expected progeny differences), are tools we’ve been able to use through the years to create the proper combination of marbling and function and form and maternal and feed—and whatever else it takes to make the Angus cow that’s going to survive on the western range and also produce a Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) steak,” Stacy says.

All their bulls are genomically tested with Angus GS and more than 60% of those in their annual sale earn the CAB Targeting the Brand™ logo, signifying breed average or above for the Marbling EPD and $Grid index. Each bull gets its own Spring Cove Ranch calving ease score that consolidates genetics, genomics and cow-family data to provide extra analysis on potential herd sires.

Each data point is an ingredient in a family recipe, combining numbers and science to create cattle that fit their ideals. The Butlers’ main goal is an Angus bull whose progeny thrive on the western range and have the carcass traits and growth characteristics to generate premiums for commercial cattlemen.

It’s a balanced goal equally focused on breeding cows that “keep us all in business” with strong maternal values.

The philosophy isn’t new. It serves a vision the Butlers held long before the market directly justified it, and it earned them the 2019 CAB Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award.

Before marbling was cool

Art was just 16 when he first benefited from breeding an animal with superior end-product merit. One of only two Angus animals at the county fair (the other was his sister’s), his 4-H steer graded Prime and yield grade 2. That first carcass data came with a lesson: His steer was selected as a special gift by the local packing house to send to the president of Allen Meat Packing Company in San Francisco.

“Someday we’ll get paid for the carcass traits in these cattle,” Art’s father told him.

A student at the University of Idaho when USDA lowered the grading standards in the mid-1970s, Art saw the industry moving toward a leaner product but kept steering his herd the other way.

“We were breeding to high marbling bulls, mainly because we wanted to improve the quality of the cattle and add value on the rail,” Art says. “When we started to market a few cattle on the rail in the ’90s, that’s what paid the bills, was marbling.”

It’s hard-earned knowledge he works to pass on to his bull customers today.

The cow and the carcass

“Marbling is something that you can add to these cattle no matter what size and what your goals are as far as productivity,” Art says. “I mean it’s a free addition basically. So, if you want to keep the cows moderate, you can still add the marbling and have something that’s satisfactory in the end, and targets the brand.”

Form, function and fertility come first. Art doesn’t preach single trait selection, but says those necessary traits are already built into the Angus cow. “It’s what has made her ‘King’” Art says.

The added value is that she can “go up in the rocks and cover the country” as well as produce an end product that is highly valuable — something vital to those who run cattle on public lands and in the vast, rugged West.

Some say great cows and exceptional terminal traits don’t happen in one package. Art and Stacy prove they do.

“The Angus cow has provided a living for the Butler family for 100 years,” says Stacy. “She has done so through droughts and storms and floods and diseases and generational differences and different genetics. Her resilience is paramount and it is legendary.”

They lay the accolades of what they’ve built at her feet, but credit data and targeted selection as vital tools along the way.

“Art and I absolutely embraced anything that had a mathematical calculation that we could use to improve the traits that we targeted,” says Stacy.

The couple encourage connections between each link of the beef production chain, working to help feeders understand the value of their customer cattle and their customers understand the needs of the beef consumer.

“That’s at the forefront of our minds since we started having our bull sale and selling as many Angus bulls as we do,” Stacy says. “Helping our customers market their cattle, and more than that, trying to help them get a premium for the genetics that they’ve invested in. The premium paid by the consumer at the end needs to trickle down to the cow-calf man that is actually producing that calf.”

Commercial producer David Rutan, of Morgan Ranches in South Mountain, Idaho, benefits firsthand.

“We’ve gotten huge premiums out of these program cattle,” says Rutan. “People are trying to buy them every year, and even in a down market they outperform their counterparts. I feel like Art has helped me a ton in marketing these cattle.”

A Spring Cove customer of more than 25 years, he markets his commercial cattle through video sales. Though he doesn’t retain ownership, he follows cattle performance, tracking health in the feedyard and how they measure up at the grading stand. His cattle routinely earn 75% CAB or higher. A recent group of 250 steers graded 65% Prime, 35% Choice.

“Art and Stacy have taught me more about Angus cattle than anyone on the planet,” says Rutan. “Our relationship has grown into more than the selection of premium genetics, but has impacted the way we sell and market our feeder cattle.”

A Western Video sales representative, Art guides his customers through capturing premiums without retained ownership. Reputation feeder cattle bring added value and Spring Cove Ranch genetics help carry a reputation for paychecks from the packing plant.

“Cattle with credentials” like carcass genetics, source and process verification or Natural and other certification can help Western commercial cattlemen capture another bid and dollar, Art says. Historically, his program cattle bring as much as $67 per cwt. over the average black calf.

The dollars add up, for one customer all the way to $169,000 for a truckload headed east.

Future functionality

“I think a lot of people are thinking that maybe we’re going to saturate this market with high-quality cattle, but I think the demand is only growing and worldwide,” Art says. “A small part of this world today eats the premium product like we do and the others are now finding how tasty it is. They’re going to want more of it.”

The Butlers will be here with a ready supply of carefully selected Angus seedstock, continuing the work of converting forage from non-tillable lands into valuable protein.

A century after the first Butlers partnered with this land, it’s become a place few would dispute as a perfect home for ranching. The cattle are better and the land looks refreshed and invigorated compared to the black and white photos of times past. The next generation of Butler cowboys are learning the ropes as so many times before.

Art and Stacy look to the future with excitement, certain the next generation has good things coming.

“I am proud of the enduring faith in a breed of cattle and the enduring commitment to labor, to hard labor, to building fences and moving cattle; and the commitment to agriculture and to taking care of the land,” Stacy says.

Their family, philosophy and cattle have endured at Spring Cove Ranch, built on a vision of what is possible when the range and its perfect caretakers find exactly where they’re supposed to be.

Originally published in the Angus Journal

Where they're going, where they've been

Focus, commitment and work pay off for Belvin Angus

Sometimes there is no formal succession plan. There are no conversations about what might come to be.

Sometimes there are just little clues as to what the future might hold.

When Gavin and Mabel Hamilton’s children grew up and left their ranch near Innisfail, Alberta, the couple were on their own for daily chores. Still, Colton would jump on a plane from Vancouver to Calgary and then drive north another hour just to help with processing calves or clipping bulls.

During busy seasons, their firstborn was home more weekends than he was in the city where he worked in finance but spent nights wondering what was going on at the ranch. Would he come back for more than weekends?

“I don’t think we ever really talked about it because I never wanted to make them feel like they had to,” Mabel says.

Colton and younger sister Quinn grew up in the cattle business, first showing alongside their parents and later blazing their own path as members of the Canadian Junior Angus Association. Then each went off to college and started their careers and volunteered time back in the industry.

There were no formal discussions or lawyer meetings.

“It just sort of happened,” Colton says.

But sometimes the heart knows before anyone even speaks it out loud.

After it sort of happened, Colton’s boss told Gavin, “I looked in his fridge once and I knew that kid wasn’t sticking around.”

Quinn admits her homemaking wasn’t much better.

She enjoyed her work as an ag lender but says, “I never put down roots anywhere. You just get sick of being in an office every day.”

Eight years after Colton made the move, Quinn—then engaged and now married to Brendyn Elliot—returned.

After their August 2018 wedding, they likely became some of the very few who can claim Whitman, Neb., as their honeymoon destination.

“We wanted to go to Connealy’s and we’d never been,” Quinn says. A well-known bull sale, in a remote corner of the Beef State seems fitting for a couple whose work and recreation both often revolve around the ranch.

“Colton and Quinn have always gotten along so well, and now Brendyn fits right in,” Mabel says. “Those three are really lucky to have each other.”

They make up the next generation at Belvin Angus. That’s the beginning of Chapter 2, the one being written right now.

Shorthorn + Hereford = Angus legacy

The first part of the ranch’s tale starts four decades earlier when the son of a Shorthorn breeder asked for the phone number of a Hereford girl who had caught his eye. Her brothers wouldn’t give it out.

So Gavin tried again.

With a keen ear for numbers and a solid memory, he caught what she flippantly rattled off, which led to the phone call that led to a first date. Their courtship was one of cattle shows—Gavin was quite the fitter—and rodeos—Mabel running barrels. They were married in 1975. Mabel earned her degree in elementary education and began teaching while Gavin worked his uncle’s ranch.

After a few years, it was time to get their own place and stock it with their own cattle. Angus cattle.

“We had to find some common ground,” Gavin laughs. “But I’d always liked Angus.”

The maternal function, the docility and the end-product merit all in one package—it was an easy choice, Gavin says. He’s not too proud to admit they dabbled in exotics in the early years, noting “they were hit and miss,” but they always came back to Angus.

“They were the best,” he says simply.

In 1978, the couple bought their original farmyard and a quarter-section of ground. Next came three Angus heifers they registered in 1979. This year they’re celebrating 40 years with the breed.

The last syllables of their first names blended together gave them a business name. Connections from their show ring experience gave them customers.

“It was a good way to get our name out there,” Gavin says.

In the converted dairy barn that served as their sale barn, there’s a wall that still shows evidence of success on the shavings. Seventeen Calgary Bull Sale banners either read “Grand Champion” or “Reserve,” more than any other ranch in the history of the program.

They’ve been members of the American Angus Association for decades, partnering with breeders in the U.S. who run in similar conditions.

“We’ve sold a lot of bulls, sight unseen,” he says.

One long-time buyer called 28 years ago, and Gavin asked when he’d like to look at the bulls.

The answer? “You just sell me three bulls that will make me want to buy more,” Gavin retells. The next year that same cattleman bought 10. “He’s never bought bulls anywhere else since.”

Uniformity has always been important. “If he was going to like one, he was going to like them all,” Gavin says.

Today, what makes a bull stand out is his ability to move the program forward while still fitting in.

“Feet and structure is No. 1, but we’re always trying to improve carcass quality without sacrificing anything we need,” Brendyn says.

So they research new genetics that complement the herd that traces back to some of their original lines of Lady Blossoms and Boardwalks.

They recently purchased a bull in the top 1% for marbling as well as beef value ($B) in the American Angus Association registry, noting their genetics also have to work in “big country.”

“We want the commercial guys to be profitable,” Colton says.

Growing into the market

Their customer base has changed. In the late 1970s, Angus was not the breed of choice and registrations were on a downtrend.

“We were discounted at market. It was not a popular breed,” Mabel says, noting she was on the board when that reversed. “It was a celebration when Angus was on top.”

For many of the early years, they consigned bulls to sales in the western U.S. and to the Calgary Bull Sale, drawing more than national attention.

Today, they hold a production sale on the ranch each March. They’ll get customers who plan to sell at weaning, but about half background them for some period or retain ownership through feeding.

“Our customers are keen on the value-added, so that means they’d like to have a branded-type product they can get a premium for,” Mabel says.

There isn’t a big market locally, so they draw producers from hundreds of miles away. If they’ve created cattle that work both in their fertile farming area and in the wide-open ranges of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, they’ve succeeded.

“There’s some tough range so they’ve got to be efficient, and structure and calving ease is huge, but growth is obviously still important as well,” Colton says. Calving pastures are measured in sections and the summer pastures stretch up to half a million acres.

“When you go to a branding and you see hundreds of calves out of your bulls and when you see the people that use your genetics do well, that’s what you want,” Brendyn says.

Longtime bull buyer Larry Sears, Stavely, Alberta, relies on the Hamiltons’ judgement to help him reach his end-product goals.

“They do the research and they’re aggressive” in moving ahead, says the rancher who has retained ownership for the past two decades. Profitability can be “hit or miss” without carcass premiums, Sears notes. “But selling on the grid has been lucrative enough to entice us to feeding more often.”

Recent carcass data reports show 90.9% AAA and above.

“We’re all in this together, so the consumer, at the end of the day, gets a product they’re happy with,” Mabel says.

beyond being in the black

That all-in approach is not only how the Hamiltons look at the wider beef industry, but also how they relate to their family business. Each one knows their strengths and each one contributes.

There are still no formal meetings, but they often gather at the main house for Mabel’s home cooking at lunch. They discuss the tasks of the day and who is going where when.

Maybe every so often they get a chance to reflect on how far they’ve come since the beginning.

“The bank told me I’d never be able to pay for it,” Gavin says with smile.

He now runs cattle on a two-thousand-acre land base, and also plants canola, barley and wheat. The business supports three families, and includes the farm his grandfather homesteaded in 1892.

But the new sale barn and the house that sits next door, the cattle that gain national and international attention…they didn’t just happen. They represent a lot of hard work.

“We waited a long time for this,” Gavin says as Colton quickly adds, “Now we’ve got to work to keep moving forward.”

Story by Miranda Reiman, photos by Abbie Burnett.

Belvin Angus wins CAB Commitment to Excellence Award

The Hamilton family has a business card and a standing invitation from a steakhouse owner in Vancouver. They’ve gotten a personal tour of a sushi restaurant in Calgary. On their ranch near Innisfail, Alberta, they’ve shared meals with a fishmonger turned meat salesman and some of the most renowned chefs in the country.

There are perhaps no better Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand ambassadors in Canada than Gavin and Mabel Hamilton, says CAB president John Stika.

“They’ve always been willing to open up their gates and share their hospitality with people from all over the beef production chain,” Stika says. “Those firsthand experiences are critical to giving these guys the knowledge they need to sell more beef.”

For their involvement with the brand, along with their focus on producing quality cattle that work for their commercial customers, Belvin Angus recently received the CAB Canadian Commitment to Excellence award.

“We like to host the people CAB brings because it’s a way of telling our story,” Mabel Hamilton says, “and with any luck, getting rid of some of the misconceptions that are out there about what we do.”

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Raising the right kind right

CAB award-winning 2 Bar Angus is about cattle, kids and quality

It was the perfect sale day, full of energy and buyer enthusiasm. The bulls were selling hot.

The only problem Steve Knoll could see? His genetics weren’t up for bid.

“People wanted those cattle,” says the Hereford, Texas, rancher.

He went to the auction to buy a few Angus bulls to put on his registered Salers herd.

“I was blown away with what the bulls were bringing. The bulls I thought I would just go and buy and bring home, I couldn’t afford,” Knoll says. Instead, his trailer carried two registered cow-calf pairs. One nursing a heifer, the other, a bull.

With one flush, he’d start his embryo transfer program. Today, it’s still about 75% embryo transfer—so “your good cows have litters”—and about 25% artificial insemination, “so you can use the best bulls in the breed, instead of the best bulls you can afford.”

When we switched to Angus, I wanted get my numbers up as quick as possible so my Salers became my recips,” Knolls says. “My dad always told me to just make do with what you’ve got. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing ever since.”

The “ever since” is more than two decades and “making do” means growing into a program that is sought after by large commercial ranchers who want high performance genetics that work back at the ranch, too.

They sold 117 bulls in this year’s auction, many to repeat buyers who depend on that functionality.

“The majority of them aren’t out here playing and trying to spend the family fortune. Most of them have been here generation after generation, and they make a living off of these cattle,” Knoll says. “Fertility is first and foremost. They’ve got to have a calf every year.

“Then if you can add these other bells and whistles, like a little more growth and maybe a little more marbling—that’s more money they can put in their pocket, pay their bills to keep their place,” he says.

Steve and Laura Knoll’s focus on quality earned their 2 Bar Angus business the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand’s 2018 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award.

A look at their sale book shows marbling is more than an afterthought. The 117 bulls in their March catalog had an average marbling expected progeny difference (EPD) of 0.93, compared to a breed average of 0.53.

“Cattle that marble don’t cost any more to have in your herd,” Knoll says.

But he knows they pay, a lesson learned early and often.

Between naps

Born and raised a Texas ranch kid, Knoll took his degree from then-West Texas State University in Canyon to work for Cactus Feeders.

“I was getting to see enough of the information that I knew there was a difference in cattle that would yield and cattle that would grade,” he says. “If you could figure out how to make Yield Grade 1 Primes, you could do very, very well. We’re still chasing that unicorn today.”

That’s information he’d file away until he needed it.

In between the seven years at Cactus and that Angus bull sale, Knoll married wife Laura, moved to Hereford, began running Salers cows on his in-laws’ land and got a job in maintenance at a local feed plant.

“It was pretty much eight hours of work in town and then eight to ten hours of work at home, then get a nap and go back,” Knoll says. That’s why he and his father-in-law made ideal business partners: “I had the sweat equity and he had the finances.”

It wasn’t a blank check arrangement, however. It needed to support itself, worrisome when sometimes more Salers bulls headed to the packing plant than to be herd sires.

“It was a hard way to learn,” he admits.

The couple welcomed firstborn Wesley into the world and Knoll went to full-time ranching all in the same year. They switched to Angus the next breeding season.

“You kiss your income and your insurance good-bye, and my bet was I had to generate stuff to cover that,” Knoll says. “We still had way more to do than we could ever get done.”

Sometimes Laura called her husband to remind him to come home.

Betting it all on Angus

The workload hasn’t lessened, but the workforce has increased.

Knoll’s “early hired hand,” started out sitting on a briefcase to see over the steering wheel. Creeping along in “low four,” a kindergarten-aged Wesley drove the pickup down row after row of square bales as his dad loaded them.

Some kids have battery-operated Power Wheels; for Wesley, there was no need.

At 24, he’s still his dad’s right-hand man.

“Summer, spring break, any major project we need done, we’ll run it largely with family,” Laura says. “You’d be surprised how good they are at it.”

Joe, 18, and twin daughters Anita and Marie, 17, fill syringes, gather cattle and record numbers.

“The Angus herd is 100% of our livelihood,” Knoll says.

A licensed pharmacist, Laura traded her first career in 2005 to become head bookkeeper and a vital member of day-to-day operations.

“I decided I kind of liked this business better,” she says with a laugh that seemed to acknowledge things like sorting mishaps or Mother Nature’s unpredictable indifference.

In the Texas panhandle, they’re never far from a drought. The area averages 18 inches of rainfall annually, but through mid-August this year had only four.

“Right now survival is the name of the game,” Knoll says, casually noting, “It’s a little dry.”

Both optimistic and realistic, his backup plans include relocating cattle or leasing ground to preserve rangeland.

“It’s just part of living here,” Knoll says. “You either adapt or you go away.”

That goes for the bulls they’re breeding, too. They have to be able to take heat, mesquite brush, traveling long distances and a bitter north wind.

When a new rancher comes looking for one or two bulls, Knoll says, “My goal is to sell them one or two pot loads of bulls over the next 20 years. You can’t do that if they’re not happy.”

The 2 Bar “club”

Part of the draw is in the HD50K DNA-tested bulls. Part of it is in the people behind that data.

“I believe whenever they bought that bull from me, they paid a membership to get their cows breed. Whatever’s got to happen for them to get their cows bred, we’re going to try to do,” he says. “If you get their trust, you better do things to make sure you’re not leading them astray.”

Over the years, they’ve taught customers to look beyond the ranch gate.

“A lot of these guys when we first started would come and say, ‘I need a bull,’” Laura says. “Through the years, Steve had done a lot of education on which EPDs pay.”

Deaf Smith County is one of the top cattle feeding counties in the world, so it’s the ideal place to talk about the next person in line…even if many customers sell at weaning.

“We’re trying to raise cattle that people will come knock on your door and want to buy the second set of calves you sell after you prove what you’re raising,” Knoll says. “The numbers on these cattle aren’t any better than the people that stand behind them.”

Jim and Lucy McGowan are neighbors turned friends. The couple runs cattle between Paducah and Childress, and weans calves on farm ground near Hereford.

“I was actually Steve’s first customer,” Jim McGowan says.

An advertisement caught the commercial producer’s attention; then he liked what he saw in the pasture. Nearly two decades later, McGowan continues to add 2 Bar bulls to his battery because they’ve helped him steadily increase weaning weights, carcass quality and docility.

“We select for dollar B ($B), but also height of the bull. I go pretty heavy on EPDs, but I like the bull to be good looking also,” he says.

Having well-rounded sires allows for marketing flexibility. McGowan retains ownership only when the feeder calf market dips really low. Feedback reassures him all options are available. Last year’s calves sold after weaning and the feeder who bought them shared a closeout showing 41% Prime.

“Steve is good to work with. He works hard at doing a good job,” McGowan says.

Tell that to Knoll and he might shrug, or even laugh a little uncomfortably at the idea he’s doing anything more than what he himself might expect of a seedstock producer.

“We haven’t found that perfect cow or that perfect bull,” Laura trails off before Steve finishes, “If you’re not improving, then you’re backing up, because everyone around you is improving.”

Cow lessons seamlessly transfer into life lessons. Knoll often says raising cattle and raising kids go together.

“We’re not a very fancy place, but we believe in hard work,” he says. “I hope the kids take away that when you’re responsible for something, you don’t walk away from it. Good intentions are one thing, but you’ve got to figure out a way to make everything work.”

The goals for the next 10 years aren’t long or complicated.

“I want to get all my kids graduated from high school and college,” he says simply. “My job’s to raise a family, and that’s still my goal. And we’ll do it with cows. We’ll do it with Angus.”

Walking the walk

Saying you support the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand is easy, but producing sires that are likely to increase the supply? That takes some intention.

“When I was going into Angus, I don’t know that I realized how much Certified Angus Beef really drove the price of bulls and calves,” says Steve Knoll, 2 Bar Angus. “Of course now I know it’s huge.”

Brand demand was building at the same time his registered herd was growing. Carcass quality has always been part of his selection criteria.

“But the truth of the matter is, I don’t care how good of bulls you’ve got, if nobody knows what you have they aren’t going to come knocking,” the breeder says. “I wanted to use the logo to stir more people to think about how important marbling is. There’s a premiums to be made there.”

Last fall, CAB started a ‘Targeting the Brand” incentive program to encourage Angus producers to use the special logo to help identify bulls more likely to improve CAB qualifiers in a herd. Cattle must meet minimum requirements for grid value ($G) and marbling before the mark can appear next to specific animals in the catalog.

Out of 117 bulls in their sale, 97% qualified for the Targeting the Brand logo—the highest of any breeder using it.

That tells a story, says Kara Lee, CAB production brand manager. “It may be the first year we’ve been asking them to put a logo in the catalog, but it’s not the first year they’ve been emphasizing quality,” she says.

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Missouri Angus breeder earns CAB honors

Hinkle named 2018 Progressive Partner of the Year

Building Better Beef

There was no big vision, just a passion for Angus cattle. Limited in land, time and resources, Hinkle always knew he’d never be big, but resolved that his few would be some of the best. It wasn’t about making a name or even making a dollar, it was just something he wanted to do.

What most didn’t realize is that under his baseball cap, Hinkle is a modern-day beef maverick.

It began by just selling a few bulls to folks down the road. The pennies earned were reinvested into the business, helping him get better each year, adding more value with each new mating.

His first bull sale was held in a tent. Over the years, the seeds Hinkle planted grew to a flourishing business that markets 300 Angus bulls annually — the now-veteran cattleman develops them all on or next to his original 30 acres.

Today, when visitors ask to be shown the “ranch” and want to see the big cow herd, Hinkle gives a vague gesture of his arm at the pasture across the road and says, “We’re here.”

His blue eyes sparkle as he jokes that he got his start in the beef business because he was “stupid and didn’t know any better.” But each decision he makes is calculated. Hinkle moves with purposeful precision, making the most of the limited resources with which he is still challenged. His bulls are entirely the product of artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET). The massive registered cow herd doesn’t exist.

“It’s hard to find a registered female here over four years of age that’s not a recip,” Hinkle says. “We don’t have a big cow herd because we don’t have anywhere to put them.”

He’s still focused on making the best from what he has in front of him. The cow herd and bulls are developed on about 500 acres of forage and through the help of a few local cooperating herds.

“If we can produce 200 calves a year out of 12 elite cows, we’re putting a very good product out there,” Hinkle says.

He isn’t just producing a good product; he’s focused on breeding the very best. This mindset and years of diligent focus on that goal earned him the 2018 Certified Angus Beef (CAB) Progressive Partner Award.

Flip through the pages of the Hinkle’s Prime Cut Angus (HPCA) sale catalog and you’ll find more than expected progeny differences (EPDs) and genomic profiles. There’s a carcass data record, showing his bull customers’ past feedlot and rail performance. It’s a story of how Hinkle genetics add value to the person next in line.

“It’s important to us, because it’s important to our commercial customers,” he says. “Some years the only way these guys make money is by feeding these cattle and it’s because these cattle feed well.”

For the HPCA crew, the status quo isn’t an acceptable option – for them or their customers.

“Anyone can make a hamburger and I think that’s the mindset we take,” says his son, Trevor. “Hamburger is hamburger. Where people are really going to make the money is Choice and Prime cuts and figuring out how to make those more and consistently better.”

The father-and-son team work in tandem with Hinkle’s son-in-law, Blake Baker. The Angus dream began with the family patriarch but it’s a life the entire family works in today.

And it’s the data that drives them forward.

“Carcass merit and quality is a motivating factor because our customers can get paid more for it,” says Baker. “Average cattle is low, for what a lot of these guys can do. Seeing them get $200 more per head in premiums is something we’re proud of and it helps take some of the risk out of it for them.”

Jeremy Zoglmann is one such customer. The commercial cowman who raises his Angus herd on the other side of town from Hinkle’s sets his sights on calves that qualify 60% or more for CAB, with a goal of 20% Prime. He began retaining ownership in 2013 after a nudge from Hinkle, and his first cutout sheet came back 100% Choice or better. Since then, he’s travelled as part of organized HPCA customer tours to Hy-Plains Feeders at Montezuma, Kan., and built relationships that help him continue to meet his goals. In recent loads fed there, Zoglmann hit his target and earned as much as $280 in premiums per head above what he’d get paid marketing them live.

It’s a story many of Hinkle’s customers could tell.

“Kenny understands the value of his cattle and how to treat people well,” Baker says. “He’s got great genetics, but the reason a lot of people come back has a lot to do with how he treats them, teaches them and stands behind them.”

For Hinkle, those stories and numbers signal victory.

“I know I’ve hit my mark when I see my customers’ kill data,” he says. “I’ve got the genomics, the ultrasound numbers, but nothing shows success like that individual performance data.”

“I think paying attention to carcass traits is the future of the breed and the future of us,” says Trevor Hinkle. “We’re pushing our genetics and I think you have to do that with the best cows and the best bulls.”

Science and the resulting statistics have always been Hinkle’s guide. A student of numbers, he gathers information on everything from a cow’s mothering ability in the first 30-60 days to a bull’s feed-conversion performance and how the progeny of his genetics execute in the feedlot phase.

Although that data eventually goes into the production of bulls, he says it’s a focus on the female that has helped evolve from that small, unproven herd 25 years ago to a top-tier genetic supplier today. Hinkle balances traits for optimum performance and says, since the cow makes up half of the desired outcome, she deserves attention.

He points to a six-year-old cow grazing in his donor pen: “People can argue with me all day, but when you look at the numbers, she’s good,” he says. “Not one bull out of her has thrown a calf that’s gone Select.”

Chasing extremes isn’t his game, and his focus on carcass isn’t offset by a lack of performance.

“We want as much as you can have in an acceptable package, but when it comes to marbling, I don’t see a limit,” he says. “We don’t want as much as we can get in all of them – not every bull can be a 1.8 IMF (intramuscular fat), but I never don’t use a bull because he has too high marbling.”

As for the female, Hinkle doesn’t buy the theory of a hard-doing, high-marbling cow. Cautious but focused, his females fall on the higher end of the $B value index spectrum; most are far above breed average for marbling, but if his replacement females don’t portray strong mothering abilities as first-calf heifers, they don’t make it to the donor pen.

“Anyone can buy strong semen on any bull that’s for sale,” he says. “But to have a high-quality female to match – that’s where it’s at.”

Words like “maternal” and “terminal” aren’t what Hinkle will use to describe his program. It’s a collective mission to produce a calf that comes easy and grows rapidly with the genetic capacity to excel in performance and profitability at every point in the beef supply chain.

“Some people call them carcass cattle, I just call them good cattle,” he says. “Don’t tell me we can’t raise cattle in this breed that do everything and still have marbling.”

As he looks to the horizon, it’s not his own success that weighs on Hinkle’s mind. “At the end of the day, I just hope we are helping people survive in the beef business.”

It doesn’t matter if that’s his own kin, the customer down the road or the consumer eating his beef in a steak house in New York, he’s focused on adding value to each as they take their turn in developing or enjoying the genetic foundation that starts at his place.

“The Certified Angus Beef brand is why we’re here,” he says. Janyce finishes his thought, “We want the best steak on that table and that’s what we hope we can do with CAB.”

For now, that focus is continuing to make some of the best beef even better.

“Can you imagine what would happen to beef demand if every animal we raised on this earth, or even just in the United States went upper two-thirds Choice and Prime?” Hinkle asks. “There would be people gobbling it up.”

To some, it might sound crazy. To a man who built a business with nothing but two hands and a dream, it’s simply another task on his to-do list.

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The growing requirements

by Justin Sexten, Ph.D.

Beef cattle genetic power keeps moving up. Just look at the trend for pre- and post-weaning growth potential across breeds. Look at the continued improvement in quality grade across the industry. Some say that growth increase has come at the detriment of the cow herd, increasing feed and forage requirements beyond what the ranch can maintain. But steer carcass weights peaked at 930 lb. in fall 2015, not maintaining their historic 5-lb. annual increase as predicted. While carcass weights vary seasonally, they have declined annually since 2015 and trend lower in 2018.

No, this isn’t just a review of carcass weights, but the trend change serves as an example of the role management can play in the ability to achieve genetic potential. Carcass weights are on their third year of decline, but genetic potential for carcass weight has continued to increase; the difference is management. Cattle feeders can quickly change carcass weight by choosing to market cattle at lighter weights. Meanwhile, improvements in genetic potential for marbling let them do that while increasing or at least holding quality grade steady.

New research highlights the role management plays in allowing genetic potential to be expressed. Emma Neidermayer and co-workers from Iowa State University evaluated the influence implants and trace mineral recommendations have on finishing performance. While their work focused on the finishing phase, the data pose interesting questions for the entire industry in view of gains in genetic potential.

For those who doubt what growth-promoting implants can do to reduce resources needed to produce beef, Neidermayer’s data showed a 10.5% increase in carcass weight while improving feed efficiency 23%, with no detrimental effect on quality grade. While these results exceed previous reports, the authors suggest that may be attributed to improved genetic potential further enhanced by technologies.

Better genetics and technology led the Iowa State group to evaluate trace mineral level during the finishing period as well. Historically, mineral recommendations were set to prevent animals from displaying deficiency symptoms without regard for improved performance. This study went beyond that, looking at trace mineral levels where calves were not supplemented, or only at required levels, or at consultant-recommended levels (1.5 to 3
times the minimum requirement, depending on the mineral).

Carcass weights were improved 3% with no change in feed efficiency or carcass quality grade by adding trace minerals at levels recommended by industry consultants compared to those fed at merely the required level or unsupplemented. These data suggest trace mineral supplementation may need to be modified to suit the “growing demand” for nutrients by calves with greater genetic potential.

As you visit with your nutritionist this summer, discuss your cow herd’s genetics. When purchasing mineral supplements or developing a creep feed, consider the increased growth potential you have built your herd around and ensure you’re providing adequate nutrients to capture genetic potential.

Deciding whether to creep feed calves is a ranch-level example related to the carcass weight discussion and the Iowa State experiments. Creep feeding is a management tool that can add nutrition to let a calf express its full preweaning genetic potential. Milk and abundant forage may be all that’s needed to meet the calf’s minimumrequirements, but genetic growth potential may be left unmet due to inadequate nutrition.

That growth potential may not be lost, just transferred to the next owner—and similar to the carcass weight decline, the lighter weight calves may be just as profitable. Since genetic potential, nutrient resources and market value differ across operations, you should consider management strategies that optimize all three, rather than seeking to maximize only one.

Tall tales and high standards

I’ve always been a big fan of good stories – tales of great adventure and overcoming adversity. The type of stories with characters who throw out the rulebook and make one of their own.

Minnie Lou and daughter Mary Lou Bradley, along with Mary Lou’s husband James Henderson are those type of people. By creating their own standards of success for doing business, they changed the beef industry for the better.

When I turned down the dirt road that leads to Bradley 3 Ranch, I knew I was in for a good story. I didn’t realize I would hear jaw-dropping sagas including characters like Beyoncé or Bonnie and Clyde. All true, all almost unbelievable, all worthy of repeating, but the most moving stories were about those sitting right in front of me.

When people doubted that the rough Texas panhandle in the middle of a drought was a good place to start an Angus seedstock operation in the 1950’s, Minnie Lou proved them wrong. By being a ‘grass person first,’ shipping any cow that doesn’t produce a calf and breeding Angus genetics that have to work for the cattleman she built a legacy.

When most producers stayed close to the ranch, Minnie Lou spent hours in grocery stores, standing at the meat case and asking consumers questions — seeking to understand what they were truly looking for when shopping for beef. She then took those experiences to the board room where she became the first woman to Chair the American Angus Association board of directors.

“You can do what you want to do, if you want it bad enough,” Minnie Lou says. “You’re going to be challenged, you’re going to work hard and not everything is going to come together like you want it to. But I guarantee, if your heart is there and your head is there and you have integrity, are focused in one direction and if you are honest with yourself and everyone else — there is always a way.”

It’s a mindset she passed on to her daughter.

While others shrugged Natural beef off as a ‘consumer phase’ and said there was no way a small packer could survive, Mary Lou dug in her heels. At 25 years old she built her own packing plant and launched B3R Country Meats. She flew to New York to visit the meat packing district and elbowed her way into the market there. In 2004 it was her plant that became the first packer licensed to produce Certified Angus Beef ® Natural.

Value-added products were a risky line extension for Certified Angus Beef in the 1980s, but James knew they could work. He helped create the first Certified Angus Beef ® corned beef product before he joined B3R in the early ‘90s. Currently, he serves on the CAB board of directors and manages the Bradley cowherd.

A fierce determination to create what the market and consumers demand helped them create history — a history that’s deeply intertwined with our brand. From conception to consumption and everything in between, this family understands what it takes to make great beef.

“I’ve been around cattle my whole life and I always thought I understood it,” Minnie Lou says. “But until you see your own cattle hanging on a rail and see how they perform in a feedlot…it changes your perspective.”

I see in them what I’m sure is the same grit those who launched our brand in 1978 had and the vision that’s kept us going for 40 years. It just wouldn’t be right to have a 40^th Anniversary celebratory campaign without including Bradley 3 Ranch. Their barn will go down in history as #10 on our tour.

The logo on the side of their barn is a mark of quality, but it’s also the beginning of a story. When someone points to the mural and asks “why?” each family member has their own tale to tell of what the symbol means to them and their role in making it mean something valuable to the consumer.

“The main thing I think has helped the Certified Angus Beef ® brand be successful all these years is setting their standards so high and living with them,” Minnie Lou says.

I would argue the same is true about her own success.

It’s said that the greatest legends are those rooted deeply in truth. They inspire us and create stories that span generations because the individuals and their feats are worth repeating. Over the generations, the details get fuzzy, but the core lessons remain. Not to disagree with the esteemed cattlewoman, but I think the real key to this brand’s success is Angus breeders who live stories like these. The kind that I’ll never tire of telling and that 40 years from now will be looked back on as catalysts for moving our industry forward in the quest for better beef.

Until next time,

Nicole

From average to elite

by Miranda Reiman

The cow-calf world knows two distinct groups, often mutually exclusive, says Ryan Noble, of Yuma, Colo.

“On one hand, we have the high-octane, high-input, high-production, high-return operations that are geared to go big,” he says. “Put on the gas. You get what you pay for.”

The opposite of that?

“The cow does all the work, minimum inputs, moderate return, maybe not so stellar performance in the feedlot or on the rail.”

But the fourth-generation cattleman refuses to fit neatly into one of those boxes. During the past four years he’s used genomic technology to make sure the cows that thrive on his resources can also deliver the total package after leaving the ranch.

“We can, in fact, as an industry, run cows that are moderate, efficient, low overhead, low input cattle,” he says. “At the same time you can have the genetic potential to go to the feedyard. Gain the big pounds efficiently and produce a discount-free carcass that will net you real dollars.

“But most important, bring a memorable eating experience to the most important person in the production chain: the consumer,” Noble says.

It took a year like 2014 to inspire a strategy to get there.

“The market was just sky high,” he says. Steer calves were worth upwards of $1,500, so he decided to look at retaining heifers.

“We were signing up for $2,475 of expenses before we sold her first calf. We had never in our lives invested that much money in commercial cows,” Noble says. “I knew right then and there, we needed to find a tool to be sure we were keeping the best ones.”

He turned to the GeneMax Advantage test.

That first year, the rancher culled about 17% of the heifers they’d already visually sorted for possible replacements. In the fourth year of testing, that number was down to 2%.

“Almost every heifer calf we raise now out of these cows has breeding potential,” he says. “Historically, the cheapest commodity we can produce on our ranch is a non-breeding heifer calf. The most profitable commodity we sell from our ranch is bred heifers or bred cows. This is a financial breakthrough for my business.”

Armed with new information, Noble worked with Basin Angus, his seedstock supplier in Montana, to find bulls that built on his herd’s strengths but added carcass weight and carcass quality.

“Lucky for us, marbling is highly heritable,” he says. “It’s easy to fix, but you cannot fix what you don’t measure.”

And you don’t want to measure it for the first time in the packing plant, he says.

“It’s an expensive place to find out that you could possibly be raising low-margin cattle,” Noble says. After a few rounds of genomic tests and making adjustments based on results, he retained ownership of his first set of heifers at Chappell (Neb.) Feedlot this past year. They gained 5.2 pounds (lb.) per day and 60% earned a Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB) brand premium.

“What I’m most proud of is…we had no discounts for Select,” he says.

The leap in quality was more apparent because he worked on it from all angles.

“You can improve with bulls, but it’s a lot faster if you’re working at it on the bull side and the cow side,” Noble says.

The rancher admits he was skeptical of the $28 per head cost at first. Then he ran the math. Noble says if he can reduce cow cost by “a dime a day,” then he’s made that back in 280 days. If he could stack that with an increase in production of 10 cents/day, it would pay for itself in about five months.

“We’ve identified the elite cattle out of this program,” he says.

Noble spoke as part of the Cattlemen’s College, during the Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix in 2018.

Call the cattle ‘Hoover’

We were sitting in her parked truck, next to the old house where her grandfather was raised, cattle to our left and behind us.

“Just call the cattle ‘Hoover’,” Landi Livingston said matter-of-factly.

It was one of the first times I went with an angle.

Writers, we all have our own [arguably odd] methods of gathering material for stories. This one, what I had coined “the Landi McFarland piece,” was different than most of mine. I knew what I wanted to write about, how I would tell you about it well before I set foot on the farm.

Hoover. The naming can get a bit tricky – the reason was why I was there in the first place.

The Hoover herd, an Angus seedstock operation near Ellston, Iowa, is known through that part of the country for traits like disposition and growth. A lesser known fact, perhaps, are the leading ladies who have kept it intact.

“The farm’s come down through the firstborn daughter,” Landi says of the herd her great-grandfather Walt Hoover started in 1928. From there, his daughter Barb, her daughter Joy and her daughter Landi made up the three generations that followed.

“When people say, ‘are you a Hoover,’ it’s technically Hoover, Kiburz, McFarland and now, Livingston.’”

Landi’s daughter Gwen, who, by then had joined us for the morning’s conversation, could be the fourth gal to take over – but her name won’t change for a good, long while. She’s barely one.

“Right now, Hoover Angus is supporting three generations of our family, four if you count Gwen,” Landi says. “We don’t have other businesses, we don’t have off-the-farm jobs. We don’t have investments in other industries. The cattle have to pay the bills.”

More than that, Angus pairs are bred and cared for with customers in mind. Genetics from the Hoover herd help pay their bills, too.

“Even though most of our customers aren’t feeding their calves or selling them on a grid, everything comes down to those cattle feeding someone,” Landi says.

That’s why, in addition to stacking traits at the front end, she places emphasis on carcass traits as well. As an Angus genetic supplier, it’s simply expected that the program include a focus on premium beef targets like the CAB brand.

“Our customers aren’t traditionally getting paid based on marbling,” she says, “but it’s my philosophy that we need to keep raising the bar for them.”

People want quality and she helps ensure it by studying and selecting the right EPDs.

A morning can’t start early enough for the farmer’s daughter. With one little one and another on the way, often before sunrise, she’s out with the cattle – studying them, acknowledging that they live and carry out what she dreams up on paper.

“Hey girl,” she says to her favorite 2-year-old this year, stepping close enough for the heifer to sniff her hand through a glove.

“We’re expecting a lot of good things from this one,” Landi says.

That’s true of the herd. True of the owner.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – To read more about Landi and Hoover Angus, check out the April issue of the Angus Journal.

Targeting the brand for fun and profit

Winter is coming, but we’ll be ready. The longer hours by the fire will come in handy for planning a great 2018 for our purpose-driven herd, too. That includes breeding and culling toward the ideal, and targeting the brand, as the logo above suggests.

I’m proud to associate with the logo because it is “aspirational” for the herd. I will select and manage them to keep getting better and better at hitting the target and profitably supplying the brand.

That almost sounds like a pledge, and I guess it is one I make to myself.

My commercial Angus cows are every bit as important to me as the registered Angus bulls I use, and that is why I stay with the most predictable sires in the world.

When I look for bulls, I dig deep into their expected progeny differences (EPDs) as well as the American Angus Association’s Dollar Value ($V) Index suite. And yet, I find it helpful to see this logo in sale catalogs or online, placed next to bulls that meet Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand Best Practices Manual recommendations.

There are so many bulls, proven and high-accuracy for artificial insemination (AI) or their sons available to buy as herd bull prospects. The large volume on offer is a good thing. There’s something for everyone, and bulls to fill specific needs when fine-tuning a herd. I’ve bought some of those, too, but I don’t want to give up anything in terms of carcass potential.

That’s why it’s helpful for me to see a quick reference, that familiar Targeting the Brand mark to point out which bulls I will consider using or buying.

Within that subset, I can dial down to exactly what I’m looking to buy: the “best” bull for my needs, along with a second or third choice in case I have the chance to buy more than one or if everybody has the same favorites. In the AI catalogs, seeing the mark serves a similar purpose in drawing my attention to sires I will consider, checking all other EPDs and $V numbers of course.

I’m not a registered breeder, but if you are, there are new incentives for you to use the Targeting the Brand logo, like a $250 gift certificate for Black Hide Collection™ merchandise from CAB. But the real motivator should be knowing that you’re giving your commercial customers a guide they may be looking for.

There are only a few months in the year when I’m not thinking about what bull or bulls to use next, but fall and winter are certainly prime time for those decisions here.

May we all find just what we’re looking for on our wish lists as we keep building tomorrow together.

–Steve

P.S. For more information on the Targeting the Brand incentive program, visit http://www.cabpartners.com/marketing/pdf/TtB-Logo-Use-Incentive-Program.pdf

Welcome to the table

Story and photos by

Abbie Burnett

More than education

Going beyond the call

The God-given path

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Story and photos by

Nicole Lane Erceg

Before marbling was cool

The cow and the carcass

Future functionality

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Growing into the market

beyond being in the black

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Between naps

Betting it all on Angus

The 2 Bar “club”

Walking the walk

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Building Better Beef

“I think paying attention to carcass traits is the future of the breed and the future of us,” says Trevor Hinkle. “We’re pushing our genetics and I think you have to do that with the best cows and the best bulls.”

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The growing requirements

by Justin Sexten, Ph.D.

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Tall tales and high standards

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From average to elite

by Miranda Reiman

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Call the cattle ‘Hoover’

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Targeting the brand for fun and profit

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