Past Certified Angus Beef Award Winners
Each year, we recognize cattlemen and women and businesses that go above and beyond to produce high-quality beef. Below are their stories.
2024
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Connealy Angus
Customers from around the world file into the Shamrock Shack beside their sale ring each spring and fall. They’re not just buying into Connealy cattle, but the customer-service guarantee. For getting that and a lot more right, Connealy Angus was recognized with the 2024 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence award.
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: W6 Cattle
The commercial Angus rancher from Collyer, Kansas, came back for daily homework in 1999 after a year at college. For 25 years now, he’s studied all the ways to grow his family’s W6 Cattle cow-calf herd with Angus at the base. Guided by data, Walt worked to improve the herd from zero Primes to averaging 60 percent. Learning what drives premiums prompted improvement.
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: Carpenter Cattle Comany
Not everyone is cut out to be a cattle feeder. It’s an art and a science that comes with a need to overcome risk. Wayne Carpenter fed his first pen of steers in 1980 and lost money. But he stuck with it. Today with their sons’ families, he and wife Leisha run the 15,000-head-capacity Carpenter Cattle Company.
Canadian Commitment to Excellence: Gilchrist Farm
Gilchrist Farm received a prestigious honor that recognizes its exceptional achievements in high-quality Angus genetics and management. Over the years, Brad Gilchrist has transformed their operation by embracing superior Angus genetics. Their commitment to high standards and innovative practices has distinguished them as a model of excellence in the industry.
Sustainability Award: JY Ferry & Son, Inc.
JY Ferry & Son, Inc., exemplifies how sustainability in agriculture can bridge quality beef production, land stewardship, and wildlife management. At JY Ferry & Son, what’s good for the cattle is good for the wetlands—and good for the next generation of this multi-generational family business.
Progressive Partner: Luling Foundation
Setting or rising, the sun casts golden hues over cattle grazing the Luling Foundation’s sprawling fields and invokes the weight of history and hope. Rooted in faith, quality and community, Davis’ legacy continues to flourish, reminding all of the profound impact one person’s vision can have.
Ambassador Award: Pleasant Valley Farm
At Pleasant Valley Farm in Brookville, MD, four generations of the Stabler family have blended tradition and innovation to create a thriving, diversified Angus operation. The Stablers exemplify a commitment to sustainable farming, community engagement and educational outreach. Their significant contributions to the hosting on behalf of the CAB brand highlight their commitment and play a key role in receiving this award.
2023
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Benoit Angus Ranch
Benoit Angus Ranch, a seedstock operation that markets more than 150 bulls annually, is a multi-generation family business with sons Doug and Chad now heavily involved. Focused on serving the commercial cattleman, the Benoits built a reputation for high-quality cattle that perform on the ranch, in the feedyard and on the rail.
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: Magnum Feedyard
Thirty-five thousand cattle may fill these pens, but it’s the Gabel family who set the tone for each day. Steve and Audrey persistently create a people-first culture, echoed by their son Case and daughter Christie, who work alongside them in the yard office
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: Anderson Cattle
Progress is a necessity on the Guide Rock, Nebraska, ranch where Troy Anderson manages a commercial Angus herd, small grower yard, his son, and a testing environment. Troy’s approach includes respect for his livestock, people and land.
Canadian Commitment to Excellence: JPM Farms
The cattle business awards no trophies for participation. Nor does any rancher plan and work each day in hopes of wider recognition for doing things right. Yet caring for their land and livestock with a daily devotion to “excellence in practice” quietly switched a spotlight on JPM Farms. Jean-Paul and Marlene Monvoisin with their adult children, Colton Monvoisin and Josee Monvoisin-Garner, operate the quality-focused seedstock Angus ranch in the rolling hills near Parkbeg, Saskatchewan.
Sustainability Award: Wharton 3C Cattle
Most sane folks don’t choose to go into business with Mother Nature. She’s a fickle and unpredictable partner. So, how did two people with zero agricultural background, no generational land, wealth or genetics carve a profitable partnership with her in Southwest Kansas? By focusing on progress and a desire to leave things better than they found them.
Progressive Partner: Dakota Angus
Pilot partners in CAB’s Ranch to Table program, these North Dakota ranch families took some of the market volatility into their own hands in April 2022. Their leap of faith provides high-quality beef options for their communities and diversifies their income. Now they sell their finished cattle, as well as those of their customers, through Dakota Angus, a direct-to-consumer beef business.
Ambassador Award: Seldom Rest Farms
A dozen members of the Meijer communications team arrived to experience, first hand, how the beef they sell in their stores is raised. They touched and felt and tasted and smelled every aspect of the cattle business from the delicious flavor of Certified Angus Beef ® ribeyes to the slippery sensation of you-know-what on their shoes. Questions of every nature were asked and answered by true cattlemen and champions for CAB, Bruce, Scott and Andrew Foster.
2022
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Larson Angus Ranch
Cow work, genetic improvements and breeding plans are on the table for hours because building the perfect cow takes constant adjustments to the plans they lay out. The Larsons are working on a masterpiece that moves their families and customers closer to “best” every day.
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: Bootheel 7
The Bootheel 7 brand that marks the hips of their herd could stand for the seven state wrestling titles held between three boys in the fourth generation, but that mark far predates their competitive drive. It’s been the brand carried by Wassserburgers looking for the ‘W’ since the homesteading era.
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: Triangle H Feedyard
Problems are approached with thoughtful consideration to every possible outcome. Solutions are executed with care. It’s more than a suggestion on how to treat everything from people to cattle to equipment, it’s simply the Triangle H way. They work to be the best in everything they do – a mindset that he’s passing on to his daughter.
Sustainability Award: Buffalo Creek Ranch
For Manny and Corina Encinias’ family of nine, sustainability runs deep. They are stewards of a legacy, working the land dating back to 1777, when the first generation began herding sheep in the nearby Moriarty community. Today they focus on cows well suited to the harsh New Mexico desert, fostering community strength and creating opportunities for others to follow in their footsteps.
Progressive Partner: Blythe Family Farms
Debbie Lyons-Blythe works alongside her family in the Kansas Flint Hills to raise the best beef, paving the way for a more sustainable beef supply. They do it one breeding decision, management practice, farm tour and conversation at a time.
Ambassador Award: Walter Angus Ranch
It’s a normal day near Hudson, Colorado for the Walter family, yet the view is uniquely awe-inspiring for visitors who have never stepped foot on a ranch. As cows come in closer visitors take in the far-reaching pastures and breath-taking mountain views.
2021
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Yon Family Farms
Establishing a world-class seedstock operation in the Southeast didn’t happen overnight, and the family humbly insists they’re no different than many others. Indeed, their vision, use of technologies, and dedication to deliberate improvement make them unique.
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: San Raphael Cattle Company
Ross Humphreys is not your typical cowboy. He’s a chemist, book publisher, family guy, conservationist, and rancher. Grit in every venture makes him a successful businessman, and his unrattled spirit makes the best of challenges.
Sustainability Award: Bradley 3 Ranch
Indigo clouds fill the northwest sky with a promise of rain. In a region of guaranteed droughts and an average annual 18 inches of rainfall, Mary Lou Bradley-Henderson and husband James Henderson of Bradley 3 Ranch (B3R) near Childress, Texas, look in wonder across the landscape.
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: Shaw Feedyard
Much of the cattle feeding business is outside a manager’s control. But quality cattle caretaking, that Kendall Hopp can guarantee.
Ambassador Award: Pfeiffer Angus Farm
Telling their story to the cattle curious was awkward at first for John and Gaye Pfeiffer. Now, they look forward to hosting hundreds of people every year, sharing everything from the beef cattle life cycle, animal care, vaccination protocols, and sustainability practices to why they choose Angus cattle on their central Oklahoma farm.
2020
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Dalebanks Angus
Doing right by their customers means raising the best cattle they can. For the Perrier family of Eureka, Kansas, that’s a philosophy, business model and family code all wrapped into one.
Matt, Amy and their children, along with his parents Tom and Carolyn Perrier operate Dalebanks Angus. The designation traces back to ancestors who kept a bit of their English heritage alive with their farm name when they settled the Kansas plains.
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: Morgan Ranches
“If you are not as good as your word, if you do not have integrity, then your business is not going to make it,” Ann says.
They learn and teach through words of wisdom gathered over the decades.
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: M&M Feeders
“It was like getting that winning lottery ticket,” Daron Huyser says. “You have the opportunity to do what you want to do, to come back, be large enough to establish and carry a family, take care of customers…I thought, ‘Let’s jump in with both feet and go.’”
The family business now includes two yards, with his sister Jamie tackling the daily tasks at Elm Creek and Daron helps manage operations at Lexington. Mel does everything from keeping up customer relations to driving the feedtruck, while Marvin handles commodity trading from his home in Idaho.
Sustainability Award: Beef Northwest & Wilson Cattle Company
Little goes on without specific purpose at Wilson Cattle Company.
It’s not the work of fancy technology, though spreadsheets of data and consultants lend their hand. It’s six generations of meticulous puzzle masters who focused on making better each piece of the bigger picture.
2019
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: Spring Cove Ranch
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 for 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
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: Noble Ranch
Ryan Noble says it all started in 2001. After watching his friend’s Angus cow herd develop and prosper, he finally had the means to buy the same genetics for his own herd.
“As soon as we can get to Montana to buy some of those bulls, we’re gonna make the trip,” Ryan promised his wife.
Feedyard Commitment to Exellence Award: NA Timmerman Feedyard
“Proud.” It’s the only word that comes to mind, when Norm thinks of how it all turned out. Not the bragging kind of pride, but joy and satisfaction.
“It’s nice to be that good of friends with your family members, who like to work together,” he says. “It all fell into place.”
Each day, the family brings diverse interests and skillsets, a shared trust and camaraderie to the work they do for the feeding company they jointly own: NA Timmerman Inc.
Progressive Partner: Hy-Plains Feedyard
If they set the bar there today, by tomorrow, they’ll raise it higher.
That’s the kind of feedyard Tom Jones manages. It’s the kind of person Jones is.
In 1999, he and investors bought a 28,000-head yard near Montezuma, Kan., and immediately began doing business as Hy-Plains Feedyard LLC. Two decades later he still makes his living on the business, but that looks different today than it did then. It may look different next year, or even next month.
2018
Seedstock Commitment to Excellence: 2 Bar Angus
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,” …
Progressive Partner: Hinkle’s Prime Cut Angus
To the naked eye, it probably looked just like a mess of weeds. In 1994, Kenny Hinkle saw the pasture near Nevada, Mo., as his own Wild West waiting to be tamed.
At the time, he probably seemed more blue-collar than John Wayne…
Commercial Commitment to Excellence: STP Cattle
A hardware salesman and a hand surgeon walk into a pasture…
For Phillip Smith and Dr. David Taylor, there’s no need for a punch line. What might sound like the start of a tall tale is a typical Tuesday afternoon.
Cattle have always been in the cards for these cousins from Ozark, Ark. Their grandfather…
Feedyard Commitment to Excellence: Bledsoe Cattle Company
The rapid pace of change, with new technology and ever-evolving, better genetics sends a message to today’s cattle producer: don’t do things the way Dad and Grandpa always did.
At his feedyard near Wray, Colo., Grant Bledsoe knows there’s a time for change, but his greatest strength may be…