A better man

I first met my father-in-law at the Kansas Junior Livestock Show in Wichita almost twenty years ago. Of course, at the time, I didn’t KNOW he was going to be my father-in-law; nor did I know the impact or the effect that he would have on me. He helped shape my life, along with countless others through his actions, words, and deeds.

Floyd and Lavonne Peters came down from eastern Iowa to watch my future brother-in-law (didn’t know that at the time either!) judge the feeder calf show there in Wichita. I, of course, was there with my future wife (I was sure HOPING, anyway!) to watch the show, and presumably, meet her parents. I already knew my brother-in-law-to-be.

As it ended up, about 22 months later, Karol and I were married. And I married into one of the best families that I ever could have. I’d like to tell you about each one, but today, I’m talking about Floyd. A better man I could never hope to be.

He’s built like a whipcord. Tall and slender, strong. A face, neck and arms that are dark brown, burned by countless hours of sun and wind. A pair of large hands; one mangled from a corn picking accident as a young man. Long, sinewy arms, deep set eyes, and a very sharp mind. Jeans, denim Wrangler pearl snap shirt, and cowboy boots. Work ethic like none other. In the winter, he wore coveralls, insulated boots, yellow “fuzzies” chore gloves, and a Cornelius seed corn cap with ear flaps. He and Lavonne raised seven children, all on farm income, with no off-farm funds to subsidize the operation. They milked a cow long past when most farmers gave up that enterprise. However, he was also very progressive, being one of the first in the area to use artificial insemination extensively. He was on the county cattlemen’s board and started a “County Fair Steer” program, where local producers would give a steer to a 4-Her for nothing up front and then receive back a portion of the calf proceeds after it sold at the county fair livestock sale. He was on the fairboard, and served as president for several years. He always lined up the parade floats. Floyd could direct traffic in downtown Boston or New York. He took on responsibility and led people. If you needed somebody to be in charge, Floyd Peters was your guy.

Floyd looking at a used feed wagon for sale.

He never misses mass on the weekends. He is a strong advocate for the rights of the unborn. He would never take a handout. He will stand up, with very firm convictions, for those things he believes in. He expects a lot out of everyone around him, but always expected more out of himself. He was more excited about a new set of screwdrivers, or a new power tool, or a new welding helmet than he would ever be about an article of clothing or anything personal for himself. Every day he would hand deliver the elderly widow’s mail when hauling bales to feed cows in the winter time, from the mail box to her front door. He still calved out cows until he was into his upper 70’s, when he finally “kinda retired”, although he still continued to mow, rake, and bale hay; plant corn, plant soybeans, dry corn, build fence, spray fields, or weld another gate. Even though he was tired, and worn out, and not feeling very well, this spring Floyd renovated an old three-point bale carrier for me to use this next winter with my tractor.

Floyd was an International Harvester man, and he knew more about an iH 1066 than any man walking. When most 1066’s were in the graveyard, Floyd’s were still running; still going, and still performing field work.

He tried to enlist, twice, for the army during the Korean War. But he was turned down, both times, because of his mangled hand. They told him he couldn’t shoot a rifle with that hand.

Floyd can fix anything, build anything, create anything. He can wire a shop, plumb a sink, and build a straight fence. The feedlot panels and gates he built himself would give four grown men a hernia trying to lift by hand. Everything about him is solid; his faith, his beliefs, his goals, his aspirations to “leave things better than you found them”. He is a conservationist, an animal care-giver, a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He’s 81, and although cancer has weakened his body since the first of the year, and his health has been deteriorating, his mind is still sharp and he provides a lot of much needed wisdom and guidance for his clan.

He never went to college, but he knows more than just about anyone I know about how to live life; how to raise a family, how to farm and raise cattle, and how to give back more than he ever took. If you want to wrap up Floyd in a story, listen to Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3GtXAqhSgo

A better man, most people will never know.

Early not always better

Hay seekers,

Everything is in a hurry this year—at this rate, Labor Day will arrive on July 4!

Well, rain is in no hurry I guess; that’s been waiting in the troposphere, or maybe the stratosphere above the jet contrails. Warm, strong winds have stirred up dust and irritated calves’ eyes, especially during their short stay in the AI corral a couple of weeks ago. Ponds are drying up; some are below waterer intake line and their boggy shores pose such a danger that we patched up the fences to guarantee exclusion.

Over the years, cows broke down fence but it’s fixed now. In-dam waterer is dry but herd has other options………….

The herd is spending more time on native grass, since “cool season” was a misnomer in 2012.

Our next rain hopes focus on mid-week or Thursday, if we can get at least two inches before the cool change.

With the mild winter, fruit trees and wheat fields got an early start, though often short of moisture in our area. The stage was set for a killing frost, but that was no problem here. We followed the same soil-test-guided fertility program on cool season grasses, and open weather let it go on by the last day of February—incidentally not worth the extra month’s carrying charges. We got temps in the 90s every month since and maybe 2.5 inches of rain in 8 to 10 events, none more than a half inch, as Nature’s hurry-up program met inch-wide cracks in the hay fields.

Normally (ha, this is Kansas so it is ironic anyone would use that word), we like to imagine grazing 200 acres of cool-season in rotation as its growth overtakes herd consumption; they move into native grass and we have to swath 160 acres or more to get somewhere between 150 and 250 bales. Reality has been 20 to 300 bales, and ranging from early to late June. This year only 70 acres could be saved back from cows wondering why July came early, and we got 67 bales with a week of May left. High quality hay, but hoping not to feed it this summer. The first hurricanes arrived in the Southeast, the earliest in 100 years, and wheat harvest will be record early in this area.

The good news is that there is apparently “no correlation” between all of this odd weather and what we can expect in the next two months. Well, that part sure sounds like Kansas! We still have our hopes intact for a great summer.

Till that rain, any day now, let’s keep targeting the brand and building tomorrow together.

Steve

Leaving the ranch, knowledge in tow

What would you want every person in NYC to know about what you do?

There are the long hours; the difficult decisions; the stress including things like capital, regulations and margins.

But in the end doesn’t it just come down to the fact that you wish people knew how much you care about your land and your animals? Don’t you want them to put a little more faith and trust in you and the job that you do?

Last week I said I’d share some quotes from our Master’s of Brand Advocacy group (made up of foodservice distributors from across the U.S.) that traveled out to central Nebraska. Here are a few statements that tell me the whole experience was worth it, that we did our job.

“They are just the best people you could ever met,” one said about the ranchers after we jumped back in the rented SUV. “They’ve got to be the hardest workers ever.”
“I didn’t even know there were places like this left in the United States.” I grew up on a farm, but the open expanses of a Sandhills ranch are still impressive, breathtaking, to me. Every time I visit. So I share that sentiment with the attendees who often just said, “Wow.”
“These are families that have passed down these farms from generation to generation and they have to be respectful of the land and resources or their kids won’t have that life.”
“They take pride in producing the best beef possible.”
“They have to know so much.”
“Each rancher and segment of farmers has a specific job and certain expertise to bring the product from pasture-to-plate.”
“They are kind, hardworking people that make this country great.”

Amen.

We know those statements are true, but what’s better than us knowing it? Having people from Las Vegas to St. Louis to Philadelphia know that.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Tightening the belt!

Have you ever seen that cartoon of the skinny-as-a-rail cowboy? He’s leaning on an equally emaciated fence post and everything around him just looks plain poor. He states to his friend, “reckon I’ve tightened the belt down around here about as much as I can!” The guy is literally about as big around as a pencil, with a long belt tail hanging off the end of his buckle and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. No more holes left on the belt to get cinched up any tighter. Nobody knows better how to “buckle-down”; “tighten the belt”, or go “bare bones” better than America’s farmers and ranchers. They’re famous for it.

Well, I’m going to take this story down a little different trail; but not that familiar route which is associated with cutting costs on the farm or ranch. Rather, I’m going to discuss tightening the genetic belt!

We’ve all seen many stories in agricultural press about the difference in value of a finished steer or heifer at slaughter; within a pen, that is. Which calves made the most money and which made the least money (or lost more money than the good ones). What still amazes me is the amount of variability in the final value of fat cattle within a common set of genetics, from the same operation! Size of the operation and pure numbers have a great deal to do with that; but when we’re seeing a value difference of $300 to $400 in the carcass due to hot carcass weight, carcass quality, or both, it still begs the question: “why?” Is it due to performance (ADG and F:G), or carcass premiums, dressed yield, or what? Maybe a combination of all these.

: How Do You Know?

One of my first implant trials (in my previous life as an Extension specialist) on a group of commonly-sired Angus calves revealed a very tight-knit (or appeared to be) group of steers (75 head) that were within 50 lb. of each other; top to bottom, there was not more than half a hundred pounds among them all. I did not know the birth dates on the cattle; they may have been quite variable in age, but they didn’t look that way. They appeared to be very similar in frame size and were extremely close in live weight.

That 50 lb. weight diff turned into nearly a 300 lb. difference in finished weight at harvest. How can that be? For Pete’s sake, that just seemed huge to me! As we looked at individual average daily gain, it ranged from 2.75 to 3.75. Wow! Even a half a pound a day difference, on a 150 day feeding period, results in 75 extra pounds of live animal to sell when the cattle ship. In today’s dollars, that equates to a $90 per head difference in the gross income! Although we didn’t have individual feed efficiency measures to look at, one can imagine that some converted dry matter at 5.8 and some at 6.5. A feed:gain efficiency difference of 0.7 lb., or 2.1 lb. savings in $6.00 corn every day when assuming a 3.0 ADG would equal about 40 cents per head per day (at a DM ration cost of $ 375/ton). Over those same 150 days, that amounts to a feed (alone) cost savings of $60! Combine that with differences in grade (when sold on a grid), and we’re talking REAL BIG DOLLARS here!

This is why you need to take a hard look at GeneMax (GMX), Certified Angus Beef’s new DNA test for marbling and yearling gain. This cutting edge technology will allow you to do a couple of different things: (1) it can be used as a tool to help you determine which replacement heifers you are going to keep, in addition to other selection criteria (blood lines, feet and legs, phenotype, disposition, etc.) and (2) a predictor of feeder calves’ value in the fed cattle industry. If you can “tighten” down the amount of variability within a set of replacement heifers or feeder calves, it makes them more valuable. You have a better idea of what those calves can do! It’s not entirely full-proof; management, health, environment, and nutriton all affect the outcome. But I’ll guarantee you ONE thing: it’s more information than you used to get!

Take the time to peruse our website. Visit www.cabpartners.com and click on the GMX link. I really think you’ll be glad you did!

I was going to tighten my belt, and then I saw those peanut M&Ms!

~Gary

Surprise sales lead to restocking

Here’s your Meat Market Minute:

Federally Inspected harvest was up 9,000 going into last Saturday’s production, however, packers pulled back and only processed an estimated 2,000 head more than the previous week. Despite the incremental increase, overall beef production was noted as being just par because of carcass weights slipping 1 pound lower. Fed cattle trade saw relatively little activity last week; according to Cattle Buyers Weekly, only a small amount of cattle traded in the South late on Friday at $123 while many others were resistant to accept packer bids.

Boxed beef values for total carcass cutout traded sideways, however virtually all CAB cuts listed traded at higher levels. This divergence between total carcass cutout and cut values can be attributed to the “fresh 50s” beef trim loss in value (Monday = ~$71/cwt; Friday = ~$50/cwt).

Overall, beef inventories are in good positions, as Mother’s Day sales surprised many retailers and left them needing to restock their shelves on Monday due to that strong weekend pull.

Until we meat again,

David

What we don’t know

As our nephew walked across the stage to shake hands and grab his diploma, it brought me back to my own high school graduation. The small-town school, the tight-knit class, the speeches, and of course “Pomp and Circumstance”—just rewind 10 years and change the colors from red and black to orange and blue and it could have been my day to celebrate how much knowledge I’d acquired from all those years spent at GHEC High School.

Yesterday, when I was in Akron, Iowa, for that big event it seemed easy to recall that “on top of the world” feeling a new graduate possesses, how at that very point you feel like you might just know it all. But I also remembered how quickly that fades. You go to college or enter a vocation and you live and learn.

This weekend brought to mind the adage, “The more we know, the more we realize how much we don’t know.”

And that’s exactly the sense I get when we talk about how to get more CAB-qualifying cattle.

Myth: We’ve studied marbling for so long, there’s no point in researchers going over it again.

Fact: In the past couple of decades, the concentration of research on end-product traits has certainly intensified. As the market and business have placed more economic importance on things like marbling, the academic community has placed more importance on studying all the factors that affect it.

I’ve read the abstracts, listened to the presentations and done the interviews. I know there are hundreds of smart people who are digging into the science behind all those things that make you more money on a grid.

One of those is muscle biologist Brad Johnson. A couple years ago we were talking about how implants do nothing to improve carcass quality, and for the most part knock it back a peg, and he said he envisions a future where that’s not the case.

“We’ve tried to embark on a series of research trials here recently at Texas Tech that have investigated the how’s and why’s of steroidal implants impacts on marbling. We know they have profound effects on skeletal muscle growth. If we can unlock some of those mysteries of what’s going on then we can manage it. We could still benefit from the improvement in productivity and efficiency of these tools and try to mitigate the negative effects on beef quality, like marbling.”

How cool would that be?

Then he threw around terms like adipoblasts, mesenchymal precursor cells, transdifferentiation. (Needless to say, I had to do a little decoding before I wrote “Efficient, high-quality beef”) But the point is, this is all stuff that they didn’t know five, ten, fifteen years ago. So imagine what those same researchers will know a decade from now.

Check out this video clip to hear from Brad yourself, as he talks about what they’re up to and why.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

From order takers to salesmen

“I want to be the beef expert when I walk in the room….no matter who is in the room.”

That’s the guy you want selling your final product. The expert. Not just the one who knows enough to be dangerous; not the guy who is selling beef because it pays the bills; not even the one who thinks he knows all about beef. Nope, you want the bona fide expert.

The MBA event kicked off at Rishel Angus.

CAB is helping to create a few more of those. Our third Master of Brand Advocacy (MBA) course kicked off at Rishel Angus near North Platte, Neb., earlier this week. And by central Nebraska standards, we’re practically neighbors (albeit 50+ miles apart) so I got to tag along.

That opening quote came from one of the attendees when they were asked to go around the room and tell why they’d applied to be part of this three-week, intensive education program. (There is a waiting list to get in, by the way.)

Another gentleman leads a team of foodservice salesmen (as many of them did) and said, “I want to become a resource for them, so they can learn how to sell beef, not just take orders for it.”

You know how a good auctioneer can really make an auction. Think about the power the protein sales force has. They can have a frontline impact on the price of beef, how your product is perceived by consumers and ultimately the demand for it.

We know that. So we invite these people to step into your world for a week. They learned about a seedstock producer’s role by visiting with Bill Rishel. They saw his cattle first hand and then even tried their hand at buying a few bulls.

Then they split it up and went to commercial Angus ranches for an even more personal “day in the life” experience. At the Pioneer Ranch, near Tryon, the smaller group got to know Rusty and Rachel Kemp. They tagged along while they turned on windmills and checked on the last of the herd yet to calve. They even got to pet a fresh calf. That may seem like a simple thing to those of you in the trenches, but it was a highlight for many who had never seen a cow in person, er, bovine before.

Pioneer Ranch, Rusty & Rachel Kemp, near Tryon, Neb.

Rachel told how she tags every single calf and talked about vaccinations and judicious use of antibiotics, saying, “They’re like my babies. You don’t ever want to see them sick.”

Rusty shared the ways they take care of the land and how that’s improved over the decades, often saying, “When I was a kid…” And all the while their two little cowboys tagged along, winning over everybody, myself included.

This might just seem like a “warm and fuzzy” day out on the range, but I heard many quote-worthy statements that were enough to prove it was worth it and it worked. I’ll share some of those next week, but in the meantime, you can hear from a few in their own words via a clip from the local TV station:

Pasture-to-Plate from KNOP

The week rounded out with a packing plant tour and a feedyard visit, but their education will continue with a weeklong meats lab and a sales session.

It all comes back to that one goal that CAB’s David MacVane summed up so nicely on day one: “You’re not here to be brainwashed Certified Angus Beef. You’re here to learn the beef industry.”

That should make YOU very happy.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Dinner plate to farm gate education

CAB training center opens to join ranch, retail, culinary cultures

by Miranda Reiman

The Certified Angus Beef®(CAB®) brand celebrated a new ability to link ranchers to consumers in May, sharing the party with reporters, editors, broadcasters, chefs and “foodies” from across the United States.

Not surprisingly, the CAB Education & Culinary Center’s Grand Opening was an educational event. It started with a culinary “dine-around” in Cleveland the night before shuttling from that city’s Ritz Carlton Hotel to Wooster, Ohio, on Saturday, May 5, to experience every aspect of the training hub that adds value to beef.

Yes, there was an aura of hospitality and catering to appetites, but that’s right in line with the best culinary and foodservice traditions. Appetizers at Hodge’s, a new eatery rooted in the “Hodge Podge” food truck, gave way to main courses at The Greenhouse Tavern, known for being “certified green” as well as its CAB entrees. Throughout the evening that featured wine pairings—capped by desserts at Lola’s—chefs and media enjoyed and chatted about their food and fascinations.

Guest chefs were celebrities Howie Kleinberg of Bulldog BBQ in Miami, Fla.; Rory Schepisi of Boo tHill Saloon & Grill in Vega, Texas; and Michelle Brown of Jag’s Steak & Seafood in West Chester, Ohio.That team would join in preparing the Saturday banquet at the Center.

Welcoming the group to a Meats 101 class that morning, CAB President John Stika called the facility “a milestone but not an endpoint,” representing the unique nature of the brand that spans the beef industry. A wide range of complementary skills among the staff help partners succeed at every level.

Starting at the ranch, the best beef genetics in the world may fall short if the next owner doesn’t realize what he has and maintains full potential for excellence. That same risk lurks at every link in the beef supply chain, all the way to the consumer.

But with enough knowledge, common purpose and insight, more cattle will qualify for CAB and add value for everyone from ranchers to the 15,000 partners worldwide.

CAB meat scientist Phil Bass led the class in exploring individual muscles within the wholesale cuts, noting such hands-on work helps licensees please consumers profitably. Just slicing another inch of the primal to put a “sirloin steak” on the tray for the retail case may involve four muscles that have been severed at several angles. The result is too big and variable in quality.

“When you follow the seams and pull out some individual cuts like the tri-tip and sirloin filet, you can market higher quality, smaller cuts,” he said. It all adds to consumer satisfaction.

And since the consumer is the source of every dollar in the beef supply chain, a whole-system approach is the best way to get more of those dollars back to the producers who create cattle with the potential top lease.

The CAB staff that has worked for decades to share expertise among brand partners can now “take that to a new level,” at a time when connections are increasingly important, Stika said. “This Center is a bridge that connects the cultures within the beef communities from the ranching side to the retail, foodservice and consumer sides,” he added in remarks before a lunch of cold-smoked and hot-grilled tri-tip from CAB Chef Michael Ollier.

Just a couple of days prior, the Center had been the venue for an “International Roundup” of licensees from 15 countries as they located, cut, cooked and tasted specialty beef cuts, Stika noted. Whether from across town or the other side of the world, brand partners will continue to use the meat lab and culinary school to learn more about retail case merchandising and creative menu planning.

To complete the reverse tour and move from dinner plate to farm gate, the group traveled by bus to Rod and Laurie Ferguson’s Chippewa Valley Angus Farms at Rittman, Ohio. That side was quite familiar to the farm media, but there were new lessons in how CAB demonstrates its producer link and how the Fergusons put a caring face on the concept of the 33,000 rancher-owners behind the brand.

Back for the five-course banquet in the evening, guests were amazed at the flavors and creativity that showcased the cuts they had fabricated out of primals during the morning session. CAB Chef Scott Popovic joined forces with the celebrity guests and welcomed another, pastry chef Kara Swortchek from Red, the Steakhouse, to bring the best out of the best.

CAB producer board members joined in the evening, and co-founding figures Mick Colvin and Dr. Bob VanStavern were recognized as the namesakes for the Center’s two conference rooms.Everyone could hear the sizzle, enjoy the mouth feel, see, smell and taste how the high-quality beef’s value was maximized, captured, capitalized and realized, made to work for all others in the chain.

Some up, some down

Here’s this week’s Meat Market Minute:

Cattle were yet to have traded as of last Friday afternoon, but bids stood at $119 while cattle owners asked $121 or higher. Beef production was up the week, estimated at 639,000 head, driven in large part by Saturday’s harvest of 16,000 head. Futures contracts were down some, partly due to the weeks’ release of USDA’s crop report that showed increased corn production plans relative to expectations.

Both CAB and Choice boxes traded sideways while Select beef traded down $1.50, moving the CH/SE spread to $4.40. Packers have begun to bring in more calf-feds and therefore have seen a decrease in grade. (Some calf-feds actually grade higher, but those are from the herds focused on improving genetics.) CAB acceptance for the week (4/29/12) stood at 24%.

Until we meat again,

David

In their Prime

When cattle are mooing in the background of a phone interview, it’s a good indication to me that my source is grounded in the “real world.”

Of course, I already knew that when I dialed up South Dakota producer Rich Blair, of Blair Brothers Angus, but I was reminded of that with each story he told about their journey to produce the best beef. (They aim for CAB and Prime, with some loads hitting as much as 50% of the latter.)

I’m sure I’ve talked about this myth before, but in case you wanted to hear it put to rest by one of your own, I’ll bring it up again. Plus the way he told the story made me smile.

Myth: You’ve got to have some pretty fancy cattle to produce great beef.

Fact: It’s really not about looks, as Rich found out back in the mid-90s.

“I can still remember the first time I got a Prime carcass and I thought, ‘Wow, that cow must really look special.’ So I went out and found her in the herd and I can still vividly remember looking through the cows and…..well, there she was.

I was never so disappointed in all my life! She just looked like the rest of ‘em.

But the thing she did, is that she made me $200 more than the cow standing next to them and it didn’t cost me a thing. Her calf ran with the bunch, he just had the genetics to grade Prime and the rest of ‘em didn’t.”

His suggestion for making more of those Prime-makers? Study the data, and that will lead you to one solution: straightbred commercial Angus. But that’s another real-world story for another day…

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

A better man

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Leaving the ranch, knowledge in tow

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Tightening the belt!

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Surprise sales lead to restocking

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What we don’t know

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From order takers to salesmen

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Dinner plate to farm gate education

by Miranda Reiman

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Some up, some down

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In their Prime

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