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Beef’s a trip day 22: Grab hands, give thanks 

 You know those hands:  years and age and hard work made them tough as leather.

The ones that care for livestock, without regard for heat or rain or inclement weather.

 

They’re the first to touch the food supply. They plan and work and plan again.

“Always on,” the ranchers and feeders are where each story will begin.

 

At the plant, those hands are quick, efficient, precise and careful, too.

They work long hours and take pride in what they do.

Truckers trade home cooking and rest for long days at the wheel.

Their hands are glued there for hours, as they deliver the next meal.

 

Food travels. Boxes must move. Sales are executed. Orders arrive.

Account mangers bring ideas and help restaurants survive.

 

More hands stock shelves, cut the meat, ring up the sale.

And when the consumer brings it home, that’s usually the start of their tale.

 

Those hands plan and clean and chop. Cooking commences.

The meal is a place to show their skill, appeal to the senses.

 

So gather ‘round the table, grab hands, and offer a little appreciation,

For all those people who have a hand in bringing delicious food to this great nation.

———

Happy Thanksgiving from our team to you and yours!

Give thaks and you can worry about that black ink again tomorrow,

Miranda

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

Day 21: When numbers are down, busy is good

PS—Have you heard? We’re not blogging alone. Check out Holly Spangler’s “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series for a full list of all of those writing their way through November.

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Progress from small steps

Progress from small steps

Every day is a chance to learn and get better. Thousands of others like my new friends in Alabama are taking steps to meet the shifts in consumer demand, and to know more. Small steps in the right direction can start now. Even if it’s just recording a snapshot of where you are today, a benchmark for tomorrow.

Not perfect, but working to get better

Not perfect, but working to get better

The CAB Cattleman Connection team heard its name called more than once in the virtual ceremonies, and each time came a sense of personal accomplishment, but even better: confirmation that we’re getting better at our craft. I hope that means we’re doing a better job for you.

Beefed up findings

Beefed up findings

Frank Mitloehner presents his findings on the animal ag sector’s impact on global warming. He explains how cattle counterbalance other fossil fuel sectors, proving that cattle are a solution and not a threat.

History lessons

Man, do I love history!  Loved it since I was a kid.  My mother thought that I would become a history professor.  Well, she missed that one by a ways, and my chosen career path has worked out pretty well. But,  I still like to read and watch television shows that have to do with history!  I love the Old West, World War I and World War II; the plains Indian wars, family/ancestry, and agricultural history.

Some “recent” history: I was digging back through some information we researched out of the Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF) database the other day. These findings were then presented at the Midwest section meetings of the American Society of Animal Science in March of 2008…….four and half years ago.  I was trying to see what factors influenced Certified Angus Beef (CAB) acceptance rates.

Darrell Busby, far right, is THE guy when it comes to the Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity. Pictured here with his wife, Cathy, and my daughter, Grace, at a recent dinner to discuss data.

Now, we have had Expected Progeny Differences for a long time.  DNA technology has evolved over time, including our new GeneMaxTM test, which quantifies marbling and post-weaning gain in high-percentage, commercial Angus cattle.  But folks, let’s face it: in the commodity mix of black-hided unknowns, we aren’t going to have that information in place in many cases. This TCSCF database does have more information in it than most. Led by the (extremely competent) Darrell Busby, former Iowa State University Extension Livestock Specialist, the TCSCF program has probably been utilized more than any other beef cattle database in the U.S.  With Mike King’s invaluable help (he’s our statistics MASTER!), here is what we came up with out of 220 lots of cattle harvested between 2003 and 2007:

1. Lots consisting of heifers had higher % of low and premium Choice (upper 2/3rds, e.g. Certified Angus Beef) and above rates than lots of steers or mixed-sex pens.

2. The greater the amount of Angus influence in the cattle, the higher the percentage of low and  premium Choice and above rate.

3. Cattle with lighter feedlot arrival weights had a higher percentage of low and premium Choice and above rates..

4.Cattle with lower disposition scores (calmer cattle) had higher percentage of low Choice and above rates; but didn’t have higher premium choice rates.

5. Cattle with a lower cost of gain had higher percentage of low Choice and above rates.  Cost of gain was not lower in premium Choice grades.

6. Lot percentage of low- and premium Choice-and-above rate increased as average daily gain (ADG) increased.

Let’s boil it down to the finer points without going into all of the regression coefficients:

Premium Choice rates for heifers were twice as high as those for steers or mixed-sex pens.

For every 1 point increase in percent Angus, lot premium Choice acceptance rate would be expected to rise by 0.083%; so the difference between two pen of Angus-influenced cattle that were 50% and 75% Angus would be 2.32%, all else being equal.

For every 1 pound drop in in-weight (beginning feedlot weight), lot premium Choice rate increased by 0.066%; meaning the difference in percentage of cattle qualifying between a pen of 600-lb. steers and 500-lb. steers (at feedlot entry) would be 6.6%, everything else being equal.

For every 1 pound increase in ADG, lot premium Choice acceptance rate rose 14.5 points; or for every 0.1 lb. increase in ADG, % premium Choice would rise 1.45 percentage points. An example: one would expect a pen of calves gaining 3.6 lb. per day would have a 21.4% acceptance rate compared ot a 20% acceptance rate for a pen of steers that gained 3.5 lb./day.

These commercial Angus steers are on feed at Gregory Feedlots, Tabor, Iowa. Gregory Feedlots is a CAB-licensed feedlot, and is a part of the network of the Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity program.

Pretty good stuff, huh?  For history’s sake! For more information about this abstract, go to the website.

Or heck, just give me a call.  We can talk about history!

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Nebraska Ranch Receives Certified Angus Beef Commercial Award

Nebraska Ranch Receives Certified Angus Beef Commercial Award

Troy Anderson, managing a Nebraska ranch, focuses on breeding thriving maternal cows that will grade premium Choice and Prime, while respecting livestock, people and land. Anderson Cattle receives the 2023 CAB Commitment to Excellence Award. Their journey includes improving genetics, feeding home-raised and purchased calves and using data for better breeding decisions, all with a bottom-line approach.

Everything They Have

Everything They Have

Progress is a necessity on the Guide Rock, Nebraska, ranch where Troy Anderson manages a commercial Angus herd, small grower yard, his 10-year-old son, and a testing environment. Troy’s approach includes respect for his livestock, people and land. For that, Anderson Cattle was honored with the CAB 2023 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award.

Beef’s a trip day 21: When numbers are down, busy is good

Who is excited for this 8-10 hour car ride? Did I mention we get to eat out all day long?

Sometimes I would come home feeling like I’d walked miles and miles, and I probably had. But hands down, one of the most exhausting days I worked as a waitress was today: the day right before Thanksgiving.

I haven’t waited tables in quite a while and instead I’ll be one of the millions of restaurant-goers across the U.S. today. My little family is traveling. It’s over the river(s) and through woods (farmland) to Grandmother’s house we go!

So what about those places we’ll stop at to fill our bellies? What are they thinking about today and every day?

Vice president Mark Polzer is our in-house guru on all things foodservice, so I picked his brain and three things rang out:

  • The number of people going into restaurants has not increased this year. In fact, sometimes it’s been down compared to last year. That’s a worry.
  • We hear it everywhere, but food prices are high. In the last 12 months, restaurants have paid more for beef than they ever have before.
  • Meeting customers’ expectations is more imperative now that it’s ever been.

Our CAB foodservice division just wrapped up its seventh consecutive record sales year, even when it was sold at record prices.

“To me that says something. That says people are willing to pay more for quality because people know they can’t let customers’ expectations down,” Mark says.  (Remember Dennis talking about those empty seats?)

Edd Hendee spoke at our annual conference a few years back and his message was: Quality doesn’t cost. It pays.

We’ve got examples of chains and independents all over that are bucking the trend. They’re attracting more people in and selling more beef, even at higher prices. One of those is Taste of Texas on the west side of Houston.  They’ve been licensed since the year I was born and just take a gander at the food on their website. It shows why their sales increased over the previous years!

Owner Edd Hendee told us a few years back, I have a theory that no one who makes a decision to lower the quality of the product they’re serving does table visits.”

As somebody who has spent a fair amount of time on both sides of that table, I’d have to say I agree. And as Mark puts it: “If you don’t satisfy the customer, it doesn’t matter how much they save if they don’t come back.”

As we continue this journey, we’ll talk about some people who make certain consumers come back, and come back specifically to eat beef.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Have you heard? We’re not blogging alone. Check out Holly Spangler’s “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series for a full list of all of those writing their way through November.

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Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

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Quality Wins, Again

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Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

Beef’s a trip day 20: Getting quality in the carts 

Yesterday we gave a behind-the-scenes look at some challenges retailers deal with on a daily basis. Today, we introduce you to a couple of men who work hard to make sure the beef you produce ends up in shopping carts and on dinner tables across the country.

Ed Steinmetz, Giant Eagle

While you’re calving, feeding, fixing and haying, Ed Steinmetz is focused on things like sourcing meat products, shadow pricing and managing shrink.

Many days he may rather be outside. He’s a fisherman and when the weather and timing are right, you might find him boating on Lake Erie, but by day his heart is where it’s been for the last 30+ years: retail.

A rancher’s  and a grocer’s world might seem like polar opposites but they have an important commonality: beef.

Ed is is currently the senior vice president of meat and seafood for Giant Eagle. The Northeastern grocery chain numbers more than 220 stores, which means hundreds of thousands of consumers to keep happy.

One way he does that? Provide them with high-quality products like Certified Angus Beef® and CAB Prime.

“Our focus has been on premium beef,” Ed tells us.  “We are competing with folks who are selling a Select program and in today’s economy in some customers’ minds that might represent more of a value: cheaper.”

But he doesn’t see it that way.

I think what’s still important in today’s economy is to differentiate yourself. One of those ways to do that is by having a quality program.  It’s an assurance that the experience the consumer gets is a good one,” he says.

David Savidge, Buehler’s, addresses producers at the 2011 Cattlemen’s College in Denver

Dave Savidge, director of meat merchandising at Buehler’s Fresh Foods, one of our licensed partners based just down the road in Wooster, Ohio, couldn’t agree more. His customers enter the store expecting quality, and the store’s bottom line depends on it.

(When folks walk into a Buehler’s they are greeted by things like a CAB-licensed diner and an in-store child care center so customers can accomplish their shopping sans-kiddos. Evidence their shoppers have come to expect great service, too.)

Maybe it helps to share a home town with the brand, but CAB —including the exquisite CAB® Prime Natural—have been such a big part of that success, Savidge has become an ambassador of sorts. And, since one of their flagship stores is just a few stoplights away from the new Education & Culinary Center, he gets that opportunity fairly often when other retailers visit.

“We become stronger if we all work together,” Savidge says. “If CAB brings non-licensed retailers out, I’ll meet with them to tell them the truth about CAB. It’s not like any other brand. I’m able to give them that, ‘I’m living it’ perspective.”

These guys know how hard you work, and they know how hard they have to work to keep beef as a protein of choice. They and their teams are up for the challenge!

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Holly Spangler’s “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series goes on, along with lots of other folks blogging their way through November. Check out her series to find the whole list.

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$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

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Certified Angus Beef is offering $100,000 in scholarships for agricultural college students through the 2024 Colvin Scholarship Fund. Aspiring students passionate about agriculture and innovation, who live in the U.S. or Canada, are encouraged to apply before the April 30 deadline. With the Colvin Scholarship Fund honoring Louis M. “Mick” Colvin’s legacy, Certified Angus Beef continues its commitment to cultivating future leaders in the beef industry.

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Quality Wins, Again

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Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

Beef’s a trip day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered 

It seems like if the grocery store comes up in everyday conversation, it’s because someone is complaining about food prices.

I often get more “help” than I need when I’m at the grocery store, so there’s little time for wondering about their part in the beef business.

I live between two small towns and each has a grocery store with mostly the same items. But if I want couscous I have to go one direction, and if adult beverages are on my shopping list I must go the other.

But most people have a lot more choice than that. So the retail business is a competitive one, each company trying to win over consumers with their low prices or high-quality or service or selection.

If your beef animal isn’t headed to your dinner table after it’s processed, it either goes through the foodservice distribution channel or is bound for retail. But there are a lot of logistics and business decisions that happen first.

You’ve all been in a grocery store, you know about the thousands of products they carry and their basic function. I’m not any more of a retail expert than you, but I’ve been lucky enough to work with people who are. We lost our friend and colleague Al Kober two years ago, but not before the veteran CAB director of retail shared with us his knowledge from a 50-year career in the retail meat business before he joined our company.

Here are some random bits that have helped me gain perspective:

  • “Retailers price their meat at the highest level that consumers still perceive as delivering value. There are controls, like competition. In a metropolitan area a five-mile circle around a retail store could have 20 or 30 other retailers basically selling the same product.”
  • “A retail store is very successful if it can make more than one penny per dollar (1%) average profit.” (Kind of makes one feel a little sheepish complaining about prices, huh?)
  • “When you buy a 20-count box of oranges, you get 20 oranges. When you get a side of beef you’ve got to break it down.” (They have to sell the whole carcass to make money.)
  • “You can have more than $100,000 of equipment in a store for wrapping, grinding and cutting. That has to be paid for.” (It seems producers aren’t the only ones who have to worry about capital purchases and maintenance.)

Al helped me walk through the math of things like product shrink and shelf life for an article on retail beef pricing and reminded me of the lag time between wholesale beef prices and the ability to pass that on to the consumer. (Most of them have a big chunk of their meat purchases slated out of the entire year, and what’s going on the front of that sales flier gets decided 4-6 weeks in advance.)

But one of my favorite bits from Al is this line: “We all need to get out of the mindset that the other people in the chain are somehow taking advantage and making all the profits. We have to realize that we all have a vested interest in keeping each segment profitable.”

Couldn’t agree more!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Holly Spangler’s “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series goes on, but we’re not alone. Check out the full list of other folks blogging along with us for 30 days in November on her blog.

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Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

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Quality Wins, Again

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Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

Small change$, big returns

The 5% effect compounds in your bottom line

 

by Miranda Reiman

Change doesn’t have to be dramatic and sweeping to make an impact.

Bill Rishel, a registered Angus breeder from North Platte, Neb., says little gains in efficiency, functionality and carcass merit all add up.

For easy math, he uses a 100-head example.

“As a cow-calf producer, the number one traits for profitability are fertility, reproduction and herd health,” he says.

If an average herd has 90 head survive to weaning, what would five more mean?

“Five additional head, because you had a little more fertility, you had a little better health or management—that’s about a $3,000 bump,” Rishel says.

Calving ease is one easy place to make that gain: “Years ago the only tool we had was phenotype,” he says.

“Today, when you add the genomics into the EPDs [expected progeny difference], we’re a lot further along than ever before in my life.”

Tools are available to pick the “right” sires and drive improvements in other areas, he says.

Those 95 calves move on to the industry average 205-day weaning, at 2.5 pounds (lb.) of weight per day of age (WDA). At just over $1.48 per hundredweight (cwt.), that’s $757.

But what if they gained more?

“That 5% increase, along with the five more calves—now you’re talking about some really big money,” Rishel says.

Such a percentage gain in weaning weights means WDA moves from 2.5 to 2.63 lb. That may not seem like much, he says, but figuring in all multipliers moves total calf price to more than $797, and $7,585 to the herd’s bottom line.

A boost in gain and efficiency could show up in the feedyard, too.

Increasing average daily gain (ADG) by that 5% would turn 3.4 lb./day into 3.57. On a 600-lb. total gain, that changes the per-head value by just $4.53, but measured on that 95 head it adds up to more than $430.

Feed efficiency can have much more effect, as improving from 6.2 lb. to 5.89 lb. of feed to gain a pound of beef, just 5%, creates a $35/head value difference. That’s $3,357 on the entire herd.

Efficiency and quality can be achieved in tandem, Rishel says, noting one last place to make an improvement: the cooler.

“Using genetic tools to make changes with highly heritable traits, now we can do something that impacts the entire industry,” he says.

Citing an Oklahoma State University sire evaluation study, he says 16 bulls with superior carcass traits added an average of $3.27/cwt. to the carcass value.

“I took that number and applied it to an 850-lb. average carcass weight,” Rishel says. “The added value per carcass was $27.80.”

That’s another $2,641.

“So let’s add this up,” he says. The greater value from 5% improvements at every stop comes to $14,013.65.

“If you calculate that by the number of cows, that’s actually about $140 per cow gained on that operation,” he says. “As a percent of the total carrying cost, that’s a big deal. A very big deal.”

It’s not just an on-paper exercise, Rishel says, noting many top customers who have proven the better-at-every-turn philosophy works.

“They just nail this every time out, due to genetics and their good management. They do everything right.”

Their reward is obvious. With loads that are more than 60% Certified Angus Beef ® and Prime, they consistently reap premiums of more than $100 above average.

“For those of us in the seedstock industry, it’s a balancing act to put all of these traits together in one package,” he says, but history shows an ability to move the needle in all areas. Some of today’s balanced sires are proof of that, he adds.

“We selected those cattle for function and soundness and reproduction, and then when we got in the sire evaluation work, we selected for carcass traits from that population,” Rishel says.

Careful selection of available genetics, tools and management by commercial cattlemen could put the 5% factor to work on their bottom lines.

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Beef’s a trip day 18: He’s on your team

It’s like I scripted it.

“I don’t know how early you rise, but you can call me any time after 6 a.m. and I’ll be on the road.”

Meet Dennis Hendriskson. He sells what you produce.

That was Dennis Hendrickson when I was setting up an interview to talk about his job working for a East Coast foodservice distributor. As I dialed, I thought back to when I met Dennis and a handlful of others with similar roles across the country. As I spent a day and half with them, it was the first time I’d made any real connection between the commitment a cattleman has to his trade and that of somebody on the “other side” of the business.

So in calling Dennis for this series, my intentions were to uncover all the similarities between a rancher and this Sysco-Boston district sales manager.

After he asked for an early-o’clock interview, I knew making comparisons wasn’t going to be that difficult. That reminded me of the countless times I tuck my kids into bed and then wait for a producer to call me when he “comes in for the night.” Or when a rancher says, “Call at 8 in the morning. I should be in from feeding cows and having breakfast by then.”)

Indeed, neither is an 8-to-5 job.

As part of CAB’s Master of Brand Advantages course, Dennis had a chance to learn all about beef production firsthand. One of the highlights? Seeing an hours-old calf on the Kemp Ranch.

Often it seems ranchers don’t remember when they chose the profession…saying it sort of sucked them in. Dennis feels the same way. At 15, he started as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant. He worked his way through high school and a business management degree at Merrimack College.

I just fell in love with the business,” he says. So at 21, new degree in hand, Dennis continued his education at the school of hard knocks, helping in a family business and starting his own bar and grill. Major family health issues came and went and eventually the 100-hour weeks weren’t looking so shiny. So today Dennis says it’s like he’s the manager of 350 restaurants. He gets to play a role in their success or failure, and that’s both  empowering and daunting.

He manages salespeople, develops strategies, provides support where needed and, probably most importantly, helps right the wrongs.

“We carry 14 to 15,000 line items for next-day delivery. It’s highly probable at least one thing is going to go wrong. Whether the chef forgets to order it, you didn’t punch it in right, we were out of stock on it—which doesn’t happen very often, but it’s reality. My wife used to say, ‘Do you ever have a time when something doesn’t go wrong?

Check. I just found another similarity.

Dennis says his clientele relies on him to provide expertise on where the market is going, to help explain new cuts and develop menu items.

“A lot of them are chief cooks and bottle washers, operators that are trying to make it.”

The stats are bleak—only two out of 10 restaurants do make it. But if Dennis has his way, that’ll change, and he’s convinced that getting his customers to treat their beef purchases like an insurance policy is one way.

“Do you know what the most expensive cost in a restaurant is? An empty seat. Once Friday night is closed down, you take all those empty seats and you can’t get those sales back. The more they get educated, they realize, ‘We have to serve good beef.’ I can charge $1 to $2 more to the customer, but it’ll get them in my restaurant.”

After riding around shotgun with a cattleman last spring, he feels an even stronger push to rep quality.

“We have to work so the Rusty Kemp’s of the world—their craft goes noticed.” Amen.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Holly Spangler’s still blogging away about “30 days on a Prairie Farm”. And so are a bunch of other ag writers, too. Check out the fill list from her page.

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$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

Certified Angus Beef is offering $100,000 in scholarships for agricultural college students through the 2024 Colvin Scholarship Fund. Aspiring students passionate about agriculture and innovation, who live in the U.S. or Canada, are encouraged to apply before the April 30 deadline. With the Colvin Scholarship Fund honoring Louis M. “Mick” Colvin’s legacy, Certified Angus Beef continues its commitment to cultivating future leaders in the beef industry.

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ was developed as part of a strategic cattle care partnership between Sysco and CAB. The collaboration focuses on supporting farmers and ranchers, equipping them with continuing education to stay current on best management practices and helping to increase consumer confidence in beef production.

Quality Wins, Again

Quality Wins, Again

Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

Beef’s a trip day 17: From here to there – and a lot more

Any feeder or livestock hauler will tell you getting 36-40 head of finished cattle to market is a challenge enough. Now think of that same load coming out the other side of a packing plant as hundreds of different beef products that need to be carefully handled or risk spoilage.

When Sysco Charlotte was licensed to sell CAB last March, they wanted to make a BIG splash in the market place. Multiple semi-trailers were wrapped with company branding for roaming billboards throughout the Carolinas.

They have to get to the right restaurant or retailer under the right conditions, at the right time to get sold.

These things don’t just happen. Today we’re shining the spotlight on foodservice distributors: the people who get those thousands of different products from the packer or further processor into the hand of chefs across the country.

These folks are charged with the task of physically getting the meat from here to there, but it’s a lot more than figuring out trucking schedules or sourcing logistics.

For one, distributors must correctly assess demand and they must help create it. They work on education and menu creation, they help smaller restaurants figure pricing and in general provide a lot of support.

They also do further-trimming and packaging work for all those who don’t cut their steaks in-house.

“Our job is to merchandise as much of that product as we possibly can. I’m not taking the whole tenderloin and cutting it end to end in 4-oz. portions. That would produce very inconsistent steaks,” Ron Becker, president of an Arizona distribution company told me a few years back, explaining how they’ll market the smaller filets together and the center-cut filets together.

You would no doubt get paid less for your product if you didn’t have dedicated foodservice distributors on your side.

In 2011, Southern Foods Meat & Seafood (now a part of Pate Dawson Southern Foods) celebrated 25 years of partnership with our brand. Can you tell how much pride they take in our product?

The folks we work with know that it will cost them more to carry Certified Angus Beef ®. It comes at a premium, but they can also sell it for a premium. And they can keep customers coming the doors of the restaurants they serve.

Jay Riscky of Freedman Meats in Dallas told us earlier this year, “One thing our consumers are seeing is they just don’t want meat on the plate. When they are paying extraordinary amounts of money for beef right now they want eating experiences they don’t forget. We see that so many people when they leave the restaurant they forget about how much it costs; they just remember whether it was good or not.”

No beef is cheap today. His goal is to make sure his customers sell more beef. They’re going to do that by focusing on quality. Something worth noting, wherever you find yourself in this trip.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Holly Spangler’s “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series goes on, but we’re not alone. Check out the full list of other folks blogging along with us for 30 days in November on her blog.

You may also like

$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

Certified Angus Beef is offering $100,000 in scholarships for agricultural college students through the 2024 Colvin Scholarship Fund. Aspiring students passionate about agriculture and innovation, who live in the U.S. or Canada, are encouraged to apply before the April 30 deadline. With the Colvin Scholarship Fund honoring Louis M. “Mick” Colvin’s legacy, Certified Angus Beef continues its commitment to cultivating future leaders in the beef industry.

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ was developed as part of a strategic cattle care partnership between Sysco and CAB. The collaboration focuses on supporting farmers and ranchers, equipping them with continuing education to stay current on best management practices and helping to increase consumer confidence in beef production.

Quality Wins, Again

Quality Wins, Again

Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

olson barn

Beef’s a trip day 16: Further processors

The first time I had the chance to partake of an array of value-added, fully precooked, heat-and-eat CAB products was at a trade show back at the turn of the century when they were already winning beef industry awards as best new products. It sure was a taste treat, and became a regular part of the CAB Annual Conference as the Taste Drive.

New products come from further processors!

Anyway, the Beef Checkoff-funded initiative to develop new products from the underutilized chuck and round evolved into today’s Beef Innovations Group (BIG), which has done much to show the way to added value.  How do they do it? None of the taste drives or microwaveable delights would exist today were it not for the efforts of “further processors,” those companies that buy primal cuts and add value by specific cutting methods and/or marinades, spice rubs, cookery, smoking and grinding. ETC. They keep thinking up new, delicious ideas!

One of my favorite snacks is the Gary West steak strip, so good I have seen convention goers enjoying them with breakfast coffee—but I prefer a colder beverage later in the day and out in the wilds. Anybody who’s had a Usinger’s all-beef frankfurter knows why it caused a near panic when it sold out at the 2002 Winter Olympics and we had to help channel more beef to the Wisconsin further processor on short notice.

The value-added products (VAP) division at CAB has one of the most consistent, upward sales growth trends within our company that has done pretty well overall with six consecutive record years. All of that comes from the genius of licensed partners who are further processors.

VAP Director Brett Erickson compares the annual CAB Taste Drive to a producer’s annual bull sale as a telling moment. This year it featured 140 lots, er, VAP items from 17 different processors as 600 enjoyed and evaluated.

“A year’s worth of work, time, energy and dollars for three hours of controlled chaos–all with the hope that the retailer, foodservice distributors, international folks, producers and processors walk away saying, ‘Wow, that was a great Taste Drive!’ The proof comes when processors tell Brett’s team about directly linked sales. “That’s like when a seedstock producer gets a call from his customer about what a great job the bull did and how the calves topped the market. That’s what keeps them coming back.”

Several leading partners focus on the ground beef side, and one of the best, with the most volume is the award-winning Holten Meats of Sauget, Ill.

Jim Holten aims for the best in safety & quality

Led by founder Jim Holten, the company’s highest priority is food safety, and buying exclusively CAB two-piece chucks for grinding takes the worry away on the quality side. More than 10 million pounds per year goes into CAB grinds such as the leading Thick-N-Juicy brand burgers, but also their popular 2-oz. sliders.

“We discovered sliders by accident,” Jim said in the 2009 article, Quality in, quality out. He noted Holten cooked and served small burger pieces on toothpicks at institutional food shows. The company’s Jim Bedwell suggested in 1997 making patties on a 2-ounce (oz.) sausage plate so product could be sampled on small buns. “Soon, we were getting requests for the sliders as products. We began selling the little burgers. The slider ‘craze’ originated with our company.”

Whether it’s the next craze or a better way to add value with an old favorite, you can bet the array of partners in the further processing business will keep finding new pathways that bring in more consumers and add black ink to your bottom line.

Till next time, let’s keep targeting the brand and building tomorrow together,

–Steve

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

You may also like

$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

$100,000 Up for Grabs with 2024 Colvin Scholarships

Certified Angus Beef is offering $100,000 in scholarships for agricultural college students through the 2024 Colvin Scholarship Fund. Aspiring students passionate about agriculture and innovation, who live in the U.S. or Canada, are encouraged to apply before the April 30 deadline. With the Colvin Scholarship Fund honoring Louis M. “Mick” Colvin’s legacy, Certified Angus Beef continues its commitment to cultivating future leaders in the beef industry.

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

Raised with Respect™ was developed as part of a strategic cattle care partnership between Sysco and CAB. The collaboration focuses on supporting farmers and ranchers, equipping them with continuing education to stay current on best management practices and helping to increase consumer confidence in beef production.

Quality Wins, Again

Quality Wins, Again

Sara Scott, Vice President of Foodservice for Certified Angus Beef, emphasizes the importance of taste over price in the beef market during the Feeding Quality Forum. As consumer demand for high-quality beef grows, Scott highlights the need for increased supply and encourages communication with packer partners to meet the demand for Prime beef.

intern taking photos

Beef’s a trip day 15: It’s not all about the beef.

When you think about the end product of beef production, what do comes to mind? A tender, juicy steak —preferably seasoned with no more than salt and pepper and grilled to medium or medium rare?

But there’s a lot more to a finished steer (or heifer, or cull cow) than just the middle meats. There’s ground beef, roasts, brisket — even non-branded items like organs, glands and intestines — being served on dinner tables all over the world tonight.

We can’t talk about this journey through the beef production chain without also pausing to take a look at those non-beef items that come from our herds.

They are the less-thought-about, the byproducts we use every day without even thinking about how they might have started out on our very ranches and feedlots.

Just a few examples are:

• Air filters

• Anti-aging cream

• Boots

• Candles

• Cement

• Chewing gum

• Cosmetics

• Deodorant

• Detergent

• Fertilizer

• Handbags

• Imitation eggs

• Medications

• Pasta

• Paint

• Plastics

• Rubber

• Shampoo and conditioner

• Textiles

That calf you see grazing on wheat pasture right now? He might not only grow up to produce cuts for the Certified Angus Beef® brand, he might also show up in the drugstore or department store!

Beef’s a Trip Archives:

Day 1: Starting at day one

Day 2: Who are these people?

Day 3: Stockholders

Day 4: The cowherd’s purpose

Day 5: Deciding to care

Day 6: Quality focus doesn’t have to skip the middleman

Day 7: Stocking for quality

Day 8: SOLD!

Day 9: What have you done today?

Day 10: Working together to make ‘em better

Day 11: Keep on truckin’

Day 12: Packers want quality

Day 13: The target

Day 14: Packers up close & personal

Day 15: It’s not all about the beef

Day 16: Further processors

Day 17: From here to there–and a lot more

Day 18: He’s on your team

Day 19: Beyond prices, grocery stores uncovered

Day 20: Getting quality in the carts

PS—Holly Spangler is in New York, but her “30 days on a Prairie Farm” series goes on, and so does everybody else’s. Check out the full list on her blog.

You may also like

Progress from small steps

Progress from small steps

Every day is a chance to learn and get better. Thousands of others like my new friends in Alabama are taking steps to meet the shifts in consumer demand, and to know more. Small steps in the right direction can start now. Even if it’s just recording a snapshot of where you are today, a benchmark for tomorrow.

Not perfect, but working to get better

Not perfect, but working to get better

The CAB Cattleman Connection team heard its name called more than once in the virtual ceremonies, and each time came a sense of personal accomplishment, but even better: confirmation that we’re getting better at our craft. I hope that means we’re doing a better job for you.

Beefed up findings

Beefed up findings

Frank Mitloehner presents his findings on the animal ag sector’s impact on global warming. He explains how cattle counterbalance other fossil fuel sectors, proving that cattle are a solution and not a threat.