Consistency for the customer

Keeping quality at the forefront since 1978

by Jera Pipkin

This story is part of a special three-part series celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Certified Angus Beef^® brand

Practice makes perfect.

Growing up, I have fond memories of shooting a basketball until I hit that perfect shot, practicing with my show heifer until she hit that perfect pose and even scanning the freezer at home for that perfect steak.

It’s all about consistency, repetition, performance, persistence, perfection.

For consumers, the grocery experience shouldn’t have to be a guessing game. With a little buying practice and insight, they can hit a slam dunk.

Forty years ago, beef in the meat case was far from perfect and definitely far from consistent. So, what did the CAB brand set out to do? Change that.

The difference is in the details — 10 consistency and quality specifications designed to give you the perfect plate. Every. Single. Time.

After 27 years of selling the premium brand, Ed Steinmetz, Giant Eagle meat and seafood vice president, says it gives the customer something to count on.

“I’ve been a very, very strong advocate of the brand,” he says. “From a consumer perspective, it gives me confidence when I’m buying beef that I’m buying a product that’s more dependable, better flavor, better juiciness and tenderness.”

For others, it goes way beyond just buying a steak. They’re buying into a cattleman-owned program with the best Angus beef in mind from farm to fork.

“I believe the customer who buys the Certified Angus Beef brand is predisposed to buying higher quality products throughout the store,” Steinmetz says. “These are folks who understand quality, who understand that sometimes you pay a little extra, but you get what you pay for.”

Higher quality means a premium experience for everyone.

“From a retailer’s perspective and being responsible for the quality and variety we provide customers, I know when they’re buying this brand—the chances of them having a great experience goes up exponentially when they buy Certified Angus Beef.”

The bottom line is customer satisfaction.

“It just gives me confidence that we’re doing the right thing with the customer by offering it,” Steinmetz says.

Ever since 1978, this brand has always delivered an eating experience worth bragging about. Pound after millions of pounds have flown out of retail meat cases, serving as the center for family meals, the star of celebrations and the king of the dinner plate.

And it all goes back to that consistent quest for perfection.

Read more about in the about another man’s journey with the brand in “Charting the Course.”

Telling stories one steak at a time,

Jera

About the author: Jera Pipkin

Five generations deep, Angus cattle run in my blood. Growing up, feed buckets in hand, I harvested a desire for working hard and doing what you love, every single day. For me, that means all things cattle, communications and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. I’m blessed to learn from producers and spread their passion and persistence for the Best Angus Beef. I’m just lucky enough that my favorite things combine into one — working and writing for CAB.

Charting the Course

From the bottom of the barrel to the Best Angus Beef

by Jera Pipkin

This story is part of a special three-part series celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Certified Angus Beef ® brand.

Everybody has to start somewhere.

Nestled off of old Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks, my ancestors set out to write their own success story. From sheep and hogs to the newly-acquired Angus cattle in 1933, they knew nothing more than how to look forward.

The same thing goes for the Certified Angus Beef^® brand. The mantra “we can do better” began a legacy for the brand built on that same forward-looking principle. Forty years later, the brand has paved the way for many to do better.

As an Angus breeder myself, I’ve always marveled at the championship culture of producers, distributor-marketers and retailers of the brand. It’s that same confidence that makes Ron Rurak a shining star.

His journey in the meat business began as a 16-year-old “cleanup kid.” From wiping barrels clean and scraping scraps off the floor, he slowly worked his way up the ladder to where he was paid a dollar for every 1,000 pounds of beef he unloaded. Yeah, I said it was a slow work-up…

As a part-time salesman for B&B Market, the first East Coast licensed retail partner in the CAB Program, Rurak stood behind the brand. He rose through the ranks at a faster clip, learning and seeing things he never thought possible, thanks to opportunities that came with being part of something bigger and growing.

“Certified Angus Beef made me more than a beef salesman,” Rurak says. “It gave me a purpose. It made my family proud of what I did for a living because I sold nothing but the best.”

Rurak, now vice president of the first licensed distributor, Oxford Trading Company in Boston, takes pride in the fact that CAB keeps one thing first — the people. Raised by ranchers for families across the globe, each sale is always a “local transaction” in his mind.

One of his mentors told him, “When you sell the best, it’s never going to come back and haunt you. It’s a one-way trip to the customer.”

A high-school education in his hip pocket, a will to work and a love for people, Rurak is now one of the longest-acting representatives of the brand.

“It has given me a future and a working history that I never thought I would have,” he says.

Every day is the beginning of a new journey. One day you may be scraping the bottom of a barrel and on other days you could be celebrating milestones — like 40 years of the best Angus beef.

Regardless of what it is, trust the process you’re a part of. Because of you, we can do better. We can come out on top.

Telling stories one steak at a time,

Jera

About the author: Jera Pipkin

Cows that fit, calves that fit

Moser talks genetic optimums at Feeding Quality Forum

By Miranda Reiman

Genetic selection for ranch environment or meeting market demand?

That’s a choice cattlemen don’t have to make, said Dan Moser, president of Angus Genetics Inc., speaking at the Feeding Quality Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, this summer.

“It is not an either/or thing. It’s selection for ranch environment while meeting market demand,” he said. “There are Angus cattle that will certainly do well for the combination of traits that are favorable for carcass merit, yet they are still efficient in the cow herd. They are fertile; they have longevity.”

You need to take into account all the genetic information that will help get the cows and calves you want, but those target endpoints probably aren’t the same as they were even a decade ago.

Moser said the ideal cow has changed over the years because the markets have changed.

“There was a time where all calves that were the same color and the same weight brought the same amount,” he said. “Now we are seeing more emphasis on sort of specification feeder cattle and documenting those differences.”

Heavier carcasses bring more dollars, which is why average steer carcass weights have increased 112 pounds (lb.) since 1996. USDA-reported carcass weights for mature cows (including dairy) jumped 119 lb. during that same time, but the Angus expected progeny differences (EPDs) for yearling weight are increasing faster than those for mature weight.

Is there a way to make those trend lines diverge completely?

“The idea of finding that balance doesn’t mean we don’t improve them both simultaneously,” Moser said, citing the birth- versus yearling-weight example. “There was a time when it was thought that we couldn’t simultaneously improve both of those, but we have done that.”

Quality grade trends are another example of dramatic progress. Marbling EPDs were just above .2 in 1986, and today sit just below .6. In a decade’s time, the number of Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®)-brand qualifying cattle doubled, from near 2.25 million in 2007 to 4.5 million in 2017 and more than 5 million in 2018.

“We didn’t look at that one and say, ‘He looks like he’s high marbling, and so we’re going to breed him,’” Moser said. “We have to do the same thing with maternal factors. We can overcome any antagonism if we have the data, but we can’t eyeball it.”

Breeders who are submitting data to the American Angus Association’s Maternal Plus program will spur tool development.

“Honestly, our data across the entire beef industry on things like fertility, cow longevity—it’s limited,” he said. “We’re going to have to be dedicated to objective data collection for those traits to make sure that we can have the meaningful tools we need to drive things forward.”

Genomic testing speeds progress, too, allowing accurate predictions on younger animals and helping “make lower risk selection decisions,” Moser said.

He’s also hopeful it can help address region-specific challenges by creating EPDs for everything from hair shedding and foot structure to cow longevity and altitude tolerance.

“You’ll be able to really tailor genetics to fit your environment,” he said.

Cows that breed back and produce quality calves buyers back—Moser said the day has arrived when nobody has to choose between the cow herd or the consumer.

The forum was presented by the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand, with cosponsors Where Food Comes From, Roto-Mix, Feedlot Magazine, Tyson Foods, Intellibond, Zoetis and Diamond V.

Chinese Key to Cattle Market Prospects

by Nicole Lane Erceg

The one thing certain in commodity markets is ambiguity. Ag Resource Company president Dan Basse, however, provided a bit of clarity and foresight at the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand’s Feeding Quality Forum last week in Sioux City, Iowa.

In a chaotic political climate that leaves much up in the air for trade policy, Basse offered comfort.

“We believe the markets are going to endure heightened financial risk and volatility, even our cattle markets,” he said. “When you think about demand for agricultural products globally, the world economic situation looks relatively good.”

The coming months hold concerns though, because unlike the stock market, commodities have seen little or no upswing. Basse suggested what to monitor.

There are two key ways he said agriculture could see a bull market again: a trade deal with China or a 20% value drop in the U.S. dollar. Neither look likely in the near future.

A longer term opportunity Basse noted is Chinese and Indian demand for better food going into 2026, along with increased buying power. China alone is forecast to add more than 150 million households with
annual incomes greater than $20,000.

“If you want to solve America’s agricultural woes, you want to focus on both of those countries,” he told the crowd. “Accordingly, Gregg Doud (chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative Office)
is looking at China and India being the two linchpins of U.S. agricultural policy going forward.”

The challenges? India taxes nearly all imported commodities and the Chinese aren’t rushing to the negotiating table anytime soon. Basse explained the Trump administration has applied tariffs to agricultural commodities and other products (with more set to go soon) to pressure the Chinese to negotiate intellectual property disputes. The tactics have yet to cause much Chinese angst because the country holds 50% of the
world’s wheat stocks.

“They could feed only wheat all year long and still have enough supply available,” he said. Meanwhile, their hunt for alternatives to American soybeans could find them looking far to the south.

“If this trade war continues for a long period of time – by that I mean a couple of years, and that’s possible – the Chinese will run to Africa,” Basse said, “because they see the opportunity of Africa ultimately being an agricultural producer.”

Another reason China feels little pressure to strike a deal has to do with U.S. farm debt, currently approaching the 1980s record. Net farm income has dropped 50% since 2012 and is projected to remain flat, so the Chinese know U.S. farmers need foreign customers. Basse said he worries about banks, particularly smaller institutions, running out of opportunity capital. In fact, combined with rising interest rates, bankers may soon charge more for loans already outstanding.

“What I call this is, not so much debt going up, but an operational crisis,” Basse said.

The most-highly leveraged industries will be the most at risk should the “trade purgatory” continue, he warned. The silver lining for beef producers is they are less leveraged than poultry, cotton, dairy and pork producers.

When it comes to corn, Basse is no bear.

“There may be another dime or 15 cents down, but if I were you, I’d be thinking about taking coverage, probably into the first or second quarter of next year.”

As the Southern Hemisphere’s corn stocks decline, combined with the drought across Europe and the Black Sea, the U.S. is expected to be the residual supplier.

“I’m looking for U.S. corn exports this year to be record large, 2.6 billion bushels, (200 million above USDA’s estimate). U.S. cattlemen need to get ahead of this a little bit,” Basse said, urging the buy, “Not caught up in the tailwind when U.S. farmers get the harvest in and you’re competing with the export demand.”

Beef producers need their own export deal with China if they hope to take the market’s bull by the horns.

“Beef demand has been good, export demand has been outstanding, but I really need the Trump administration to lock down this Chinese demand,” Basse said. “If we don’t have that Chinese demand, I can’t really sustain the bull market in agriculture as we see it today.”

He drove the point home: “It’s so important that the Trump administration get a trade deal with China because, without it, I don’t have growth for our balance sheets as USDA would forecast for another 7 to 10 years.”

That’s not to say domestic demand is poor.

“If you look at beef by itself, you can see we’re at our best level this year in terms of per-capita consumption, going back to 2008,” he said, noting expanding demand.

Record sales like those for the CAB brand over the last 11 consecutive years say domestic consumers want premium beef, but opportunities for extreme expansion lie beyond U.S. borders. In fiscal year 2017, the brand sold 1.14 billion pounds with international markets representing more than 30% of year-over-year growth.

U.S. beef demand will remain strong to close out 2018, Basse said, modifying “how far the futures or cash markets drop.” He sees cash cattle moving from $114 to $118 for a third-quarter high to a low of $102 to $104 in the fourth quarter.

“You all in the market need to be paying very close attention to these opportunities for hedging going
forward,” he said.

He predicted fed-cattle harvest to drop dramatically into October, driving the cash market to perhaps $120 per cwt. by the first week of November. Packer margins as high as $360 per head earlier in 2018 drove at-capacity harvest much of the year, moving cattle through the system and creating record beef stocks through July’s end. Even with world meat production at a record high, Basse sees U.S. cattle herd expansion continuing into 2019, although prices will peak early in the year.

Genetic Answers to Consumer Demand

by Laura Conaway

What’s relevant today isn’t necessarily so tomorrow. Investing in the future pushes everybody forward.

That was the motivating think piece Mark McCully shared with cattlemen as part of the National Angus Convention’s opening session Saturday, Nov. 3, in Columbus, Ohio. As farmers and ranchers attended breakouts designed to make their own herds better, McCully’s point held its weight.

Anything that could make it above the Select line was once considered “on target” for satisfying consumer demand.

“It’s like the rare vacations my family would take as a kid,” the Certified Angus Beef’^® (CAB^®) brand vice president of supply recalled. “We’d be driving down the road and I’d try to talk my dad into staying at a motel that advertised ‘Color TV.’”

Pointing out that such messages still exist along the roadside, he prodded: “I wonder how effective those signs are today.”

We expect more today, and that’s “a good problem to have,” McCully said, especially when a breed has the potential to deliver more. That momentum can make a superior brand better.

Cattlemen interested in maximizing profit and driving the industry forward must look ahead, he said. Having done so himself, he reported the future looks bright.

“There’s a reason beef trades at twice the retail price of pork and three times the price of chicken. Have you ever heard of anybody craving a chicken breast?

“Beef owns taste,” he said. That’s still the top driver of consumer satisfaction and protein buying behavior. It’s also the cornerstone for the CAB brand and why McCully’s team puts so much emphasis on the importance of marbling in genetic selection.

“We know marbling is absolutely key to eating satisfaction,” he said, showing a graph depicting an industry shift from commodity to quality-driven beef over a 10-year period. At present, 18.5% of all fed cattle harvested in the United States earn CAB premiums; 17.7% are Select. In 2008 those numbers were 9.2% and 33%, respectively.

To the progressive cattlemen in the audience, he offered deserving praise.

“Guys, you have to take an awful lot of ownership and pride in these numbers, in the shift of this business, in this beef industry that’s listened to the consumer and aligned genetics to produce a higher grading product in the end.”

Continued advancement of genetic selection tools paves the way for cattle to marble and gain in tandem. They also encourage a long-range vision.

“We’re in the genetics business. When it comes to the decisions we make today, we need to be thinking about five to 10 years out,” McCully said. “What are the trends?” What could those trends be down the road?

Fielding a question that’s become common, he addressed the concern that such a high acceptance rate could saturate demand for premium beef.

“Absolutely not,” he said showing a graph that details some ups and downs from year to year but a continual trend that’s only growing.

“In a time when we have doubled the number of certified carcasses marketed through the brand, we’ve seen an increase in sales by more than 35%,” and even still, “we continue to see the Choice/CAB spread remain strong.”

There’s no better illustration of the demand for high-quality beef domestically and globally than that data, he said.

By not resting on laurels, cattlemen looking to further their herds’ genetic potential drive demand further as new retailers and restaurants gain access and confidence in the product.

Cattle still sell by the pound, no doubt, but premiums available to carcasses hitting all 10 of CAB’s strict carcass specifications trigger a higher rate of payment for those pounds, and keep customers coming back for more.

The reality is, “if you’re still thinking about your cattle that are 60% Choice and 25% CAB as really good cattle,” they’re below average today. “The bar’s been raised,” McCully said.

The market has adjusted and wants something more.

“We know, globally, there’s demand for our product,” McCully said. No matter the weather or uncertainty in commodity prices, “the ability to know how cattle are going to grade gives some stability to manage risk.

“There’s a lot of demand and a lot of support as we look to the future of high-quality beef.”

What’s in a name?

by Nicole Lane Erceg

What’s in a name?

More than you might imagine.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex publicized weeks ago they’re expecting and with the announcement came a flood of ideas for baby names. Meghan Markle shared with the press she has a list of names for the new royal submitted from family, friends and fans that she and Prince Harry plan review.

A name is something that’s fussed over, a decision that’s weighed, debated and brainstormed whether you’re naming a future child, business or defining herd bull.

For those of you who don’t follow royal gossip, here’s a few examples from the cattle industry.

Remember Pfizer Animal health? Zoetis seems so normal now. What about the look of the old Angus Journal? I’ve got a few sitting around my desk in a style I used to cherish that now seems a bit outdated. Is there a bull that you have pictures of hanging in your farm office? One whose name you’ll never forget because it changed the course of your business?

As times and needs evolve, so does our industry. Sometimes it’s with the addition of something new, other times it’s building something new on top of what you’ve done before.

Names, logos and marketing visuals matter because they help us connect businesses to the value they provide. They take on their own definition, one that communicates a mission and goals. It’s something that makes us easy to find and creates clarity about who we are and what we do.

We can always make our businesses better. Sometimes that includes making big changes like a large cull from the bottom of your herd or a shift in calving seasons. Other times it might be a small tweak in management.

In 40 years of the Certified Angus Beef brand, we’ve made significant changes all while staying true to our mission of building demand for registered Angus cattle. We updated the logo in the 80’s, added a Culinary Center in 2012 and have evolved our marketing as trends and times change.

The Certified Angus Beef (R) brand logo has undergone new looks in its 40 years of existence as well.

Our goal remains the same. We strive to help drive dollars derived from our brand back to your ranch.

Since the Production division of the Certified Angus Beef brand began, we’ve gone by many names both internally and externally. These have included CAB Partners, Black Ink Basics, Supply Development, to name a few.

It can be hard to keep them all straight.

In an effort to help provide clarity as to who we are, who we serve (YOU!) and how we can help you get more for your Angus calves, we’ve got a new name and with it a new look. It’s the same content with some updated style backed by data and research, and the same team working to help drive dollars from the brand back to your ranch.

We’re proud to reintroduce ourselves as the Certified Angus Beef brand Cattleman Connection. Along with the new name, we’re also excited to share this new online platform for the latest news and resources to help you in your mission of high-quality beef production. Consider bookmarking cabcattle.com to come back often as we update weekly with new information to help you breed better beef and add more black ink to your bottom line. We invite you to explore our new site and let us know what you found valuable.

We hope this makes it easier for you to find helpful information and recognize us as your source of information for targeting quality both online and in the field.

Until next time,

Nicole

About the Author: Nicole Erceg

Raised in the Strawberry Mountains of Eastern Oregon, I’m a fan of wide open spaces and rural life. I didn’t grow up in the beef industry, but I got here as fast as I could. My love for great stories, a well marbled steak and black cattle led me to Ohio where I consider myself blessed to blend my many passions into a “job” at CAB.

Less feed, less money

by Miranda Reiman

When it comes to stocker nutrition, an old-fashioned strategy might be the way of the future.

That’s what Dale Blasi, Kansas State University (K-State) Extension beef specialist, said about limit-feeding calves in the growing phase.

The scientific research goes back decades, but at this year’s 13^th annual Feeding Quality Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, he presented new reasons to give it fresh look:

Eat less, gain the same. “Can we simplify what we’re doing?” Blasi asked. Going from an “All-you-can-eat Vegas buffet” to a “Camp Pendleton diet” didn’t significantly impact average daily gain (ADG), but improved feed efficiency by 27%.
Less input=less output. When cattle consume less, waste decreases, too. A 45% reduction in fecal output, from 8. 28 pounds (lb.) per animal to 4.59 lb., equates to saving a nickel each day for manure removal. “Over 100 days, that’s $5 per animal savings at the stocker unit,” he said. He suggests producers figure that cost for their own operation.
Delivery dollars. Early research points to shaving off truckloads in feed delivery because of higher density rations, Blasi said. “You save your truck driver, you save your equipment wear and tear… you have to take that type of stuff into consideration.”
Better health detection. “When it is time to eat your breakfast at Camp Pendleton, you are going to eat,” he said. “From a health detection perspective, that driver can do an incredible service looking for the cattle that are not very interested in wanting to eat.” There is no way to put a dollar value on that, but it’s an important benefit.

Increasing energy in the form of starchy ingredients, such as grain, “gives us some caution” said Blasi, noting increased health challenges and death losses as concerns. That’s where limiting the amount comes in.

At K-State’s stocker unit, cattle are offered long-stem grass hay on arrival. The next day they get a total mixed ration (TMR) of 40% byproducts (wet distillers grain or wet corn gluten feed) and 38% corn fed at 1% of bodyweight. It’s stepped up by .25% of bodyweight until day five. That cuts the time to full ration (2.25% of bodyweight) by more than half the normal warmup period.

Blasi said it’s a good strategy to consider when drought dramatically increases forage costs.

“Not just anybody can step out there and decide they can do it tomorrow. You have to be dedicated to the process,” he cautioned. Requirements include precise in-weights and allowing at least 15 inches per head of bunk space. Throughout the process, it’s important to have an accurate head count in the pens after pulls.

“You need to know exactly what you’ve got,” Blasi said, especially since most producers won’t weigh cattle every two weeks like they do in research studies. “As long as you have a good, accurate starting weight, and a uniform set of calves, you can just calculate gains as you bump your ration amounts up. You have to be on your ‘A’ game.”

Done right, limit feeding can have a significant economic impact. For 100 head during a three-month growing phase, better efficiency translates to a $1,600 feed savings. There’s another $500 savings in manure removal reduction. All of that adds up to $21 per head.

Other benefits that are hard to quantify include health detection, fewer machine hours and reduced days to a finishing stage.

“If I were to hire a student feeding once per day as opposed to two times per day, that adds another $2,700 over that 90-day turn,” Blasi said.

In past studies, “there’s no indication of limit feeding [in the growing phase] having a negative impact on the finish feeding performance.”

His team is following the cattle all the way through harvest to study impact on carcass quality.

“It’s kind of like something that’s been in vogue for so long, loses its coolness, and then along the way you say, why haven’t we been staying with that?”

The forum was presented by Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) with cosponsors Where Food Comes From, Roto-Mix, Feedlot Magazine, Tyson Foods, Intellibond, Zoetis and Diamond V.

Blockchain for the beef chain

by Katrina Huffstutler

The IBM brand isn’t often associated with the cattle business. But that may change, thanks to the tech giant’s IBM Food Trust and its use of blockchain. That’s just what it sounds like: blocks of information that form a chain, linked via Internet to allow information sharing that is seamless, efficient and secure.

Its primary application is between partners across an industry striving to achieve improved transparency, traceability, sustainability — and ultimately even profitability.

Nigel Gopie, marketing leader for the IBM initiative, told 200 cattlemen at the late-summer Feeding Quality Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, the system offers trust and transparency in places where it either doesn’t exist or could be improved.

“In the food industry, in particular,” Gopie said, “there are a lot of concerns about food safety, food fraud, sustainability, and others. We believe that, with blockchain, we can bring light to problems that have plagued us for centuries.”

Take food safety, for example. With blockchain, the source of contamination could be pinpointed easily — no more long-lasting scares like the one earlier this year where consumers were told to avoid romaine lettuce for months.

“With blockchain, we’re able to solve problems that we never could solve before,” Gopie said.

The benefits of information sharing works both directions.

“I could learn more about your organization by sharing data, I can learn more about my organization, but also together, we can learn a whole lot more” he said “What we believe in is, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

While the audience of quality-focused cattlemen was intrigued, many had the same concern, voiced in a question: Is it secure? Gopie assured them it is.

“With blockchain, your data belongs to you,” he said. “We believe your data does not belong to the solution, nor does it belong to your transaction partners. And so, your data is held in secure environments and it’s only shared when you want to share it. It’s encrypted and no one can get access to that data unless you permission it.”

He added cattlemen have flexibility when it comes to sharing, too.

“You don’t have to permission all of your data — you can share pieces of data, you can share all of your data, and you can share data with me or your transaction partners one month, but then change that permissioning so we share different data or no data at all the following month,” Gopie said.

And what about liability? Would a rancher or feeder be responsible if E. coli was traced back to his operation? What would that look like?

Gopie said blockchain is about fact finding, not fault finding. And beyond that, it’s important to remember an outbreak may not be related to time on the hoof anyway.

“It could’ve been any point during the supply chain, but by having the visibility, you’re able to help figure out where different paths cross, and then you’re able to identify the problem,” he said. “So, it may not be on a farm at all. However, if it is on your farm, wouldn’t you want to know? Secondly, if it was not on your farm, you’d also want to share that information. You would be able to say, ‘I understand it was Nigel’s farm that had that problem and we’re all there to help and ensure that doesn’t happen again. But also, my stuff is safe.’”

That’s only one part of the equation. In a much bigger sense, blockchain’s application can allow a new and better way for consumers to feel connected to their food from pasture to plate.

“A lot of us folks who live in a city love the idea of understanding where our food comes from, seeing pictures of where our cattle are raised. I think that sort of connection allows us to feel closer with the food that we’re eating, realize that the men and women who are raising these products really care about them, and it’s the same thing that they would feed their families at home,” Gopie said. “And so, it provides us with a little more trust about the entire system by allowing that connection to take place.”

The forum was presented by the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand, with cosponsors Where Food Comes From, Roto-Mix, Feedlot Magazine, Tyson Foods, Intellibond, Zoetis and Diamond V.

CAB opens its house

by Miranda Reiman

For the staff, it was a big family reunion, getting to show extended kinfolk from across the United States the Certified Angus Beef^® brand’s (CAB^®) Wooster, Ohio, home. For Angus breeders, it was a bit like drawing back a curtain to see what happens behind the logo.

“Everything we do here is to drive our mission,” said John Stika, CAB president, with a nod toward that goal of building demand for Angus genetics.

He welcomed groups of cattlemen and women to the brand’s headquarters on Friday, Nov. 2, as part of the National Angus Tour and again for an open house after the National Angus Convention wrapped up on Monday, Nov. 5.

“We are a full-service marketing organization. Anything our partners need to sell more pounds…we do that here,” Stika said.

CAB founding president Mick Colvin recalled some colorful stories that were “stumbling blocks” for the program early on. He brought a firsthand account to near brand-ending board votes and the USDA cancellation. Those hurdles seem like distant memories now that CAB is in its 12^th consecutive year of sales records, amounting to 1.21 billion pounds in Fiscal 2018, he said.

Guests roamed between the main office and Culinary Center, where they got a taste of everyday business as well as literally tasting why the brand they own is so successful.

If breeders wondered what brand assurance was all about before the stop, they understood after Amanda Barstow, director of legal affairs, passed out beef samples during her talk on protecting the trademark.

With a little pressure to rate those samples, people in the small groups shook their heads and admitted it was far from enjoyable. When Barstow revealed it was Select beef sold under a ruse as CAB, she didn’t need to emphasize why it’s so important to track and verify that businesses identifying their beef with the mark are selling the real deal.

“The only thing we own is this brand,” she said. Barstow’s team pulls in the reins on reputation-ruining imposters.

Just up the stairs, marketing came to life as volunteers engaged in role playing. A breeder posing as “Steve from Steve’s Steakhouse” was given everything from aprons and knives to social-media training and ad campaigns. The CAB staff kept piling on the tools for retailer and distributor, too.

In another 10 minutes, the rotation paused at a big screen watching the “Rare Moments Done Well” commercial and identifying what red bubbles versus green mean in the company’s social-media-monitoring software. That illustration showed how the brand leverages positive conversations and helps mitigate negative ones.

They made stops in the art department to talk about the significance of in-house printing, then learned value-added products philosophy in the test kitchen and saw a food photoshoot unfolding frame by frame in the audio-visual studio.

Across the parking lot, The Culinary Center is used to visitors, but 400 during the course of a single day may be a record.

The brand’s 10 carcass-based specifications came to life when Diana Clark, CAB meat scientist, walked through them one by one with a hanging side of beef to illustrate.

“You don’t want to pay for a Cadillac with a scratch on it,” she said, describing the reasons for zero tolerance on traits like dark cutters. “This is a premium brand, and we want to have a premium product.”

That consistency is what drives value for all who market the product.

“Anybody can sell ribs, strips and tenders,” said Justin Sexten, CAB director of supply development. “We work here to add value to the entire carcass—that’s our goal.”

In the dining room, Chef Tony Biggs shared bold ideas they’ve taken to the culinary world, from bringing back the “steamship round” that was popular decades ago to a chuck roll cooked tableside in a cocktail smoker.

“We use The Culinary Center to educate food industry professionals. We teach people how to cook beef; we inspire them with ideas,” he said. It’s a job they take seriously given what they know goes into the product: “It takes two years to raise and five minutes to ruin [in the kitchen].”

Guests shopped the extensive Black Hide Collection, the company’s branded clothing line, display and a free resource room stocked with new rancher-focused educational materials. The team also unveiled its new Cattleman Connection website (cabcattle.com) during the event.

“We could have stayed and chatted for hours,” said Erica Siler, Sivue Farms, North Java, N.Y. “It truly is a company whose mission is to help and support the producers who supply the product.”

Stika said he hoped people left with pride in their brand and what their quality genetics have accomplished.

“We’re not making that many more cattle that fast. Fortunately we’re making cattle a whole lot better with the use of Angus genetics,” he said.

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