Making a career in agriculture, I fully anticipated one of the job perks would be getting to work with good people. I mean, I’d grown up in the business and who wouldn’t want to interview people like my grandpa and grandma, my parents and my neighbors back home?
But I never imagined that my boss might look like this:
Or this:
Sure, I report directly to Steve, but my ultimate bosses are the 30,000 members of the American Angus Association.
We’ve said it before, but as a reminder we are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association. We’re owned by the farmers and ranchers who have skin in the game. Whether or not this branded beef program is successful matters to their bottom lines and in many cases, their livelihoods.
My bosses are people like Minnie Lou and Galen and Lori that I told you about yesterday. Our nine-member board is made up of producers from Nebraska, South Carolina, Oklahoma and all across the U.S.
These are the people who have let me bunk up in their ranch office and then cooked me breakfast before our interview the next morning. They’re the ones who have greeted me with a genuine smile and kept that enthusiasm through a whole day of pictures and questions and more pictures (even when they didn’t really like getting their pictures taken in the first place).
When I got into this business, I never could have imagined the powerful stories I’d get to tell or the sense of purpose I’d gain from knowing it mattered to folks like that. It’s about more than a corporate PR gig. If I’m helping commercial cattlemen see the profit potential in aiming for high-quality, along with all the ways to get there, then I’m ultimately helping these registered ranchers.
Our overriding mission statement is: “To increase the demand for registered Angus cattle through a specification-based, branded beef program to identify consistent, high-quality beef with superior taste.”
It’s pretty motivating to me to realize that what I do can help people create really delicious beef AND it benefits some of the best people I know.
Tomorrow we’ll continue on this fast-forward trip as Steve talks about all the ways a commercial rancher works to make your beef better.
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- To get the lowdown on this 30-day blogging challenge, or all the others writing along with us check out the full list over at Holly Spangler’s My Generation blog.