Time tested

by Miranda Reiman

We’ve dubbed it the “smiling house.”

On my family’s regular route through the Sandhills, there’s a lonely old place, rain and time have left the wood devoid of color. Yet, with its classic, square farmhouse design—and a little imagination—its two upstairs windows make eyes. It sags so much that the porch looks like it’s turned up in a smile.

Every time we pass the “smiling house,” I do the opposite, however. There are no signs that anybody has cared about the place in quite some time, but I can’t help thinking about a time when someone did. “That was somebody’s dream, somebody’s hope,” as the old Tracy Byrd song goes. “They had big plans, they had no doubts.”

We always wonder when we’ll drive past and find it’s disappeared into the sea of grass, either due to Mother Nature or management.

PastureDriveBy — Someday the “smiling house” will be nothing more than a pasture, but for now it still makes me wonder about its history. (Also, I wish I had a picture of that house for this post.)

Of course, it could be they have a bigger, nicer place more suitable for ranch headquarters, or dozens of other explanations, but my mind often settles on the depressing thought that perhaps that operation didn’t survive a ’50s drought or the ’80s Farm Crisis.

A little way down the sparse highway, I see a ranch that probably dates back to the same period, but it’s a starkly different picture. The well-kept house could look much like it did new, perhaps 100 years ago. There’s a bustle of activity around the place, with evidence that the people living there grow everything from tomatoes and cucumbers to kids and cattle.

As I travel past slices of the country with a past I know only in general, I often wonder about their specific history. What could we learn from the places that failed and the ones that flourish?

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to learn those stories.

Earlier this summer, I sat down with two different cattle feeders. One male, one female. One 96, one close to 80. One in Nebraska, one in Colorado. One large scale, one small. There were many differences in their journey, but also many similarities of how one ends up looking back on a career in agriculture with collectively more wins than losses.

Sandhills_Green_small — If you ever have the chance to ride around in a pasture with a seasoned producer… do. You’re bound to learn a lot.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom:

- Work hard, spend wisely. “First, you’re so busy trying to make a living, you haven’t got time to wonder what’s going to happen in the years to come,” one said. They both talked about the physical labor and mental energy it took building their businesses. They still practice frugality. “Keep enough reserves that you know you’re going to weather a storm,” said the other.
- Challenges aren’t something to fear, but rather something to learn from. “Some of those are good because it will humble you. You get to going along pretty good and you get to feeling pretty good about yourself and you get in one of those and you’ll get a little humility back,” said the cattleman.
- Embrace technology. An adding machine and typewriter have given way to the computer, “but that’s progress; and we’re always for progress, really. Not progress for itself. Not progress because the neighbors have it,” she said. “Progress, that it will fit your business and be profitable in your business.
- Remember your buyer. “If you give them what they want, you can rest assured you’re going to have a profit.” Both feeders have watched quality grades increase and consumer demand follow suit. “You’ll be rewarded for your work. It’s easier to go downhill than it is to push something uphill.”

I’ll be smiling at the gems I picked up from these seasoned producers, long after that landmark house falls into a final frown.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Darnall quality aim honored

by Jen Gillespie

November 30, 2011

One of the first and best Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) feeding partners, Darnall Feedlot, Harrisburg, Neb., was known for quality even before licensing in early 1999. Gary and Lane Darnall, father and son, signed on with their 20,000-head yard and quickly gained a wider reputation for consistent quality.

A few years later, CAB created the 30.06 Program to highlight harvest groups of cattle that hit the target with at least 30% Certified Angus Beef^® brand or Prime and no more than 6% outliers.

That’s not as easy as it might sound, especially for a large feedlot. But Darnall had previously won the CAB Partner of the Year for large yards (2006) and the Quality Focus Award (2008), as well as numerous awards in the National Angus Carcass Challenge a few years ago. So they know how to get the job done.

In September, Darnall reached the milestone of having enrolled more than 500 head of 30.06-qualified cattle. In fact, those 506 cattle earned a 43.92% CAB acceptance rate.

“The Darnall focus on high-quality Angus genetics starts on their ranch,” says Paul Dykstra, beef cattle specialist with CAB.

“Gary and Lane have a good sized cow herd of their own and they understand the ins and outs, from birth to harvest, choosing Angus cows as the factory for their own operation,” he says.

With that background, the Darnalls understand the challenges cattlemen face. That helps them in building relationships.

“The customer has to have confidence in the feedlot, knowing they’ll do a good job at protecting and enhancing the value of their investment,” says Gary Darnall.

Consistent quality is a team effort. “It’s the cattle, the producers that engineer those cattle, and the genetics,” Darnall says. “We feel pretty humble in saying that we get to add some value to that product to a point where it will grade in the upper Choice category.”

Being a CAB partner is just a win/win deal, he adds: “It provides incentive to produce a higher quality product, all the way from the rancher to the retailer.”

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On-target at Pratt

by Lyndee Stabel

November 21, 2011

Of all the words that could describe Pratt Feeders, “quality” best fits the staff, the cattle they feed and the way they feed them. Over the past year, the south-central Kansas yard has ramped up its connection with the “Q” word.

There was a big step in March, when the yard demonstrated it could hit the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand target at the Silver level. That means harvesting more than 1,000 head, cumulative, in the CAB 30.06 Program, which highlights groups with 30% or better CAB and USDA Prime with no more than 6% outliers.

Then it became Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified last summer. That’s an educational program “to ensure cattle are raised in the best possible manner to create the highest quality end-product for consumers,” says Tera Rooney, veterinary research assistant for the Beef Cattle Institute.

Manager Jerry Bohn says CAB and the BQA program are another great fit. “We originally became licensed to assist both CAB and our customers in generating more high-quality beef at a premium price. The BQA program is the perfect addition to it because it extends the quality, control and care we need to have to supply the best product to consumers,” he says.

In September, the yard won CAB’s Quality Focus Award for yards with more than 15,000-head capacity.

It was a great year, but the program was built up over a decade, says Gary Fike, beef cattle specialist for CAB. “Since March, they have already added nearly 500 head to the total qualifying 30.06,” he says, noting that is especially hard to do for big yards.

The smallest eligible 30.06 harvest group is 10 head, so small feedyards can build up incremental success with several sets where 7 of 10 are accepted, for example.

“Bigger feedyards may send in 30 to 50 head at a time, so more cattle in each group have to qualify,” Fike says. At 40,000-head capacity, Pratt Feeders is definitely not a small feedlot.

But staffers use scale to a quality advantage, Rooney discovered in her work doing BQA audits.

“With the detailed training for people and assessments for both people and cattle, it’s no surprise to me that they also excel in raising quality cattle for the Certified Angus Beef brand,” she says.

It’s a calculated approach. “We are focused on attracting quality cattle and constantly improving management to help them attain higher levels of CAB acceptance,” Bohn says.

Part of the management includes extensive sorting and advanced data communication with customers, even to those who do not retain ownership of cattle on feed. Of course, the system isn’t perfect.

“There’s still room for improvement,” Bohn says. But the focus on quality cattle, handling and customer service says quality will keep filling the room.

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Angus capital

Keeling Cattle Feeders shares data and family-style connections

by Wyatt Bechtel and Steve Suther

Hereford, Texas, is known as the “Beef Capital of the World.” It is also home to Keeling Cattle Feeders, CAB 2011 Feedlot Partner of the Year for all yards with more than 15,000-head capacity.

In 2007, only about one-quarter of the feedlot’s 17,000 head were Angus type, and of those just 9.6% reached Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand acceptance. Becoming a CAB partner that year added an Angus focus to the Keelings’ overall commitment to quality. Last year, the yard enrolled 6,200 head that made 21% CAB – well above the Texas average.

“We changed our whole business over the last few years,” says Scott Keeling, who owns the yard with wife Karen. The couple accepted the CAB award at the brand’s annual conference in Sunriver, Ore., Sept. 20-22.

Risk management has been increasingly important as the feedlot moved up from 25% to 50% cattle ownership while upgrading animal type. Oldest son Tyler has been a big help in that regard. He’s a commodity broker in Amarillo, and with wife Trudy, parents of the Keelings’ only grandchild, Reid.

Second-oldest son Levi is a feedlot-operations major in a nearby junior college, and Tom, the youngest at 13, is just getting into the junior-high school years with lots of activities. The Keelings always made time to attend local sporting events for the sons who span 16 years in age, devoting time to teach life’s lessons along with golf and fly fishing.

Grading effects, weather and variable lot sizes are a few of the challenges the feedlot faces. “Sometimes it’s like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” Keeling says. “But that’s part of what I like about our business.”

He also likes the results, as real opportunities get nailed down, herds improve and everybody from rancher to consumer wins.

“There’s a circle of friends that comes with being a CAB partner,” says Keeling, who was honored in 2008 as CAB Progressive Partner of the Year.

One of those friends is state and nationally prominent Angus producer Steve Olson, who started feeding with Keeling when it became a CAB-licensed yard.

“The feedlot is the right size to give personal attention,” Olson says. “He’s involved himself in the marketing and feeding. He knows what’s going on in his yard and that is a plus to me.”

Olson was looking for a feeder who could provide carcass data on the calves he was raising.

Keeling Cattle Feeders has served as a tour stop for chefs from big cities and other beef specialists who want to learn more about the products they sell, prepare and serve.

“We do a lot of things like that; we’re really transparent with what we do and I love to show it to people,” Keeling says. “They ask good questions and appreciate what you’re doing.”

The feedlot is a model with its beef-industry advocacy and a commitment to quality; much of its business revolves around building bridges.

“Those relationships have only gotten stronger with our CAB affiliation,” Keeling says.

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Testament to plan well executed

Pratt Feeders wins CAB award

by Steve Suther

A 38,000-head feedlot near Pratt, Kan., shows what can be done with a systematic approach to higher quality beef.

Pratt Feeders committed to quality in 2003 by licensing with Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), and won a national CAB award the next year because of manager Jerry Bohn’s plans.

With universal staff support, the feedyard gathered data as never before, sharing it with CAB and customers to upgrade cattle and profitability.

Back then, its 11% Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand acceptance rate on 17,000 cattle was a benchmark to leave in the dust. In the same June-May period ending this spring, a similar number of enrolled and harvested cattle made nearly 32% CAB and Prime.

That was 7 percentage points above the 2010 Pratt Feeders mark, too. It’s why, at the CAB annual conference in Sunriver, Ore., Sept. 20-22, assistant manager Dave Latta accepted the 2011 Quality Focus Award for partners with more than 15,000-head capacity.

“We made a conscious effort to procure more of the right kind of cattle,” he says. “But our retained ownership customers have made great progress as well.”

Latta heads up both areas of procurement.

“Our cattle from Florida and Louisiana customers fit in with those from Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and South Dakota, pretty much all Angus,” he says. Per-head premiums earned in June ranged from the mid-$40s to twice that above the cash market.

Bohn says a key to earning premiums is learning how to feed high-quality cattle as a category, and specific to repeat customers.

He set the course for success years ago with a strategy to learn as much as possible about the cattle he feeds while inviting higher quality placements. The feedyard has enrolled more than 150,000 cattle in the CAB database since licensing. It opened doors to Angus producers for networking and a series of options to return data, even when the feedlot buys up to full interest.

“Angus customers have made a pretty intensive selection for quality as we learned to feed them a bit more and returned the data,” Bohn says. In 2003, he knew something about the genetic potential in 15% of the cattle fed. Today that stands at 35% to 40%.

Other factors have affected quality, too, he says, including weather and instrument grading.

Over the last couple of years, Pratt Feeders has been increasingly involved with CAB in training foodservice and beef sales teams.

“Our industry has to become a little more transparent,” Bohn says. “The beef consumer is quite removed from the rural roots of years ago. We have to become advocates for our industry.”

That’s why the feedlot keeps looking for more ways to bridge the cultural and information gap between segments in the food chain.

From rancher to feeder, packer to purveyor and consumer, “everybody in the system is more willing to share information than they used to be,” he says. “All the volatility and higher prices in the system put more pressure on the need to share if we are all going to move ahead.”

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Some discounts lead to profit

Counterintuitive keys to feeding cattle expensive corn

By Miranda Reiman

Corn is high. Logically, that means feeders will sell cattle lighter with fewer days on feed, right?

Not exactly. That’s what Shawn Walter, Professional Cattle Consultants (PCC), told attendees at the recent Feeding Quality Forum.

“Every time we see another spike in corn prices you hear another analyst talking about how the higher ration prices are going to force fewer days on feed and cut carcass weights. I don’t think that’s ever happened,” he said. “Our dataset goes back to 1971 and every time the corn prices increase, we see a resulting increase in out-weights as a result.”

PCC research shows it’s a sound strategy for those selling on a carcass basis.

“With the high costs of gain, do we need to sell cattle earlier and avoid the grids?” Walter asked. “Actually, it’s the opposite.”

He explained “carcass transfer.” As cattle get heavier, a higher percentage of the live weight gain goes to the carcass.

“Putting on carcass weight becomes more efficient than putting on live gain,” he says. As feed costs climb, that’s magnified.

In their database, using a $340 ration price, it is profitable to feed cattle for a live endpoint up to 100 days – which means every day you feed cattle beyond that point, your breakeven selling price is increasing instead of decreasing. However, cattlemen can continue to feed for another 60 to 90 days for a carcass endpoint.

PCC sorted cattle records into high, middle and low-profit thirds and compared their characteristics.

“Average daily gain is obviously the most important factor in overall profitability,” he said, noting the highest money-getters put on 3.3 pounds (lb.) per day, compared to 2.8 for the least profitable.

“But as you dig into the data, as cattle improved their grade, we also saw improvement in that average daily gain,” he said. “Those two are positively correlated.”

That makes sense, he said, because, “Cattle that are able to gain efficiently are also able to gain fat deposition and increase grade. If you think about it, grading and performance should go hand-in-hand, especially with the improved genetics we have today.”

The high-graders, gainers and profit-getters also had a common, perhaps surprising, theme. They also had the most discounts.

“There tends to be an aversion toward having any heavyweight carcasses, any yield grade (YG) 4s and 5s or any discounts on the grid,” Walter said. “If you don’t have some discounts, you haven’t taken the entire pen to the level you need to.”

Those penalties are balanced by increased pounds sold.

“Because of the additional days on feed and weight, you’re going to get additional grade, including higher percentages of CAB (Certified Angus Beef^®),” he said. “That’s good, but you can’t just weigh premium versus discount. You’re actually going to get a premium on heavier cattle that are going CAB and that more-than offsets the few YG 4s and 5s you’re going to get as a result.”

Walter’s main message was that times have changed and management and marketing strategies need to match these new economic times.

“If you’ve never sold cattle on a carcass weight basis, you’ve always been a live seller, maybe this is the one time you need to look for opportunity to sell cattle on a carcass basis,” he said.

“Regardless of the market, there are cattle that make money and cattle that lose money,” Walter said, noting the average $200 spread in monthly profit or loss.

Knowing cattle history can help feeders make sure they hit the top end of that range.

“When you know how the cattle are going to grade and perform, you can put all that together and use that to push the envelope,” he said.

The meetings, held in Omaha, Neb., and Garden City, Kan, were sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, CAB, Purina Land O’Lakes and Feedlot Magazine.

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‘Make stockers better’

April 20, 2011

Good stocker operators think about how to make their cattle better for the next segment in the beef business.

Many of them gathered at the Backgrounding for Quality field day near Hamilton, Kan., last month to learn more about what feeders want and how to get there.

Jerry Bohn, general manager of Pratt (Kan.) Feeders, shared his experience with the group.

“If you want a premium price, you must have premium cattle. Make them better,” he said. “If you have a story to tell a buyer, you’ll be in good shape.”

Any story must be backed by facts, of course.

“That helps us help them,” Bohn said. “We need to know if they are nutrient sufficient before we create a feeding program.”

Pfizer veterinarian Mitch Blanding said past feeding level and health programs go hand in hand. “We often overlook the role nutrition plays in prevention,” he said. “We can have everything else in place for health, but if you neglect nutrition it doesn’t matter what else you do.”

The educational program was presented at the Collinge Ranch, and stocker operator Mike Collinge shared what he does.

“We like to move them through the system as often as possible,” he said. “I really believe how we handle them here will affect how they perform after we gather them off grass. Feedback from the feedyards says this system pays off big time.”

Besides that proactive health stance, the ranch crew is simply around and observing the cattle often.

Bohn confirmed that program has long-term benefits down the line. “One important thing to us is, how easy are these cattle to handle? Are they used to people and horses and feed trucks? How they are handled at a place like Mike’s here has a huge impact on disposition, and disposition is also very important to us.

“We like it when we don’t have to worry about one jumping the chute when we work them or one of my guys getting run over by an ornery one in the pen,” he said. “But most importantly, calm cattle feed better; and they perform better in the packing plant.”

Most of the cattle fed at the Pratt yard are marketed on a value-based grid, and Bohn pointed out that avoiding discounts is the key to making money in such a system.

“You don’t have as many dark cutters with calm cattle, and that’s a big discount we want to avoid,” he said.

The only way to know if your ranch practices are beneficial to the feedyard is to ask.

“The surest way to get carcass data back is to own them through the feeding phase,” Bohn said, but it’s not the only way. He suggests talking to the feeder up front to see if they’re willing to give you performance and carcass data feedback.

“The information-sharing business is getting better,” he said. “Sharing is good for everyone involved.”

The field day was sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, Certified Angus Beef LLC and Pratt Feeders. For more information, search “Backgrounding for Quality” on the Black Ink Blog at www.blackinkwithcab.com.

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Seek answers for better beef

by Miranda Reiman

Cattle feeding conditions vary by location. One yard might be knee-deep in snow, while the other is dealing with piles of mud. Record high temperatures might cause heat stress in one area while cattle in another region are enduring torrential rainfall.

Even with all that variability, one fact rings true: Better conditions mean better beef quality.

“Animals that are able to devote more of their dietary intake to gain will have better carcass quality,” says Joe Young, vice president of AgSpan.

In a research review, Larry Corah and Mark McCully of Certified Angus Beef LCC (CAB) point to several factors that have caused quality grade to rebound 7.5 percentage points in just two years, following a 30-year decline.

“In general, feeding conditions for cattle the past two years have been very good,” the authors say, noting data from Elanco’s Benchmark^® Performance Program, managed by Agspan. Hundreds of feedlots report performance, carcass and health information to the database, which now numbers more than 100 million points of data.

From 2006 to mid-2009, dry matter intake (DMI) increased by about 1 pound for both steers and heifers. At the same time average daily gain (ADG) improved.

“Driving intakes, improving intakes, maintaining consistent intakes – they all do the same thing,” Young says. “We’ve got to have intakes to get performance and enhance carcass quality. If anything takes those animals off feed, then you’ll channel more of that energy to other needs within the body.”

For example, higher ADGs through the winter months probably indicate mild weather.

“If they’re not fending off blizzards, severe cold or deep snows, more of that intake can be devoted to gain verses maintenance,” he says.

Health affects cattle in the same way. Iowa State University research shows that cattle needing multiple treatments don’t grade as well as healthy pen mates. Those requiring no treatment graded 74.5% Choice versus 57.5% Choice in those cattle treated two or more times – a difference of 16.5 percentage points.

Benchmark mortality data confirms that feedlot health has seen a slight improvement over the past few years.

“Animals closed out in spring 2004 had the highest mortality rate of anything we’d seen up until that time,” Young says. “It was a fairly steady trend higher.”

Heifers showed an average death loss of 2.64% at the peak, but that recovered to less than 2% last spring.

“We’ve seen those rates adjust somewhat, and the higher mortality rates have generally subsided,” he says.

The fact that this happened as quality grade started to climb could be more than a coincidence, Corah and McCully say.

“While there are no definitive correlations, the trends within DMI, ADG and feedlot health would all suggest improved feeding conditions have had a positive influence on quality grade,” the research paper says.

To read “Quality Grade: What is driving the recent upswing?” in its entirety, visit www.cabcattle.com/about/research.

Full-throttle flexibility

Panhandle Feeders wins CAB Quality Focus Award with pedal to the metal

by Miranda Reiman

If you can’t find the type of cattle you want to feed, create them, share the genetics and buy back the progeny to feed. Monitor results and keep improving over time.

It’s all part of the plan at Panhandle Feeders, a 20,000-head Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) partner yard at Morrill, Neb. But the plan, unlike that of any other CAB feedlot, delivers performance and quality on a grand scale.

The CAB Quality Focus Award for feedlots larger than 15,000 head often features a Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand acceptance rate near 30%, on perhaps 2,000 enrolled cattle sorted for a grid.

Panhandle enrolled nearly 20,000 head, June through May 2009, sold them on the live market and achieved 28.2% CAB and Prime. Most of them, 16,540 head, were eligible for the brand.

Winning the award was just an outward sign of an integrated performance program that hits the quality target. Manager and co-owner Chris Melson accepted at the CAB annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., Sept. 18.

“We’re not in this for recognition, but because we want the information,” Melson says. “We don’t try to guess which ones are good. We enroll every pen we can.”

Success is a team effort, from Larry Rice, who bought the yard in 1994, to Melson and assistant manager Steve True, cattle clerk Diane Ulrich and a crew of 20 others who share the vision.

The program was built on experience. Rice has been a stocker operator and order buyer for 30 years and Melson was a Cargill order buyer for 21 years, buying into Panhandle in 2003. They bought and sold thousands of cattle, tracking profit. True held previous positions at Continental Grain and Horton Cattle Co.

“Money in feeding still comes from a combination that has more to do with performance than carcass,” Rice says. He used to feed more Continentals than Angus, because that was the only way to get performance.

Too many Angus cattle matured early and then marbled. So when Rice started Snake Creek Angus 10 years ago, “we started with Angus outliers that had the genetics to marble early in that growth curve.” After dispersal and rebirth as Flag Ranch, Rice maintains registered bull sales, rapid turnover in his commercial herd and a customer buy-back program that fed 10,000 calves last year.

Rice, Melson and a few others make up 90% of the customer base at Panhandle. Their common goals are profit and the flexibility to achieve it. “With the volatility and capacity issues in this industry, we want to market based on our opinions rather than commitment to the grid systems,” Melson says.

The focus on quality keeps the cash sale option available. “We get our premiums from the way our cattle feed,” he says. “We’re marketing cattle while they are still going up on the efficiency curve.” They hit the show list the day they plateau and therefore win in the yield-driven system. “Anything that is high or low CAB gets talked about,” Melson adds. “We want the ones that can do it all under constant pressure to perform.”

That pressure can produce diamonds. Last year, the calves from Rice’s commercial heifers were implanted three times before they were a year old, yet finished with 7% Prime, 88% Choice and less than 5% Yield Grade (YG) 4s at 13.5 months. They were sold live, without grid premiums, but they hit a home run.

“CAB helps us define our product, but it’s not a premium market for us,” Melson says. “Having that acceptable quality helps us get cattle sold when we don’t have heavies or YG 4s. If you don’t have the quality, then you can’t get them sold and you are forced to grid them.”

Neither Continentals nor yesterday’s Angus cattle will do. “But you take the right black steer, high-percentage or straight Angus, and he will eat the ration more consistently and on a better consumption curve than the Continental,” he says.

“We couldn’t find those cattle 10 years ago, but our group has been able to bring all that to the table, along with the product attributes Angus cattle are known for, the marbling and the CAB brand of steak,” Melson says.

Garden City feed yard joins CAB team

by Jackie Eager

A big feedlot can stand out for personalized custom cattle feeding, if it has the right people. Consider Garden City (Kan.) Feed Yard, LLC, where employees stay on for 20 years or more because the programs they manage work so well.

“The stability of our staff is a great thing,” says manager Mark Boos. “You know if anyone stays for that long, they are people who care about their jobs and the quality of care given to the animals. They just take a lot of pride in what they do.”

Both customers and their cattle take comfort in that.

The feedlot, operated by AzTx Cattle Company since 1994, covers an expanse of sandy soil that is well suited to drainage and dry pen conditions. That’s important for any yard, and certainly for this one with 88,000-head capacity.

Despite that size, or perhaps because of it, Boos and his staff don’t operate as if one generic program should fit all customers. They get to know each customer and customize to fit their needs and build working relationships.

“If I can understand their ration, I can better start their animal onto our ration,” Boos says. “If I understand their health program, I can adapt our health program to fit, so we complement each other.”

Locally grown feeds support area crop farmers and help keep ration prices relatively low for feeding customers, he adds. Attention to detail at Garden City Feed Yard means making sure the proper amount of the right feed is delivered on time for each pen, and producing the highest quality beef for each customer.

Late this summer, after a year of changing economic conditions, Boos decided to build on the stability his feedyard could offer by signing on with the world’s leading beef brand, as a Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) partner. The CAB Feedlot Licensing Program includes 64 partners in 15 states.

Over the years, Boos saw that CAB had developed market opportunities to sell the better quality cattle for a premium price.

“We need to focus on meeting consumer needs,” he says. “The day the animal is born, it’s all for the consumer, but Certified Angus Beef is the only marketing group that approaches it that way.”

“I think we are on the right path with the CAB program,” he says. “Combining that brand’s 31-year history with our own long-term base brings even more stability to our relationships with Angus producers.”

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