The market demands more demand

by Miranda Reiman

September 9, 2020

Demand drivers.

Even without a worldwide pandemic, economic shutdowns and disruptions in food processing, Dan Basse would have covered demand drivers at the 15^th annual Feeding Quality Forum.

The president of Chicago-based AgResource Company had charts to back up his point: “Going back maybe to the Civil War, it’s those demand drivers that give opportunity to the market.” Basse kicked off the on-line forum hosted by the Certified Angus Beef^® brand last month.

Grain markets typically lead market direction. Supply is no problem, with a 2.7% increase in global grain yields in the last decade compared to the previous.

“There’s been $87 billion spent looking for technology for farmers to help produce more—more beef, more pork, more grain,” Basse said. “I would really like to get agriculture behind a platform that we think about not only spending on ways to help us farmers produce more, but help consumers consume more, because as the end of the day, that will be the key to terms of our profitability.”

This year, however, those demand drivers are even more lackluster than anyone could have predicted at the start of 2020.

More than 3 million small businesses have shut down since COVID-19 came to the U.S. and that could reach 6 to 8 million by the end of the year.

“It’s the heart of the U.S. agricultural and economic outlook,” he said. Last year was the first time more Americans—51% of them—spent most of their food dollar outside the home, “so it’s a big change to have that [food service] industry crippled as it is,” he said.

Restaurants are operating at about 40% of normal, and it could be a year or more before they’re back to 100%, Basse said, noting the development of a vaccine or a strong therapeutic seems to be the key.

“The food service industry has been very important to the U.S. cattle industry. We’re still believing that it will struggle until we get to next spring,” he said. “I wish I could be more bullish in the cattle market.”

Trade is not in the domestic beef industry’s favor either, as the U.S. has been importing more food than it’s been exporting the last four months. Beef industry exports are down 15.2%.

“To really get health in the agricultural economy, we need to start the export market kicking off a little more robustly. We need to see high-value goods leaving this country to other nations,” Basse said. “Principally beef, meats and some of the DDGs and ethanol products we now produce.”

He suggested Live Cattle futures are overvalued, and cattlemen should consider hedging at $112 to $114 during the last quarter of 2020, and at $116 to $118 into the first part of 2021.

“There is some risk in feed prices based on the late-season dryness, Chinese demand and things of that nature, but also based on the broad commodity markets, which are starting to turn around here just a little bit,” Basse said. Following the Midwest derecho storm, AgResource predicted yields to slip from record highs, down to around 179 bushels/acre, which is still nearly “on trend.”

Yet, he expects the lows to come later this fall.

“Don’t get bullish and chase this market as a feed user today. Step back and allow the market to come to you in October and November,” he advised.

Economic wild cards include political outcomes and continued stimulus measures.

“Never before did I think we’d see a U.S. debt level for government at $26.8 trillion and still growing,” Basse said. “These debt levels are something that I believe will be a drag on the U.S. in the world economy for many, many years to come.”

Growth across the globe has slowed, too, but India and China are still expected to become the No. 1 and 2 largest economies, overtaking the U.S. by 2025 or 2026.

Government support plays a big role in overall farm income, accounting for 40% to 45% of net farm revenue this year.

“That is something I never thought I would see in my career,” said the 41-year veteran.

Net farm income is down 47% from 2012, and has been flat for a number of years.

Basse looks each morning for signs of everything from new export demand to product innovations. “We need to see a new demand driver for you to get this all changed around,” he said.

Feeding Quality Forum sponsors include Diamond V, Feed-Lot Magazine, Micronutrients, Zoetis and AngusLink. For more information or to watch full presentations, visit www.FeedingQualityForum.com.

Watch Dan's Presentation

Registration opens for Feeding Quality Forum webinar

by Maeley Herring

August 3, 2020

On-target information powers the economy, especially the cattle sector in the challenging world of 2020.

Every year since 2006, cattle feeders, ranchers, educators and allied industry leaders have gathered at the Feeding Quality Forum (FQF) for thought-provoking conversation and networking.

This year offers the same range of topics and interaction – but in a virtual setting.

“You won’t get to shake hands with old friends and new, but we’re still bringing together some of the great minds in the beef industry to present the kind of information folks have come to expect from the Forum,” says Kara Lee, production brand manager for the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand.

The 15^th annual conference as webinar is being condensed to a few hours on Aug. 25 and 26 that will offer key marketing insights and unique perspectives on the beef supply chain’s future.

Many feedyard managers and staff have attended over the years, but Lee says FQF is a great resource for everyone in beef cattle production and marketing.

“Along with cattle feeders, we are targeting commercial cow-calf producers who are retaining ownership, interested in some progressive marketing of their own, or just learning how to raise better beef,” she says. “It’s also a great opportunity for folks in allied industries – anyone who touches the cattle feeding business.”

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Dan Basse, president and analyst for AgResource Company, will kick-start the webinar Tuesday afternoon with an overview of commodity and financial markets around the world. Back by popular demand, “he brings some perspective on how what’s going on globally can impact our business here on the cattle production side,” Lee says.

Dustin Aherin will follow with “Hindsight 2020.” The RaboResearch vice president and animal protein analyst will show how COVID-19 first affected the cattle industry and what’s next for cattle procurement, processing and merchandising, post-pandemic.

“We know aftereffects of the market disruption will be top of mind for cattle feeders for months to come,” Lee says. “We want to bring in someone who can provide some really excellent perspective on that moment in time and what we can expect looking forward.”

Later that afternoon, FQF will recognize noted cattle feeding research scientist John Matsushima as the 2020 Industry Achievement Award winner for his long career of dedicated service.

CAB’s Paul Dykstra, beef cattle specialist, will lead off Wednesday’s events with ideas on progressive feeder cattle marketing. Focused on maximizing cow-calf investments, Dykstra will address alternative ways of adding value to high-quality calves when retained ownership is not feasible.

“We know that feeder-calf marketing is not a one-size-fits-all topic,” Lee says. That’s why Dykstra offers insight into several types of commercial operations.

Randy Blach, CattleFax CEO, will wrap up the conference with a 20-year forward look at the industry’s future. He brings his extensive knowledge in market trends and analytics to provide unsurpassed insight on what to expect in the next couple of decades.

At the end of each presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to the speakers.

Feeding Quality Forum will be a free resource to those who register, thanks to its sponsors: AngusLink, Diamond V, Feed-Lot Magazine, Micronutrients and Zoetis.

Registration is now open at www.feedingqualityforum.com, where you can also find the full agenda and learn more about the speakers.

“Feeding Quality Forum is just two hours a day, for two days,” Lee says. “At no cost other than your time, we feel like it’s a great investment to access and interact with some of the best industry leaders available.”

Best of both worlds

Opportunity for a bottom line filled with pounds and premiums

by Abbie Burnett

June 30, 2020

Would you rather have AC or heat? Only meat or vegetables for dinner? Do you want the profit from your cattle to come from pounds or quality?

These are decisions you don’t have to make.

Brian Bertelsen, U.S. Premium Beef (USPB) vice president of field operations, addressed cattle questions with data at the Beef Improvement Federation’s recent online symposium.

He began by defining premium as the difference between the amount paid on USPB’s value-based grid and the previous week’s USDA-reported average cash market.

“Last year, we had a record-high quality grade premium,” he said, noting some groups earned record high total premiums above cash late in 2019 when the rewards for quality were especially high in the marketplace. “Prior to that, premiums were hanging around $50 per head.”

Marbling and dressing percent were the two key profitability traits, the latter of importance because the grid pays on hot carcass weight (HCW) rather than live weight.

Bertelsen showed the 22-year span of company grade and premium data, commenting on the mostly steady increase in HCW and average premiums paid. Drought caused zigzags in 2006 and again six years later. The introduction of such technology as ultrasound and genomic testing stimulated quality grade improvement early in this century and 10 years later, respectively.

More pounds have been a familiar feature.

“We’ve been increasing carcass weight and live weight ever since we learned how to build fence and selectively breed cattle,” Bertelsen said. “That’s obviously one of the first things we’re focused on because that’s our pay weight.”

Increasing HCW is nothing to be ashamed of.

“This is our competitive advantage,” he said. “We’re really not increasing cow numbers. We’re allowing our industry to feed more people with a lot of pounds of total product from less animals.”

Adding weight can be a key to profit.

“My job is to coach our producers and give them some suggestions, things to do and try,” Bertelsen said. “One of the things I’m talking to them about lately is, ‘Hey, the better your cattle are for genetics, for carcass traits, and let’s say for specifically marbling, really the longer you ought to feed those cattle… if I don’t feed him very long, I don’t allow him or her to maximize their genetic potential.’”

Studying data and trends over the years, Bertelsen watched dynamic shifts develop.

“Remember the drought year in 2006 led to lower grades and there was a high Choice-Select spread. That’s logical, right? But also remember how high the grades have been the last couple of years and the Choice-Select spread has also been pretty high. Well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he said.

Until you look at the steeply declining share of fed cattle grading Select across those 22 years.

“The whole industry went from 37% down to 14% Select. Such a huge decrease in availability pushed some large meat customers out of Select and into Choice whether they wanted to or not,” Bertelsen said. Today’s wider spread is all about the discount for an increasingly irrelevant grade.

Looking again at drought years like 2006 and 2012, he noted increases in yield grade discounts.

“If we’re in a period of time when we have a higher percentage of yield grade (YG) 4s and 5s, it’s really more attributable to changes in muscling,” he said, “which I attribute to environment.”

Data indicate YG3 is a gateway to premium Choice. Summaries show quality grade, HCW and YG all moving higher together.

“It’s rather challenging, even with good genetics to produce a lot of Prime cattle with a really low yield grade,” Bertelsen noted. “They’re both fat – marbling and back fat – so we need to allow these cattle some time again to express their genetic potential.”

The relationship between yield grades and HCW are part of the increase in dollars per head on the USPB grid versus the cash market. As yield grade increases, so does HCW.

“Each year, yield grade 3s are the maximum price per hundredweight, but 4s are usually the most total dollars per head,” Bertelsen said.

He compared the top eight ranches (4,000 head) to the USPB grid average. Those eight averaged just 13 lb. lighter HCW, but graded 99% Choice and Prime compared to 87% company average. They also qualified more than 80% for the Certified Angus Beef ^®(CAB^®) brand, with 51% Prime or CAB Prime. The company average was 6% Prime.

Those numbers show what people can do with modern genetics, focused management and grid marketing incentives, Bertelsen said.

While noting all the company data deals with cattle phenotypes, he closed with an example from one USPB member that compared progeny from two bulls with above-average Angus $B, but one significantly higher than the other. If used on both spring- and fall herds to generate 50 progeny per year for five years, the better bull could add more than $39,000 on the grid.

No balancing needed. Benefits await for pounds and premiums.

Beef’s paradigm shift should continue, Rishel says

by Maeley Herring

June 24, 2020

Alexander Graham Bell never imagined the smart phone most Americans carry today. Even those with a touchscreen didn’t dream of such wonders a generation ago, and attitudes still vary. From bag phones to flip phones that can text to the latest with an app for everything, each person choses their level.

Innovation presents the option to accept or turn down, said Bill Rishel, longtime Nebraska Angus producer, at the online 52^nd Annual Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium. He challenged listeners to see change as an opportunity for progress.

“I want to stimulate a new way of thinking about the future,” he began.

Appreciating the past

That should begin with looking back to recognize “paradigm shifts” when new ideas suddenly supplant accepted or traditional ways.

“The paradigm shifts over the past 50 years certainly improved our industry and got us to where we are today,” Rishel said by way of introducing seven that helped everyone from ranch to beef consumer.

Performance record systems. Significance often overlooked because of their widespread use today, Rishel said the data collection led to in-herd records, breed association databases and national research organizations.
Artificial insemination. Used since the 1950s by a few registered bull owners, this innovation didn’t show what it could do until the early 1970s. When its use was opened to all in the early 1970s, “we witnessed greater opportunity for genetic improvement and long-term sustainability.”
Boxed beef fabrication lowered delivery costs, ensured product safety and increased demand for beef.
Branded beef programs debuted in 1978 with live and carcass specifications to enhance consistency, Rishel said. “Standing behind the product was a pretty new concept to our industry and the consuming public. It even helped reverse the serious decline in beef demand.”
The Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 provided structure and requirements for the Beef Checkoff Program that works to benefit producers and consumers, he said.
Expected progeny differences (EPDs) allowed anyone to rank individual animals on their genetics, regardless of environmental differences, Rishel said. EPD methodology led to the use of ultrasound technology in gathering carcass data for sire evaluation.
Genomic-enhanced EPDs (GE EPDs) take in DNA studies and other sources to find economic merit in more cattle and in traits that are hard to measure. “The speed of development and adaptation of genomics has been revolutionary,” he said.

The seven innovations offered progress in genetics, efficiency and profitability at each level. They also provide a “paradigm shift philosophy” for future management decisions.

“Perhaps we can apply some of that thinking to our business and industry as we charge forward into the next two decades,” Rishel said. “The central idea to these dynamic changes is the desire to improve genetics and improve our enterprises.”

Looking forward

Research proves the industry is continually improving beef production.

“I believe we are just scratching the surface,” Rishel said. “I have no doubt genomics are destined to play a much larger role,” such as selection for strong immune systems, feed efficiency and carcass merit.

Beef quality is a key focus, Rishel said, but that must expand to other consumer connections.

“Producers are making strides in sustainability,” he said. Cattle graze land unsuitable for crops and “upcycle” forage into that nutritious source of protein that is beef.

Document conservation efforts that link livestock, wildlife, water and forage management, Rishel suggested.

“We have a great story to tell,” he said. “Many of our consumers, even the ones who really love beef, want to know that we are doing the right things for the environment and sustainability of our natural resources.”

If we were to look back on the industry in 20 years, what would be our biggest accomplishment?

“I hope the greatest paradigm shift would be our ability to accept change,” Rishel said.

A shared goal

CAB annual conference brings segments together

By: Miranda Reiman

There’s often a shared understanding among cattlemen. In a career that comes with some of the highest highs and the lowest lows, you need only breathe a word of a specific tragedy or triumph and others just know.

But conveying that to a ballroom filled with 700 people from packer to processor, retailer to restaurateur? That takes building on common ground.

It’s an important role producers had at the 2019 Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand’s annual conference in Asheville, N.C., in September.

“This conference has evolved over the years into a meaningful annual gathering,” said CAB President John Stika. “Special because it literally brings together an entire community of people from farm to plate, each one of us necessary to deliver this brand to the tables of consumers around the world.”

In between motivational speakers like former Blue Angels pilot John Foley and important sales-marketing inspirations, producers took to the stage to share some humanity from cattle country.

Kansas Angus breeders Chris and Sharee Sankey and Neal and Marya Haverkamp represented the “Brand the Barn” campaign in a live interview.

The Sankeys grew up in the Angus business. Married the year the brand began, their son and daughter were raised in “the Angus family,” Sharee said.

A big part of that was the show ring, which Chris said is to the cattle business “a bit like NASCAR is to the auto business.” He added, “We all like to compete at something.”

It’s part ad campaign, part showing off “the latest prototype.”

Neal shared the many uses of their barn, from processing cattle, to calving and even office work. He said they’re excited to showcase the logo on it because of what CAB means to them.

“It’s important because first of all, it gets us a premium for our cattle, but it builds demand for our bulls along the way. And that’s the focus for our operation,” Neal said.

He started his herd in high school, but when Marya entered the picture, she shared his dream. Watching her husband do what she knows he’s meant to do?

“It’s overwhelming,” she said, before adding some levity. “Now don’t get me wrong—on the days we work cattle, I have to remind myself I love him, even though I don’t really like him right now. But my heart is full when I see him helping the kids and it’s full circle.”

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The session brought to life pages from the new book, “Sheltering Generations: The American Barn,” set for a December release. The coffee-table tome is full of photos and stories of the families who own 40 barns painted with the CAB logo in 2017 and 2018. Every penny from book sales will go to support a new Rural Relief Fund that lets CAB contribute to organized efforts during times of natural disasters such as floods or wildfires.

South Dakota cattleman Troy Hadrick shared a slice of what it’s like to literally weather a storm, describing this April’s devastating blizzard on his Faulkton, S.D., ranch.

Videos and pictures on the main screen showed the conditions, while Hadrick conveyed the heartache.

“You’ve got this unwritten, unspoken contract with your cows that you’ll take care of them and they in turn take care of you. We didn’t save them all, but we did the best we could,” Hadrick said.

During the storm, his wife Stacy and their three kids were all working together to save calves, digging their way over to the calving pasture and back home, riding in the bucket of the tractor looking for babies to bring inside. After going through the night, they took a quick reprieve to warm up, and Hadrick told the kids to get something to eat.

“Whatever you want, you want ice cream for breakfast? I don’t care. Find a candy bar, eat it. You just, you got to get something in you,” he recalls. That’s when Hadrick looked over and saw his daughter, head in her hands, sobbing. “We had just pushed her a little too hard. She was kind of emotionally and physically exhausted.

“That was tough for a dad to see,” he said.

People could feel the sentiment, many were moved to tears.

But it wasn’t just about showing who ranchers are, it was about explaining what they do.

During a sustainability session, panelists put a face on how the production sector is improving animal care and environments. James Henderson, Bradley 3 Ranch; Tom Jones, Hy-Plains Feed Yard; Chris Ulrich, Ulrich Farms; and Sara Place, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, each shared examples ranging from experience in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to feeding cattle in western Kansas.

Henderson said they hit a turning point when a range specialist visited their Childress, Texas, ranch in 1995.

“At the end of the day, he made a comment that cut to the bone,” Henderson recalled. “He said, ‘This is the most under-stocked, overgrazed ranch I’ve ever been on.’ That’s not what you want to hear as a rancher.”

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They made a 20-year plan, where they developed water, implemented aggressive brush control and planted native forage. Increased carrying capacity shows it’s working.

Ulrich had his own stories of fencing out creek beds and introducing contour strips on his Pennsylvania farm ground. Jones described collaborative work at his feedyard’s education and research center, and building up the next generation through internships.

Place put the numbers and media hype in perspective.

“In 2018, it took 36% fewer cattle to make the same amount of beef as we did in the 1970s,” she said. “Those are huge reductions in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, the amount of natural resources, everything else it takes to make it a really high-quality product.”

The panel took questions from the audience, addressing the ideas of eating local, land use for beef production and even cow farts.

“It all comes up the front end of the animal,” Place said. “The gas that gets produced is methane gas and methane is a greenhouse gas…” but it’s a compound that is easily broken down in 10 to 12 years. And with a fairly consistent number of cows in production over that timeframe, the beef industry isn’t increasing those emissions.

“It’s kind of like the idea of a bathtub. You’ve got a single water level. If you get water coming in and going out at the same rate, the level is going to stay constant,” she said.

There were more questions than time to answer, but the entire conference encouraged one-on-one interaction among people from different parts of the beef business. Conversations continued in the hallways and during shared meals.

CAB recognized leaders in packing, retail, foodservice, value-added processor and production with annual awards. They announced new programs, such as Steakholder Rewards—a new consumer-brand-loyalty program—and Meat Speak, a podcast showcasing culinary expertise. Marketing staff gave updates on major initiatives and the sales team equipped people selling the brand with more tools and tactics for success.

“I really believe this brand was the lead that changed what was going on in our market,” said Randy Blach, CattleFax CEO, during his market update. “Somebody had to say we are not going to be an ingredient. We have a story to tell.”

Since 1998, consumer spending on beef has increased by $62 billion, more than the increase in outlays on pork and poultry combined, he said.

“There are some out there who will make you think people have quit eating beef. We have record consumption in the U.S.,” Blach said, and beef quality is the highest it’s ever been.

That helped supply the brand, Stika said, which hit a record 1.25-billion pounds of sales, with 3.1% growth for the fiscal year ending in September.

“What I continue to find absolutely energizing about this event every year is that when you bring this many people together in one place focused on one brand, there arises a creativity, a momentum that fosters great ideas and only serves to further fuel an even-stronger pursuit of excellence moving forward,” he said.

A shared understanding of a shared goal.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

High-Quality Beef and Experiences Promised with Summer Internship

by Kylee Kohls Sellnow | Oct 9, 2023

Connecting With Consumers at the Meat Case

by Kylee Kohls Sellnow | Oct 5, 2023

CAB is committed to prioritizing consumers’ evolving expectations for high-quality beef, sustainability and connecting the next generation. Explore our Ranch to Table program and learn how we connect the next generation of ranchers and culinarians for a brighter, more sustainable future for the beef industry.

Serving His Passion

by CAB Cattle Crew | Oct 5, 2023

Sharing the love and passion for Angus cow and Angus family, Jim Brinkley completes his term as CAB Board of Director after a year invested in the future of the beef industry. As chairman, he saw his own thoughts an leadership skills evolve as discussion topics brought new ideas to life in the board room.

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Avoiding the storm

Proactive animal health means a genetic approach.

By: Miranda Reiman

The beef community is getting ready to rip off the Band-Aid.

Antibiotics are effective tools in managing animal health, but they’ve also been a patch, serving until the advent of genetic tools to solve challenges in the long term.

“We’ve had increasing scrutiny around the use of antibiotics, so we need to be ready,” said Brad Hine, research scientist for Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). “Our ability to use antibiotics in our food-producing animals is, in the next few years, going to be rapidly reduced. A really good strategy is to try to breed animals that have improved disease resistance.”

In others words, create cattle that don’t get sick. What may sound like a far-off wish is quickly becoming reality.

At the 2019 Angus Convention in Reno, Nevada, last fall, Hine shared insight into current work his team is doing with the Australian Angus Association. He also talked of upcoming collaboration with Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI).

“As we continue to refine genetic selection, we realize that genetics contribute to animal health in ways we probably don’t fully understand today,” said Mark McCully, CEO of the American Angus Association. “As we start identifying genetic lines of cattle that are less likely to get sick, that has ramifications across the entire industry.”

It matters at every point in the production chain and affects economics, animal welfare and consumer perception.

“It’s easy to make the assumption that the most productive animal is the animal with the best immune system,” Hine said. “Obviously, the healthiest animal grew the fastest.”

But that’s just not true, he said, and in some instances, disease resistance is negatively correlated with production. For example, high-milking Holstein cows are often more at risk for mastitis, he noted.

“The research tells us, if we select for productivity alone, we increase susceptibility to disease,” Hine said. “It’s really important for producers to rethink that.”

Australians have used a strategy developed for the Canadian dairy industry and applied it to Angus cattle.

This broad-based approach is a new twist compared to historical health work, where cattle have been bred for brucellosis resistance while sheep were bred to ward off internal parasites.

“We’ve been very cautious not to tailor this to any specific disease, because we might know one disease, but there’s another one right around the corner,” Hine said.

Different types of pathogens are dealt with in different ways: there’s a cellular response for viruses that live inside the cells and antibodies that fight those outside the cells.

“There are two different arms in the immune system,” he said. “And the risk you run if you select animals that are very good at one arm of the immune system is that sometimes those animals are not as good at handling pathogens that require the opposite arm.”

They test for both.

Hine’s team vaccinated cattle just before weaning them into the yard, and then took blood tests to measure their response at the most stressful point.

“It’s about breeding animals with a really strong immune system so they can handle whatever challenges they face,” he said. “It is not necessarily the animals that can respond when they are happy and healthy in the paddy that we are trying to identify. It is those animals that can respond to a disease challenge when they are under some stress, and are able to cope with that situation and return to being productive.”

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The early work shows the variability is “enormous,” Hine said, and the heritability appears to be moderate. Correlations to other traits were weak but followed as expected: temperament was favorable, production traits like growth were negative.

He said that’s good news, because it means health can become a priority in selection without compromising other goals.

Following indexed animals through the feedlot was a chance to see if the research worked in a real-world scenario.

For every animal that scored high for immunity, there was a $3.50 animal-health cost. Those in the low group accrued $103, Hine said, noting those are conservative estimates that don’t account for labor.

“If we can identify low-immune-competent animals and get them out of the system, there is a huge economic benefit for us as an industry,” he said.

The poorer immunity group accounted for only 11% of the total population, but represented 35% of the health line items.

“As tools are developed, I think the adoption rate will be pretty significant in terms of both pace and scale,” McCully said. “A slight change in the improvement of animal health has huge economic ramification across the industry.”

The technology is “in its infancy,” he said, but the long-term goal would be the creation of genetic tools, both for Angus breeders and their commercial customers, such as genomic tests for replacement heifers or to prescreen cattle bound for the feedyard.

“I could definitely see this as a way of being better able to characterize risk,” McCully said. “You could modify your management to the risk level.”

Today, cattle often receive metaphalix—or whole herd treatment–upon processing into the feedyard, but studies show for every 100 that get preventative antibiotics, only 20 actually needed them, said John Richeson, West Texas A&M animal scientist. He spoke about innovations in health during the 2019 Feeding Quality Forum.

So, how do cattlemen identify that bottom fifth?

Researchers are developing everything from rapid blood tests to behavior-monitoring instruments, but they still need fine-tuning.

“We need it to be, ideally, at the speed of commerce so we don’t slow down processing,” Richeson said. The challenge is, how can we target accurately, quickly, and those sorts of things—there could be a huge cost savings to the producer.”

Most of the work is focused on cattle chuteside at the feedyard.

With a genetic test for improved immunity in commercial cattle, that information could be communicated with the yard upon arrival, McCully said. Feedyard protocols could differ based on this information, and eventually, market signals should follow.

“If I’m a feeder, I’m still going to want those cattle vaccinated—it doesn’t change anything about good calf management we do today, McCully said. “But if I can look at a set of cattle that has all of that, plus the genetics that give them the likelihood of staying healthier, that becomes an economic signal back to the producer to make more of those cattle.”
Programs like AngusLink^SM could potentially convey information through the chain.

“I really do see immune competence as just one part of the puzzle when we start to think about the resilience of the animal,” Hine said.

Cattlemen still need a focus on management and environments that control pathogens, giving cattle less exposure in the first place.

“We can breed the animals that are the most disease-resistant, but if we put them in a really bad, high-disease environment, then they will eventually succumb,” Hine said.

Even with improved tools, cattle will still get sick, although hopefully less often. That allows for less antibiotics in the system.

“We need to be proactive rather than reactive. We need to be thinking about strategies now that put us in a good place in the future. Because certainly our ability to treat disease is going to be reduced as regulations come through,” Hiene said. “The perfect storm is brewing. So as an industry, how can we avoid that storm?”

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

More Than Steak and Potatoes

by Morgan Boecker | Mar 14, 2023

Yesterday’s steak and baked potato is today’s beef brisket from the restaurant downtown. The food scene is changing, driven by a new age of consumers who want more. They seek new flavors and attributes on the packaging, but still expect beef to taste great.

Putting Premiums in the Cattleman’s Pocket

by Morgan Boecker | Dec 28, 2022

While the competition is growing, the brand’s team of 150 diligently works to differentiate CAB from the rest of the pack. Consumers can feel confident purchasing the Certified Angus Beef ® brand, a high-quality product that is the result of Angus farmers’ and ranchers’ commitment to quality.

Progress, Not Perfection

by Kylee Kohls Sellnow | Oct 7, 2022

It’s a labor of love, obvious in the way she lights up explaining their family’s 33-year effort to proactively adapt Angus cows to their land. A lifetime of telling stories from the pasture or kitchen has resonated with nonfarm consumers as much as fellow ranchers. “Everything we do is about cattle, but it’s also about family and connecting our kids to the land and to the cattle,” Debbie Lyons-Blythe says.

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Beefed up findings: Cattle solve global warming

“Keep the big picture,” my dad tells me every time I drive away.

He implies I should be aware of my surroundings while traveling, but there’s deeper meaning to that well-worn phrase.

I often find myself with tunnel vision – so captivated by one idea or way of doing things that I can’t imagine others.

Livestock seem to be scapegoats for global warming, but maybe society needs to see a bigger picture, consider different perspectives.

Frank Mitloehner, professor and air quality specialist at the University of California-Davis, wants to challenge common beliefs on animal agriculture and global warming.

Sure, he says, cattle add some methane to the air, but they make up for it. They counterbalance the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by fossil-fuel production and use in transportation.

2020_blog_Mitloehner-Alltech_Shoebar-Land-&-Cattle_TX_MJH-1363

At the recent Alltech ONE Virtual Conference, Mitloehner presented the science to prove cattle haven’t added new carbon to the atmosphere.

The greenhouse gases from livestock are very different from others. Yes, they have the same chemical makeup, but a distinctly different origin and fate.

“Carbon dioxide is a stock gas that accumulates over time,” Mitloehner said. “Methane is a flow gas.” That means it will stay at the same level if it is destroyed at the same rate it is released.

Methane’s fate links to the biogenic carbon cycle, which converts it to carbon dioxide that plants absorb by photosynthesis in a decade-long process. So yes, that takes 10 years but here’s the point: the cycle is current!

“The methane that our cows and other livestock put out will be gone after 10 years,” the scientist said.

2020_blog_Mitloehner-Alltech_Presentation-Slide

Knowing that, we can update the Global Warming Potential (GWP₁₀₀) formula that tallies annual greenhouse gases, he added. It’s a brilliant bit of math but didn’t account for the biogenic carbon cycle, “so it’s inappropriate to be used for livestock.”

It just needed an asterisk.

GWP* factors in that cycle, only adding methane to the yearly prediction if it’s released faster than it cycles out.

“If you have constant livestock herds, or even decreasing livestock herds, then you are not adding new, additional carbon to the atmosphere,” Mitloehner concluded.

The number of beef cattle in the U.S. has been consistent to lower since 1970. This year’s cattle consume what’s left of the 2010 methane as they graze.

Neat, right?

I find encouragement knowing science supports what we’re doing with cattle and our planet, if you take a big-picture view.

About the author: Maeley Herring

Growing up on a cattle ranch in North Texas and being immersed in that world from a young age, I have always considered myself fortunate. But I am truly blessed to work with the brand as an intern. I get to communicate with the heart of the cattle industry – people who dedicate their lives to their families, quality cattle and irreplaceable land.

The Resistance

Cattle treatments that work today might not tomorrow

By: Miranda Reiman

Your veterinarian has treated thousands of calves with the same symptoms. She knows the tools that work. Just choose the right antibiotic at a prescribed dosage for so many days and they’ll be good as new. Works almost every time.

Until it almost never works.

“We hear about antibiotic resistance as it relates to people and to animals, and a lot of concerns about the relevance to agriculture,” says Amelia Woolums, Mississippi State University veterinarian.

But it also has importance in animal health.

“If a cow has an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that’s causing an infection, the cow may not get better if we treat it with antibiotics,” she says.

2020_health-feature_the-resistance_amelia-woolums

New decade, old dilemma

Antibiotic resistance may sound like a modern-era quandary, but early examples pepper our past.

“In some ways it’s a big problem, but it’s not really a new problem,” Woolums says. Penicillin was used widely during World War II and by 1948 resistant staphylococcus had become a global problem. Methicillin was developed as an answer, and a year later the first methicillin-resistant staph, commonly known today as MRSA, emerged.

“I think we thought, in the arms race against bacteria, that we could win it,” she says. But bacteria replicate quickly, and disclose their tricks to other bacteria by sharing DNA. “It’s really not a race we are winning.”

In the cattle community, studies show it is on the rise, especially in the last decade.

The growing resistance

“There are diseases cattle get where in the past we might have said, ‘Well, let’s just give an antibiotic, just in case,’” Woolums says. “That’s the attitude we’ve got to get away from.”

The time to make that shift is now.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) provides one complex case study, she says. There are four main bacteria that cause BRD, and 11 antimicrobials on the market are labeled to treat the most common one: Mannheimia haemolytica.

That’s where much of the research rests.

Studies from 1994, 2004 and 2011 showed an increase from virtually no resistance.

“Basically we had 20 years of not much antimicrobial resistance. We thought, ‘We don’t have to worry about this,’” she says. “That’s foreshadowing.”

Then work from Kansas State University’s diagnostic lab caught the attention of the animal science and veterinary community.

Nearly 400 samples across a three-year period, from 266 unique locations, gave insight into possible trends.

In 2009, only 5% of the bacteria were resistant to five or more antimicrobials; by 2011 that jumped to 35%.

2020_health-feature_the-resistance_featured-image

Treatment history of the animals was unknown, “but these data still worried a lot of people,” Woolums says.

That inspired studies in live cattle.

At the University of Georgia, 169 high-risk stocker cattle were measured at arrival, given metaphilaxis—orpreventative antibiotic treatment—and swabbed again two weeks later.

Three-quarters of the cattle came in with bacteria that would respond to any antibiotic they were given. Two weeks later, that 75% number was 1%.

“Ninety-seven percent were resistant to the antibiotics we use all the time,” Woolums says. “They’d only been given one antibiotic.”

Concerning but, she says, “It’s important to note that this was not related to an unusually high rate of morbidity and mortality.”

More research is needed to determine the level that would cause a treatment failure.

Woolums and her colleagues completed an additional study that took those same swabs at four points from day one to day 21, it showed that the number of cattle shedding the bacteria went from 10% on the first day to 88%.

“That’s textbook,” Woolums says. “But what we didn’t really expect was that the pattern of multi-drug resistance would completely follow it.”

By day seven, 80% of the bacteria were resistant to multiple drugs, and they were genetically diverse, meaning they didn’t just proliferate from one carrier calf.

This isn’t meant to be a dire warning, Woolums says, but more of a caution sign. More research is needed and best practices need to follow suit.

Prevention, protocols and precautions

Sick cattle still need to be treated, and there are no new antibiotics on the horizon—in fact, there hasn’t been anew class added since 1978.

So what’s a producer to do?

“The No. 1 goal is efficient use of antibiotics, that we’re really heading off problems before they start,” says Brandi Karisch, Mississippi State University Extension beef cattle specialist. “Good animal husbandry and hygiene practices, routine health exams and vaccination are key strategies.”

To lessen the chances of needing treatment, limit stress, improve nutrition, and identify disease earlier, she says. “So, doing a good job of monitoring those cattle is vital.”

Then use antibiotics sparingly—only for the sick or highest-risk cattle—and use them right: follow label instructions, work closely with your veterinarian and observe proper withdrawal times.

“Treat for the recommended time period,” Karisch says. “How many of you know someone who starts feeling better and stops taking the antibiotic?”

2020_health-feature_the-resistance_brandi-karisch

For the greater good

When cattle are sick, cattlemen need medicine that works. When humans are sick, doctors need the same. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has already flagged this as growing area of concern.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time,” Karisch says, citing the CDC. More than 2.9 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year. “So this is a very serious threat, not just on the livestock side of things, but in human medicine as well.”

Growing consumer concerns add another level of urgency to solving this problem.

“We’ve probably all seen the news headlines,” she says.

There’s a chance every tool your veterinarian has today will work for years, and there’s a chance it won’t work next week.

“We don’t really know yet. The negative impact on morbidity or mortality has not been clearly evident,” Karisch says. “But there’s that ‘yet’ that goes along with that.

“In the meantime, it’s really important that we’re doing a good job taking care of those cows,” she says.

Woolums and Karisch spoke as part of the 2020 Cattlemen’s College at the Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio in February.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

A scours change

by Morgan Boecker | Sep 18, 2020

Just like regular maintenance on your vehicle, prevention is the best way to ward off scours in your cow-calf herd. But sometimes the best treatment plans fail, with lasting effects on calf performance. That’s why ranchers should try to get ahead of the problem.

Senses and sense

by Morgan Boecker | Aug 31, 2020

Humans developed over millennia to hunt and herd. When it’s time to move animals, instincts send us out with a purpose but sometimes little thought to how our aggressive behavior affects what they do. Stepping into a cattle pen, we naturally act the predator, manipulating where animals go. But good handling practices should turn us into leaders, says Kip Lukasiewicz.

Fine-tuned engines

by CAB Cattle Crew | Aug 13, 2020

Mineral nutrition plays an important role in every function of cattle – from health, to reproductive performance, to day-to-day activities. However, mineral deficiencies are hard to detect base on physical traits. Supplementation programs can help ensure your cattle are getting the minerals needed to perform their best.

The Resistance Part II: The bacteria battle

Antibiotics have their work cut out for them

by Miranda Reiman

April 22, 2020

Penicillin was introduced in 1928, antibiotic resistance followed in the decades after. Methicillin came next, a year later its first resistant bacteria were detected. So it’s not surprising that common cattle cures are now subject to the same fate.

“For many years, the bacteria that caused [bovine respiratory disease] didn’t seem to be becoming resistant,” says Amelia Woolums, Mississippi State University veterinarian. New data from the last decade show they’ve not only developed it, but “surprisingly, they have developed resistance to multiple different antibiotics, and that can become evident even when we treat cattle with just one.”

Treatment with one drug may lead to less effective options the next time around, no matter the class.

“If a cow has an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that’s causing an infection, the cow many not get better if we treat it with antibiotics,” she warns.

But how does it happen in the first place?

Different classes of antibiotics work to defeat bacteria in different ways, like disrupting the cell wall or membrane, inhibiting protein synthesis or DNA replication, or altering the metabolism.

“Antibiotics basically block or prevent different things the bacteria have to do to live, or destroy structures of the bacteria,” Woolums says. “If the bacteria change those things so the antibiotic no longer works, that’s how they become resistant. The sensitive ones are killed and that just leaves the resistant ones, and they get together and say, ‘Let’s have a family.’”

They use several different tactics for building resistance, such as:

Genetic mutation. That’s the spontaneous change in a portion of the DNA of the bacteria. “If the protein changes, and that’s the target of the antibiotic, it no longer works,” Woolums says. That change is coded into the bacteria’s progeny, too, so it passes on the resistance.
Efflux. “That basically pumps the antibiotic right out,” she says. The drugs aren’t in the cells long enough to work.
Destruction by enzymes. “Many bacteria possess genes that then produce enzymes that chemically degrade or inactivate the antibiotics.”

“Research shows bacteria are very generous with their DNA,” Woolums says, noting they can share them across different kinds of organisms.

A Pastuerella or Mannheimia can pass along resistant chunks of DNA—called integrative and conjugative elements, or ICE—to E.coli or salmonella, for example.

“Bacteria replicate at crazy rates,” she says. So when one of these mutations sticks, very quickly there are millions of cells with the same tactics. “It’s survival of the fittest.”

Producers can help in the battle against resistance.

“Keeping cattle healthy really should be the first focus,” Woolums says. “We were so lucky in the last half of the 20th century to come up with new antibiotics that did some amazing things.”

But the penicillin example is bound to keep repeating itself.

“We really should try to focus on husbandry and things that keep cattle healthy,” she says, “using antibiotics only when we really need them.”

Read part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

The Resistance Part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

Combating antibiotic resistance in cattle

by Miranda Reiman

April 22, 2020

Antimicrobial resistance might sound like a challenge straight out the headlines, but it could become awfully personal when you find routine antibiotics no longer cure a sick calf.

“I think we thought, in the arms race against bacteria, that we could win it,” says Amelia Woolums, Mississippi State University veterinarian. But bacteria replicate quickly, and disclose their tricks to other bacteria by sharing DNA. “It’s really not a race we are winning.”

It’s been a concern in the medical community ever since penicillin debuted early in the last century, but cattle health protocols have been seemingly immune to the challenges….until now.

Studies show antibiotic resistance is on the rise, especially in the last decade.

“There are diseases cattle get where in the past we might have said, ‘Well, let’s just give an antibiotic, just in case,’” Woolums says. “That’s the attitude we’ve got to get away from.”

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) provides one complex case study, she says. There are four main bacteria that cause BRD, and 11 antimicrobials on the market are labeled to treat the most common one: Mannheimia haemolytica.

That’s where much of the research rests.

Studies from 1994, 2004 and 2011 showed an increase from virtually no resistance. Then work from Kansas State University’s diagnostic lab caught the attention of the animal science community.

Nearly 400 samples across a three-year period, from 266 unique locations, gave insight into possible trends.

In 2009, only 5% of the bacteria were resistant to five or more antimicrobials; by 2011 that jumped to 35%.

Treatment history of the animals was unknown, “but these data still worried a lot of people,” Woolums says.

That inspired studies in live cattle.

At the University of Georgia, 169 high-risk stocker cattle were measured at arrival, given metaphylaxis—or preventative antibiotic treatment—and swabbed again two weeks later.

Three-quarters of the cattle came in with bacteria that would respond to any antibiotic they were given. Two weeks later, that 75% number was down to 1%.

“Ninety-seven percent were resistant to the antibiotics we use all the time,” Woolums says. At that point, “they’d only been given one antibiotic.”

Concerning but, she says, “It’s important to note that this was not related to an unusually high rate of morbidity and mortality.”

More research is needed to determine the level that would cause a treatment failure.

Woolums and her colleagues completed an additional study that took those same swabs at four points from day one to day 21. It showed the number of cattle shedding the bacteria went from 10% on the first day to 88%.

“That’s textbook,” Woolums says. “But what we didn’t really expect was that the pattern of multi-drug resistance would completely follow it.”

By day seven, 80% of the bacteria were resistant to multiple drugs, and they were genetically diverse, meaning they didn’t just proliferate from one carrier calf.

This isn’t meant to be a dire warning, Woolums says, but more of a caution sign. More research is needed and best practices need to follow suit.

“The No. 1 goal is efficient use of antibiotics, that we’re really heading off problems before they start,” says Brandi Karisch, Mississippi Extension beef cattle specialist. “Good animal husbandry and hygiene practices, routine health exams and vaccinations.”

To lessen the chances of needing treatment, limit stress, improve nutrition and identify disease earlier, she says. “So, doing a good job of monitoring those cattle.”

Then use antibiotics sparingly—only for the sick or highest-risk cattle—and use them right: follow label instructions, work closely with your veterinarian and observe proper withdrawal times.

“Treat for the recommended time period,” Karisch says. “How many of you know someone who starts feeling better and stops taking the antibiotic?”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has already flagged this as a growing area of concern.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time,” Karisch says, citing the CDC. More than 2.9 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year. “So this is a very serious threat, not just on the livestock side of things, but in human medicine as well.”

There’s a chance every tool your veterinarian has today will work for years, and there’s a chance it won’t work next week.

“We don’t really know yet. The negative impact on morbidity or mortality has not been clearly evident,” Karisch says. “But there’s that ‘yet’ that goes along with that.

“In the meantime, it’s really important that we’re doing a good job taking care of those cows,” she says.

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The Resistance

Cattle treatments that work today might not tomorrow

By: Miranda Reiman

New decade, old dilemma

The growing resistance

Prevention, protocols and precautions

For the greater good

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The Resistance Part II: The bacteria battle

Antibiotics have their work cut out for them

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The Resistance Part I: Works today, not tomorrow?

Combating antibiotic resistance in cattle

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