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brand specifications evolve, spec change

VanStavern remembered with meat science “mentorship”

by Crystal Meier

November 11, 2020

It was an Elvis moment for Diana Clark: the chance to meet a legend in her field of meat science.

The University of Illinois graduate shared an elevator ride and introductions with Bobby “Dr. Bob” VanStavern.

“He pushed for the focus on quality,” Clark says. Leaner beef was the 1970s trend but “he knew what good quality beef was.”

The Ohio State University (OSU) Extension professor linked cattle production to quality on the plate. He taught students and pros, mentored both and wrote instructional guides, always looking to make beef better for each link in the value chain. Uniting all those needs raised challenges, but it would pay in time.

That road began when Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand cofounder Mick Colvin entered VanStavern’s office in August 1977, seeking science-based criteria to incentivize higher quality beef for consumers. The details were already in a desk drawer, leading to the brand’s retail launch the next year.

Mentoring still

In meat science as in life, The OSU legend was a listener and champion of others, an unwavering rock with a warm presence. Last February, he passed away at 90.

To honor his friendly leadership style, the brand helped launch an American Meat Science Association (AMSA) Development Council “mentorship” in 2020. Each year, one student who presents beef-quality research at the AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference will receive a scholarship in his honor, funded by those VanStavern mentored. The first $1,000 recipient will be chosen next year.

Dr. Bob mentorship

“I think it’s fitting to honor Dr. Bob in this way,” says fellow meat scientist and CAB President John Stika. “Dr. Bob believed the data he collected and in the power of a better eating experience, and that’s why research is such a rock-solid part of our specifications still today. He helped so many people—students, colleagues and producers to consumers—be more successful.”

The OSU legend consulted for the first premium branded beef program for 25 years, on the team with Colvin, meat packers, processors, distributors, retailers and chefs. He nurtured and encouraged. He visited their businesses and crafted “Science Behind the Sizzle” training much like Clark presents today.

More than 19,000 partners market the brand in 52 countries now, delivering 6.3 billion servings annually.

“Things Dr. Bob advocated for seem commonplace today, because 40 years later, other programs and breeds are touting quality in the marketplace,” Stika adds. “Because of his solid opinion and willingness to defend it, there’s an entire industry today that gets it.”

Living legacy

John Grimes was one of the students and colleagues VanStavern touched.

Starting in 1979, Grimes went on to work alongside his mentor in Ohio State Extension.

“Bobby was always a students’ professor, like a players’ coach,” Grimes says. “He really cared about his students, wanted you to learn, and was passionate about meat science and what he did for Certified Angus Beef.”

Dr. Bob mentorship

Grimes served as 2020 chairman of the brand’s board of directors. Retired from Extension, he still raises Angus cattle with his wife, Joanie, in Hillsboro, Ohio. It’s easy to see the call for higher quality beef has grown much bigger than one individual.

“The continued success of the Certified Angus Beef brand documents the need for farmers and ranchers to pay attention to carcass traits,” Grimes adds. “As demand grows, it’s our obligation to continue growing beef cattle to meet consumer needs.”

As for Clark, she and husband Daniel are meat scientists for the brand now, spending their days in the meat lab, on Zoom, researching and at seminars talking with partners, compounding a legacy of success.

“He set the foundation and pointed us in the best direction,” Clark says. “We have the best beef out there. We continue honoring him by challenging ourselves to always make it better.”

Stika’s advice for students: “Believe the data, be persistent, and then share your beliefs with conviction. Dr. Bob always did.”

The West Virginia native earned his bachelor’s from West Virginia University before advanced degrees from OSU. He served two years in the Air Force and earned the rank of Captain before returning to OSU for his Ph.D. in 1960. VanStavern was a beloved family man, noted researcher, speaker and leader in AMSA and other organizations.

Contributions to the mentor scholarship program are made available through AMSA.

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flavor's secret ingredient, grill flame flavor

Flavor’s secret ingredient

Many factors create a good eating experience, but delivery is key

by Abbie Burnett

October 5, 2020

jerrad legako beef flavor science

A thunderstorm rolls in above the parched Great Plains with all the usual effects, but no rain. Disappointment, like a tender steak without flavor.

Just as it takes certain factors to produce a great rainfall, so it goes with flavor. To quell a drought, you need rain. To satisfy consumers, you need flavor. Hint: it’s in the marbling.

Texas Tech University meat scientist Jerrad Legako spoke to that point during the American Society of Animal Science conference earlier this year.

“No question, flavor is at least equivalent to tenderness in importance to the overall eating experience, if not a little more,” he said. That’s partly due to improved beef tenderness since the late 1980s.

But what is flavor, and how do we experience it?

It’s a complex combination, said Legako.

More than taste on the tongue, flavor takes in perceptions of texture and mouth feel. It’s “olfaction,” as the scientist evokes the world of smell, and chemical reactions on the tongue that perceive spiciness. Ambiance and prior experiences complete the impression.

All of these affect perceptions of flavor, but Legako’s team looks for a nuanced key to the best beef-eating experiences.

“With the sensitivity of the olfaction system, volatile compounds are incredibly important for our perceptions of flavor,” he said.

Volatile because they evaporate at room temperature, the organic compounds start as sugars, amino acids, lipids and thiamines, breaking down in beef’s aging, storage and cooking processes.

All but the fats are water soluble and provide basic tastes like sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Then cookery enters with its Maillard reaction that reduces sugars and proteins to the volatile compounds like aldehydes we enjoy as a robust flavor profile. It’s how such flavors as nutty, roasted, garlicky, whiskey and honey get into browned foods like dumplings, cookies, biscuits, marshmallows—and steaks, of course.

“With time and temperature, you can kind of start to think about this as a chemistry equation,” Legako said. “You’re driving that reaction at different rates just depending on exposure time and the level of heat.”

grill flavor beef science

Lipids, the top contributor, produce flavor through oxidation, he said, citing Australian studies: “Fat is the delivery system.” Among beef cuts with varying fat levels, those with the most would always deliver more of the same volatile compounds.

To be clear, the flavor components fat delivers come not from the fat but from the effects of cookery on amino acids and sugars, Legako said.

“Yet they’re dissolving in that fat, retained in that high-fat sample and being delivered,” he said, “an increased sensory response or a more intense beef flavor through the greater delivery of those volatile compounds.”

Basically, fat serves as a reservoir to deliver flavor.

Legako and team tested this reaction across different cookery types, higher degrees of doneness and different grades of beef. The consistent find? The higher the grade, the better the flavor, increasing linearly from Standard to Prime.

“This is at least some support for marbling content in a way influencing volatile compound delivery,” Legako said.

For a good thunderstorm, you need moisture, instability and a lifting mechanism. For good flavor, you need aging and heat, but it takes ample marbling to really deliver. That starts on the ranch.​

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brand specifications evolve, spec change

Brand specifications evolve

by Kylee Kohls

September 8, 2020

“Meat heads” by education and experience, scientists and number crunchers gather to analyze the latest scatter plot. Coffee fuels the banter as they discuss where the figures point toward progress.

It’s Friday morning: analysis day for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand packing team.

Meat scientist Daniel Clark brings a new scatter plot each week, along with a fresh perspective to answer last week’s questions.

More than 2.6 million points fill the screen, each dot measuring how carcasses meet the 10 brand quality specifications — providing insight for possible improvement. How could adjustments help a premium supply meet the growing demand?

Changes don’t happen overnight.

The brand’s integrity is tied to these specifications, so they don’t evolve without careful consideration.

“The first question we ask,” Clark says, “is how it will affect our partners up and down the supply chain.”

brand specifications evolve, spec change

Beyond the grading stand  
On September 9, 2020, CAB implemented two changes to its “G1 schedule” specifications. 

The first, a subtle rewording, adjusts the fat thickness limit from “less than 1 inch” to read “1 inch or less.” It might sound the same, but that precise language allows USDA graders more accurate measurements. Camera grading calculates fat thickness to several decimal places and that provides consistency and clarity when dealing with fractions of an inch. 


The second change allows packers with an “extended licensing agreement” to box beef from some primals that met all quality specifications, but exceed the ribeye area, up to 19-square inches. 


Ribs, ribeyes, strip loins and short loins from these carcasses will be excluded from the brand. 


“This is not an expansion of the ribeye area to 19-square inches, but rather capitalizing on other parts of the carcass that are practically unaffected by that limit,” says Clint Walenciak, CAB director of packing.


The move allows foodservice and retail partners to access 
CAB briskets, tenderloins, short ribs and end meats for roasts and ground beef from those carcasses that fall in the 16- to 19-square include ribeye. The exclusion of larger ribeyes, ribs, strip and short loins, maintains brand-quality plate presentations and thicker cuts for the key middle-meat items. Box quality, consistency and center-of-the-plate steak presentation standards remain the same.

“I don’t want to overstate the magnitude of the expanded specification, but it is one small step in one big direction,” Clark says. “This is exciting for the future of the brand and for our partners on all fronts.” 


Their research shows the size differentiation of cuts entering the box from the carcasses with a larger ribeye will have little to no impact on the size or weight of the box. 


“The expanded product specification is voluntary for packers, and may be incorporated when timing is right to satisfy customer demand on a plant-by-plant basis,” 
Walenciak says. 

Until a packer implements this change, its impact on premiums and discounts is uncertain.


Cattlemen should not take their eye off of ribeye size, Walenciak says. While this innovation creates potential access to additional high-quality cattle, demand pressure for 10 to 16 square-inch ribeyes remains.

Next Friday, the packing team will evaluate data again, searching for new clues on how to make the best even better. 

It’s a team effort to crunch the numbers, balance the science and calculate the scope of possible adjustments. Never sacrificing quality, the ongoing process can evolve the specifications if that raises the standard, says Bruce Cobb, CAB executive vice president of production. 

brand specifications evolve, spec change

“Making those cattle more valuable, these specification expansions help the brand gain strength and footprint on the market path to two billion pounds of supply annually,” he says. 

The focus remains on fulfilling demand and creating economic incentives for cattlemen and all supply chain partners. 

“We are working toward a vision where this brand supplies more of the best that Angus cattlemen create,” Cobb says. “This is one small step forward to creating an ever-better beef production system.”

Progress is a process that happens one dataset, conversation and cup of coffee at a time.

The 10 Science-based Specifications:
To earn the Certified Angus Beef ® logo, Angus-influenced cattle with a predominantly solid black coat must pass its 10 quality standards:
 
Marbling

1. Modest or higher marbling – the single largest barrier to CAB acceptance, this ensures superior flavor and juiciness.
2. Medium or fine marbling texture – many small flecks of fat as opposed to larger, coarser characteristics. Creates consistency in every bite.

 
Maturity

3. 30 months of age or younger – ensures superior color, texture and tenderness

Consistent sizing
Three specifications ensure thicker steaks and consistent plate presentations:

4. 10- to 16-square-inch ribeye area*
5. 1,050-pound or less hot carcass weight
6. 1 inch or less fat thickness


Plate presentation

7. Superior muscling limits light-muscled cattle – reduces influence of dairy-type cattle with inconsistent yields and plate presentation


Quality appearance and tenderness

8. Practically free of capillary rupture – ensures quality appearance
9. No dark cutters – ensures consistent appearance and flavor
10. No neck hump exceeding 2 inches – safeguards against Brahman-influence cattle, which have more variation in tenderness

 
*Up to 19 square inches for ribeye area is acceptable for tenderloin, brisket, thin meat, chuck and round cuts at approved plants. Rib, ribeye, strip loin and short loin are excluded from this option.

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Like fine wine, premium beef is better with age

By: Miranda Reiman

To make the best beef better.

If the process of beef aging had a tagline, that twist on the traditional 4-H mantra would be it.

At its core, aging is just as it sounds: letting fresh beef get just a little older before going out into the marketplace.

“It improves the palatability,” says David O’Diam, director of retail for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand. “It improves the tenderness of beef, and it improves the way that beef eats for consumer satisfaction.”

A general rule of thumb? “More days is usually better,” he says, “to a point.”

There are two types: wet aging, from leaving the product in its vacuum-sealed bag to retain moisture. And dry aging, where it is exposed to the open air of a temperature- and humidity-controlled cooler.

“In both types, naturally occurring enzymes in the meat break down muscle fibers,” says Diana Clark, CAB meat scientist. “With wet aging, what goes into a bag is pretty much what comes out of the bag, only more tender.”

‘Funky’ flavor

Dry aging, however, has a little more mystique. In foodie circles it’s called “artisanal” or “old world” and “earthy.”

Meat scientists like O’Diam and Clark call it “more robust.”

Beef is about 75% water, so when meat is exposed to the open air, it loses moisture.

“It concentrates that flavor,” O’Diam says. “Think of a wine reduction sauce. We take that flavor that’s in the full bottle of wine and really reduce that down to where the flavor becomes much, much more intense in just a smaller format. It’s the same concept within dry aging.”

But it’s the mold that grows on the bark, or the outside of the subprimal, that adds to the character of the meat.

“There’s natural microflora that grow on the outside that add to its flavor, but then they’re trimmed off as it’s portion cut,” Clark explains. “Different parts of the country have different flavor notes, just based on their natural environments. So a dry-aged steak in New York might not be the same as one you have on the West Coast.”

Most beef served at restaurants has been wet aged around 21 days. In fact, CAB requires that of its licensed foodservice distributors. Beef in retail meat cases varies greatly, from a few days to several weeks based on logistics.

“In the retail business, it’s all about shelf life and how the product looks to the shoppers. People buy with their eyes,” O’Diam says.

Dry aging is far less common, representing a small fraction of all beef sold, but it is a growing trend.

Google data from its search engine shows the term, “dry aging” is searched for twice as often now compared to five years ago.

“We look at foodservice as kind of the signal carrier or the flag carrier, so what we see taking place at foodservice, typically a few years behind that would be retail,” O’Diam says. “Right now, dry aging is something they’re talking about as a way to differentiate.”

Stores such as Market District in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Reasor’s in Oklahoma and Schnucks in St. Louis have started featuring a dry-aged meat case as an upscale option for their shoppers.

Not for the cost conscious

It’s all a balance. Beef marketers need to look at what their customers want, while also serving it up at a price they will pay. Dry aging does add to the ticket.

“We are already taking a fairly expensive piece of meat and drying that down,” O’Diam says. “That means a little bit less weight, which means price goes up a little bit higher. It can be a little bit of a cost inhibitor there, but the end product is pretty special.”

A wet-aged striploin may yield 85% after trimming and cutting, while dry aging for 28 days makes that 65%.

There’s economic loss due to that evaporation and later trimming off the dried crust, coupled with added labor and equipment. The cost to consumers is at least a third higher than the wet-aged alternative.

It’s a process that is centuries old, but “there was a time not so long ago that food scientists in this country made a move away from traditional dry aging, introducing techniques that stopped the growth of mold,” Clark says.

Luckily for some of the more adventurous diners, it’s coming back in vogue.

“Dry aging is something that you either love or you hate it,” O’Diam says.

The only way to know where your preference falls is to try it, he says.

“In New York, the vast majority of the steaks are dry aged, where folks in the Midwest are more accustomed to wet aging,” he says. “It’s not only a cost decision, but also a customer decision, on what they demand.”

There’s one thing that beef taste-panel studies and other meat science work agrees on: aging is vital to improve eating satisfaction.

“Failing to age beef doesn’t hurt it, but it will prevent the piece of meat from reaching its full potential,” Clark says, especially since it does a lot more to enhance tenderness than it does flavor. “Aging cannot enhance the flavor of a Select piece of beef to the level of a highly marbled CAB steak.”

But it can elevate any steak, making that CAB and Prime even better.

It takes time, but just like a well-aged bourbon or fine bleu cheese, some things are worth the wait.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

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Where there’s smoke, there’s family

World-famous barbecue joint connects five generations

By: Katrina Huffstutler

It’s a tale as old as time — and one every rancher can relate to.

The cattle market goes south, adjustments have to be made. Maybe that means reducing the herd, finding ways to cut back on input costs, or a newfound focus on quality. Maybe it means expanding the herd, taking advantage of the buyer’s market.

For Edgar Black, it meant a move from pasture to plating.

The year was 1932 and the effects of the Great Depression were paralyzing. Edgar had 100 head of cattle ready for harvest, but no one to buy them. What he did have was a friend who wanted to open a meat market. It seemed like a match made in beef heaven. With a handshake the deal was done, and the friends became partners. The meat market-slash-grocery-slash-barbecue joint that would one day attract visitors from around the world was born, and the rest is history.

Edgar drove those cattle about 15 miles into Lockhart, Texas, a trip that took two days. Back then, every little town had a slaughterhouse and as needed, they’d harvest cattle and sell the beef in the grocery store’s meat market. There was very little refrigeration in those days, so fresh meats wouldn’t last long. That’s when the duo started barbecuing the meat and making sausage to extend the shelf life.

87 years later, so much has changed. But at Black’s Barbecue, so much hasn’t. They still smoke barbecue the way they always have, over locally sourced post-oak wood. They still make all their own sausage in house. And Edgar’s grandson, Kent Black, is at the helm with two more generations ready to carry on the tradition.

The second generation

Kent’s dad, Edgar Black Jr., who passed away in 2017 at the age of 91, was in his first semester at Texas A&M University when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Like most of his generation, he joined the military, serving in the U.S. Navy for four years before coming back to finish his accounting degree. After college, he went to work for Exxon in Houston as a corporate accountant. His career was off to a good start. But before he got the chance to climb the ladder, fate stepped in.

“My grandfather got sick and said, ‘Son, hey, I just really need you to come back here and work for two or three weeks until I can get back on my feet.’ And those two or three weeks turned into 65 years,” Kent says. “I think that’s a real key to our longevity. Because, of course, my dad knew barbecue, but he also had a background to where he really knew how to properly run a business.”

Another key? The woman by his side.

“People ask me, ‘Who is the best businessman in your family?’” Kent says. “I always have the same answer: my mom.”

Norma Jean Black worked beside her husband for 65 years, and together the couple led the restaurant to fame, earning it recognition on countless lists of the best barbecue joints. (In some parts of the country, “joint” has a negative connotation far removed from quality. In Texas, it just means casual. Black’s is one of those places that perfectly marries high-quality food with the laid-back atmosphere you’d enjoy with barbecue among friends.)

The next generation

Current pitmaster Kent always knew he wanted to join the family business. But Edgar Jr. and Norma Jean had other plans.

“My parents, being the smart people they are, told my brother and I we could not be involved in the business until we had gone to college, earned a degree and established a career outside of our restaurant,” Kent says. “And you know, that seemed pretty harsh at the time. But, as usual, they were right.”

So, he did as they said. Went to college and law school. Became a practicing attorney and then a municipal court judge in Lockhart. He enjoyed his law career but always planned to return to Black’s Barbecue. Finally, his parents were ready to retire.

“I said, ‘OK, my turn?’ And it was. They were more than ready for me to take over at that time,” Kent says.

And when his kids were grown? He followed his own parents’ lead, sending them off to college and careers before they could come back to the restaurant, which now has four locations: the original in Lockhart as well as New Braunfels, San Marcos and Austin.

Sons Barrett and Eric Black have now joined the business, and their kids even help where they can. Ranging in ages from two to 13, Kent chuckles as he says they aren’t big enough to wield a sharp knife yet, “but they sure can help clean off the tables.”

Quality, customer service

Starting a new business is hard enough. Keeping it running for nearly nine decades is almost unheard of. (In fact, Black’s is the oldest barbecue establishment in Texas.) The Blacks have not only kept their business afloat but booming, earning many accolades along the way. They’ve been featured on the Food Network, the Travel Channel and CBS Sunday Morning. Written about in Texas Monthly. In 2017, they were recognized with the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand’s Legendary Establishment in Barbecue award.

Kent says that success is owed to a combination of serving a quality product and offering the best customer service they can.

The leading beef brand has been a big part of that quality component.

“We’ve built this company around good brisket,” he says. “As soon as Certified Angus Beef became available, we were in. We were early adopters, and we’ve stuck with it ever since then. We’ve been asked to switch to other branded products several times, and occasionally, we’ve tried one. But you just can’t beat Certified Angus Beef.”

He says the brand’s 10 specifications help him serve up a consistently good eating experience, something his grandfather preached.

“He would always tell us, ‘Well, maybe your barbecue was really good last year. Or maybe it was really good last week. But how was it today at lunch? Because that’s all that really matters.’” Kent says.

He says while it costs a little more to serve CAB, it’s worth it.

“It’s a premium brand, and we have not minded paying that premium, because it really shows in the product,” he says. “There are other, less expensive products out there, but they’re less expensive for a reason.”

In the competitive central Texas barbecue market, good food isn’t good enough. Kent says they also pride themselves on treating each customer like a member of the family. It’s paid off with a loyal following. And while the Black family has served celebrities like President Lyndon B. Johnson and actor Matthew McConaughey, nothing means more to them than being the go-to spot for local families, generation after generation.

“One of our best days is when a family walks in with the grandparents, parents, and a new baby in a stroller,” Kent says. “And usually I’ll know them and say, ‘Hey, what brings y’all to Lockhart today?’ And they’ll say, ‘Well, this is baby Susie’s first trip to Black’s Barbecue.’ It’s a family event, and it makes us feel really good that we’ve become a part of their family traditions.”

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

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Old-fashioned excellence

Local packer offers unique advantages to worldwide brand

By: Brianna Gwirtz

Half a side of beef glides out of the cooler on an overhead hook, wheel and track line into a small meat lab. A group of chefs gather round; for many, it’s their first time seeing a carcass.

They admire the enormity of it all and make sure to take a look at the amount of marbling in the ribeye. They know that’s the good stuff, the small, white flecks of flavor.

Perhaps what throws the chefs for the biggest loop, however, is the stamped label on the carcass side that features a farm name, a hot carcass weight and a date.

That’s the result of the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand’s working relationship with E.R. Boliantz Packing Company, owned and operated by Bob Boliantz and his 50 employees in Ashland, Ohio. Hundreds of guests make their way to the CAB Culinary Center in nearby Wooster every year to learn about the best Angus beef on the market, and one of the highlights is a fabrication lesson. That takes a steady supply of beef to hang on the hook.

“We buy sides of beef weekly from Bob and have been working with him since we opened the center,” meat scientist Diana Clark says.

“Since they have a USDA grader come in every week, we can explain how grading works and can share that packing plant perspective with guests,” she adds. “It’s crazy how phenomenal the quality is. It’s all local, too, which is amazing.”

The packing company is the brand’s smallest licensed plant, but that doesn’t reflect its big impact on business and sales.

It’s who you know

Boliantz sits behind his desk, leafing through some of his father’s old business receipts from 1943, stopping on one in particular.

“Eight head of cattle – $893 … total,” he laughs. “Obviously, my father was a much better buyer than I am.”

Emil Boliantz had a knack for picking the right cattle and knowing which farmers he could count on to supply his Mansfield, Ohio, plant with high-quality beef. The son of butcher shop owners, Emil grew up in the business, turning a youth’s worth of knowledge into a successful meat-packing venture before passing the trade on to his son.

Even after that company was purchased by another meat purveyor, the son chose to stay on, for a while. But as the business direction began to drift from Boliantz’s goals, the family’s past wholesale customers reached out with their need for high-quality beef – and he knew where to get it.

Relationships forged with local farmers were still strong, so Boliantz began sourcing those cattle and processing the beef at various plants in the late 1970s.

“After a day’s work at my father’s former company, I would haul cattle from the country to a local harvest facility for processing,” he recalls. “Then I’d rent a truck and deliver the meat to my wholesale customers in the evening.”

Then, upon leaving that company, Boliantz went into business for himself in 1977.  He rented space and harvest floors, continuing to process livestock purchased from local farmers and selling beef to small high-end meat shops. Finally in 1986, he had the opportunity to buy the plant that houses his company today.

“It’s about relationships,” Boliantz says. “If you build relationships with the farmers and with the right people who can help them, you’re going to have the right kind of cattle to work with. I’d argue that relationship building is even more important than the actual meat business.”

Each week, he reviews his ready cattle list and calls on his local producers to secure enough cattle to meet store orders.

“Do you see this?” he says, lifting a small blue notebook. “I update this weekly.”

He points to a name in the well-worn book.

“This farm here is unique. A larger packing plant wants to purchase cattle out of this lot, but the farmer told the buyer he wanted to wait to see what we needed,” Boliantz says with a chuckle. “It’s a good relationship. He could easily send two semi loads out but he wants to make sure he’s got inventory for us to take care of our customers’ specific needs.”

Boliantz mentions another family farm in the tiny village of Shiloh, Ohio.

“This father-son pair here are actually tweaking their feed rations a bit,” he says. “Working to get cattle that grade a little better, to fit our customers’ needs.”

He continues to flip through the notebook with a slight smile on his face, certainly thinking about his friendships with the producers.

“I enjoy sorting cattle and I enjoy sharing information with farmers about what we are looking for in the cattle. It’s also nice to be able to show them their carcasses hanging in the cooler after harvest.”

In his subtle, friendly and humble way, Boliantz has had a big impact on increasing area beef quality.

Quality education

Driving across the Ohio countryside, stopping at feedlots and cow-calf operations, he saw great cattle but knew the farmers could do even better.

“Each and every farmer here in Ohio has a different approach to feeding cattle. We have such a diverse range of cattle feeders, anywhere from a one-man operation feeding just a few to a family partnership feeding hundreds,” Boliantz says. “It has to do with both economics and equipment, Ohio’s not exactly feedlot country. We do things differently here.”

That’s where his partnership with Francis Fluharty, former Ohio State University researcher, now Animal and Dairy Science Department Head at the University of Georgia, came in handy.

They created educational services for Ohio beef farmers.

“Dr. Fluharty helps the farmers with the nutrition and general feeding practices, and then we provide the opportunity for those farmers to see their finished product on the rail.” Boliantz says. “We walk them through the cooler, show them their sides of beef and make recommendations based on both yield and quality grades.”

The opportunity to work one-on-one with area experts has helped with quality consistency in the beef supply at Boliantz.

“In Ohio, most feedlots average 100 to 200 head of cattle,” he says. “Some of them are cow-calf guys but then we have a lot of guys bringing in stockers to feed. Some folks are sourcing cattle from multiple farms because they just don’t raise enough of their own.”

“Our ability to share knowledge with our farmers – based on the relationships with Dr. Fluharty and the Ohio State University – has resulted in a dramatic increase in product quality, allowing us to do a little better job for everybody,” Boliantz says.

The plant only harvests 100 to 125 head a week, but more than half of those cattle qualify for CAB, with 18% hitting Prime grade.

In an area surrounded by a large dairy community, just 57% of the cattle coming in are Angus type.

“We encourage our producers to purchase or raise high-quality feeders that are likely to meet the CAB brand specs because they’re more marketable,” the packer says.

Teaching the next generation

Boliantz is known for doing things the old-fashioned way. Workers wrap the meat in shroud cloth, smoothing out the fat. The company then allows sides to dry-age in the cooler for five to 10 days. The master introduces the old methods to new employees.

“What is the company’s future?” he asks. “Our employees and the relationships that we created with our producers and customers.”

With just over 50 employees working in areas including the harvest floor, the fabrication room and in day-to-day operations like Boliantz’s daughter who is in charge of human resources, the company has grown significantly from its early days.

“The more involved we can get people and the more they learn, the better. That’s my goal – to see the business go on,” he says.

E.R. Boliantz Packing Company sells CAB product into several area retail outlets including a few Giant Eagle stores in Pennsylvania and in markets across northeast Ohio. It also supplies a specialty meat company in Cleveland, which then distributes the product to high-end restaurants and steakhouses, such as the James Beard Award-nominated Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland.

“It’s really neat to have some of those Cleveland-based chefs and distributors come in to the Culinary Center,” Clark says. “It brings up that discussion of local beef. It’s such a hot topic right now and it’s something a lot of people want to talk about.”

“Local” resonates with salesmen, chefs, restauranteurs and even farmers and ranchers.

“It allows us to explain that beef like what we have in the center is produced by farmers all across the country, and that it’s attainable even by smaller operations. Having high quality no matter where you’re at is achievable,” Clark says.

The Culinary Center, with its mission to further high-quality beef education and drive demand for registered Angus cattle, hosts groups nearly every day of the work-week, year round. It’s focused on building relationships.

A visit almost always includes a stop in that meat lab that’s ever-dependent on the quality relationships Boliantz has built, and the beef that comes from them.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

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A beacon born from a broken path

How three generations made Florida’s oldest steakhouse a success

By: Laura Conaway

It was a love story fit for the movies, full of ingredients that make success that much sweeter.

The backdrop was a 1930s coastal town challenged by war and economic cataclysm, the plot a Southern belle who meets a young man with aspirations of independence. Together, they forge ahead to carve their dream: a restaurant of their very own.

To have heard the tales directly from Ralph and Norma Lewis would best bring the scene to life, but their grit lives on in the younger ones they raised and the restaurant they built.

At the intersection of Palm Beach Lakes and Okeechobee Boulevard sits Okeechobee Steakhouse – the oldest of its kind in Florida’s Sunshine State. It was once a drive-in – think Ralph’s in Happy Days – where “you could get a martini or a Manhattan with a steak delivered to your car door for $1.10.”

Today’s clientele observing its rich décor can scarcely picture that.

Built by a pair of young ’ns who were told it couldn’t be done, it has outshined its competitors and outlived its naysayers to become a beacon for the city and a home away from home for its devoted guests.

But it wasn’t always the obvious path to victory.

Florida has its own way of doing things in the cattle business and beyond, and Ralph and Norma Lewis fit that bill just fine.

He the executive chef, she the head waitress at West Palm Beach’s Hotel George Washington, they lived like many in the hospitality world did in those days. Being a part of that industry meant a transient life moving north in the summer and back south after Labor Day when the hotels opened for the season.

Then World War II came.

“A lot of hotels along the coastline couldn’t turn lights on at night because they were afraid of the German subs attacking,” says Ralph Lewis, his grandfather’s namesake and the third generation to run the place.

“Because of their roots, my grandparents drove from West Palm Beach to LaBelle, Fla., of all places, to get married,” he says. They’d been saving money for nearly a decade, determined to go into business on the west side of town, but not that far out.

The county’s west side in 1947 wasn’t then what it is now. Friends, family, even the vendors and suppliers they’d worked with said they were crazy for wanting to open a restaurant way out there.

It could have been because Okeechobee Road then was unpaved, but more likely concern over where that dirt road led.

Communities from West Palm Beach to LaBelle were sparse, trickled between farmers and blue-collar workers.

“To put it bluntly, they were told in their days this is where all the working trash lived. But my grandparents lived out here and they had a feel for the community.”

The young entrepreneur saw beyond the dusty fields and broken gravel. He noted that people from the Everglades and the farmers and ranchers near Okeechobee had to travel great lengths to enjoy a meal.

“He said the town only had one way to go and that was West,” Lewis says. “The first eight years they were in business they couldn’t get deliveries. Everybody said they’d never last.”

Unaffected, the couple purchased a panel truck and traversed in and out of town five days a week. They’d get beef brought in by rail and haul it unrefrigerated down the bumpy road to the restaurant’s side door.

The grateful blue-collared folks were loyal.

“They ignored everybody else, so this place was busy with a wait list from day one,” Lewis says. “It’s been that way ever since.”

With the younger Ralph at the helm and his father Curtis still stopping in daily after running it for decades, today the steakhouse has 108 employees and five entities beyond the main eatery. Those include Okeechobee Prime Meat Market, Okeechobee Steakhouse Catering, Okeechobee Prime Barbecue, a Production Kitchen and even a yacht provisioning service.

The brainchild of trailblazers, a mecca of high taste, all in all she boasts sales of nearly 60,000 pounds of Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) annually.

Subtle changes

Today’s guests have morphed just as their go-to restaurant has from the inside out. The bar sits in the exact spot where it was constructed in 1950 but pillars to one side hint at where a wall once stood and an expansion extended its reach. The restrooms are indoors now and the charcoal pit is no more.

“We didn’t have exhaust hoods or anything in the steakhouse until the mid-’70s,” Lewis says. “We had a chimney at the end of the bar, and it was just an open pit that they stoked every morning with wood charcoal.”

A challenge, Lewis explains, has been maintaining the warm and rustic vibe while simultaneously growing to accommodate the modern clientele.

It’s evident he’s found the balance in the soft lighting, the original pine ceilings and the cascading wine wall just next to a meat case presenting dry-aged CAB steaks they’ve hand-cut and trimmed in house.

One thing that’s remained through all transitions is the commitment to quality in the meat they put on people’s dinner tables.

“We went 100% Angus about 30 years ago,” Lewis tells, mentioning their longstanding relationship with Miami Purveyors, Inc.

In the trenches, too

When the Lewis grandson took the reins seven years ago, he made a conscious decision to hone in on the Angus they were purchasing and only serve upper two-thirds USDA Choice and Prime. Ideally it would all be CAB.

“It’s consistency, plain and simple,” he says. “I’ve had others come in and try to sell me their beef and it’s good, but if the guy’s cutting strips, I can pick out CAB over theirs.”

For his increasingly popular BBQ truck he started setting up in the parking lot on Saturdays, they feed exclusively CAB brand Prime brisket until it’s gone.

“The least we’ve ever done is 200 people in four hours,” Lewis says. “The most we’ve done is 525,” and it’s only been a few months.

With the quality of meat assured, his marketing abilities went to work.

“That’s a big part of it, too, not just the great food,” Lewis says. “You have to be able to tell the world about your great food.”

Quality food and stuff is good,” he says, “but good food with a good story make headlines. I’ve found that to be true. I put our food with a great story, and it sells. People love it.”

That’s another reason he sticks with the world’s largest beef brand: it’s owned by Angus ranchers who have stories of their own.

“I get cattle futures and commodity reports every week,” Lewis says, declaring he invests in the guys and girls who start what his team finishes.

As he looks forward to passing the steakhouse and all that’s under her umbrella to the fourth and even fifth generation toddling around the office, he urges cattlemen to keep bringing the quality.

The more of their product he can push, he says, the more demand there will be – a win-win for all.

“We depend on what they do to keep us going,” he says. “Then at the end of the day, the guests at the dinner table each night depend on all of us. We’re in the trenches in a different way.”

But trenches nonetheless.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

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Down at the Ribber

Comfort, consistency and community with seriously delicious beef from the hickory fire grill

By: Micah Mensing

Drive the Ohio River Scenic Byway in the open air or walk along the trails east of the Scioto River confluence and you might notice the sights and sounds of nature in the valley. If you don’t hail from Portsmouth, Ohio, the aroma of slow-burning hickory could make you wonder, but locals and beef lovers from hours away know what it means.

Follow your nose and you’ll come to the heart of town where the Scioto Ribber satisfies more than curiosity. 

Owner-manager Darren Mault, family and friends welcome all who dine or drink here with the “Southern hospitality” his restaurant encompasses.

The restaurant’s namesake river and thousands of customers come down from state capital Columbus, drive in from Cincinnati or cross the bridge from Charleston, W. Va., and Lexington, Ky., all within a two-hour radius. Folks from the little places in between join in the experience where Old South meets the Midwest.

Early stages

Mault’s father, Steven, always dreamed of owning a bar when he bought the downtown café in 1978, but his son comments with a slight smirk, “Mom wasn’t always on the same page. She’d always say, if you’re gonna serve alcohol, you need to serve some type of food.”

Neighbors already knew the Maults could cook, sharing smoked ribs in the family’s backyard for years. So it wasn’t long before the advice to add food to bar fare became reality, if not a profit center.

“We started giving away chicken wings for Monday Night Football. One thing led to another, and before we knew it—I’d say early ’80s—we really became a restaurant,” Mault says.

At first, the place was only open two days a week, and the family never imagined their enterprise would grow by word of mouth to thrive seven days a week. Nor did they suspect their volume of smoked ribs, grilled steaks and more would rank them among the top independent sellers of the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand in the world, second only to Houston’s famous Taste of Texas.

They licensed with the brand in 2017, but have been steadily increasing CAB sales for the past five years. They are quickly approaching the 1 million pound mark, selling 175,000 pounds of CAB in the last year alone.

Consistent quality

Now, walking into the ornate bar and well-lit dining area, you may not guess the building dates back to the late 19th century, but it carries a sense of more recent sports history.

Along the wood-paneled walls hang 40 or more framed photos of people considered “special guests” of the Ribber such as Cincinnati Bengals football players. Alongside the NFL all-stars who visit you’ll find images of political leaders, including Gov. Mike DeWine, who comes in for a ribeye when he’s in the area.

You don’t need to be in a framed photo or famous to enjoy the restaurant’s famous fare, but you’ll feel like it, in a down-home way. “We will have people make a day trip from places like Akron and even further to come have a good quality meal and experience some southern hospitality down on the river,” Mault says.

Being located on a Scenic Byway brings weekend motorcyclists, too, he says. “People come down for the beautiful sights and end up leaving with a full stomach.”

Uniqueness awesome

The faint odor of burning hickory that fills the town comes from the wood-fired grills that cook each ribeye to perfection.

Scioto Ribber cooks all those steak entrees on an open fire grill with the hickory wood that brings out the unique taste customers have come to expect. A relatively small kitchen serves well enough for preparing side dishes, but most of the work happens outside on the spacious back patio. That’s where you’ll find three wood-fired grills, four pallets of hickory and the door to the cooler, where the magic begins.

From the beginning, the family has cut the meat they cook from wholesale primals. “This allows us to have the most freshly cut, consistent product size possible,” Mault says.

Cooler inventory, cutting and consistency make a difference, but what really makes the Scioto Ribber unique?

“It’s how we cook it, and our ability to provide a really good piece of meat for a fair price,” Mault says.

The passion of the 35 to 45 employees is as fiery as their grills out back.

“Most of our staff have been here for 20 or 30 years, which has created a family atmosphere here at the Ribber,” he says.

Some of that is literal.

“Many family and friends have helped along the way,” Mault says, “but I also have two nephews working here; my son and a niece have helped out as well.”

It all goes into meeting the priority goal: “give our customers the best possible experience, whether it’s beef or any of our items, as well as great service. We’re getting that done, because most of the time during typical dining hours, you will find us at our full 140-seat capacity,” he says.

Getting the Ribber experience is not limited to the restaurant, however.

Recently, the Maults started to capitalize on requests for catering that now serves groups from 30 to more than 3,000.

“We don’t say no to really anybody,” he says. “We’ve been an hour away from some of those, and now those people come visit us in Portsmouth.”

Premium beef done right

“I understand growing up in this area with farming, and the amount of work that is put in can sometimes be underappreciated,” Mault says to producers. “Yet know that we at Scioto Ribber appreciate you.”

It’s all about the premium beef, the cookery and the atmosphere. Sure, there have been a few news features and profiles on the Ribber, but no organized advertising or marketing.

“Other than people leaving here and telling other people they need to come here and try it, we really don’t market ourselves, except for helping out local schools and things of that nature,” Mault says.

Originally ran in the Angus Journal.

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CATCHING UP ON THOSE QUALITY RECORDS

It doesn’t sound like a busy salebarn café or have the same ambience as a back table at the farm supply, but I’d argue that our weekly supply team conference calls are a CAB version of a coffee klatch.

We aren’t gathered around the same table (but video conferencing helps us feel connected!), we don’t talk about the weather every single time, we don’t even all drink coffee (I type while sipping a Diet Coke), but we do use it as our time to catch up on what’s happening in the beef business.

We talk projects and upcoming events and the markets. We share what we know from the week behind us and what we hope to know after the week ahead.

When I was on maternity leave earlier this year, I missed those conversations. I mean, I had a good reason and I wouldn’t trade Laney for a decade’s worth of calls, of course, but I felt a bit like an outsider.

“Another day, another week, another record. This is fun.” The e-mails came several weeks in a row. In fact, the entire month of February, each week set a new all-time record high for CAB brand acceptance (the percentage of black-hided cattle presented to USDA graders for evaluation that made it into our brand). Choice and Prime percentages were breaking records, too.

But I didn’t get to hear about it on the call.

I wanted to know: Why now? Is this too much of a good thing? And, what’s the real impact of a percentage-point hike like that?

When I got back to full-time work last month, I called up Mark McCully, our vice president of production, to ask.

“The first question when we look at this kind of quality is, ‘Have we reached some point of market saturation?’ If we had,” he says, “that would be showing up in some really narrow Choice-Select spreads, and that’s just not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing that the demand continues to grow and that spread continues to stay strong.”

The first 16 weeks of 2018 averaged 34.9% CAB, compared to 30.3% for 2017. That’s an added 13,188 head branded each week.

“The idea that we’ve matured or hit some sort of a quality ceiling, I understand why people say it, but I don’t believe the economic signals support that,” he continued.

The CAB boxed beef premium averaged $8.76 per hundredweight (cwt.) during the first quarter of 2018. A quick glance shows that compared to $9.19/cwt. for the same period in 2017.

That’s down, you might say. True, but the math tells the more complete story: the certified head count increased by 20.4% (from 1.3 million to 1.6 million, or 300,000 head), but the spread only declined 4.7%, or $0.43.

“There’s a customer base out there today that’s now accessing high-quality products that maybe just never thought they could before,” Mark says.

And when you look at a greater slice of time, the story gets even richer.

Rewind to the first 16 weeks of 2010: 1 million head certified with a 24.1% CAB acceptance rate and the CAB-Choice spread was $6.20/cwt. Comparing 2018 to 2010, we have increased acceptance rate by more than 10 percentage points, increased certified head count by 55.5% AND increased the CAB-Choice spread by 41.3%. 

“It’s a little bit unbelievable,” Mark said, as if he was reading my mind.

The only difference between this and a far-fetched coffee shop tale? This one is true and seems to keep repeating itself.

People want quality beef, they pay for it, and cattlemen continue to respond to the signals to produce more.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

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Why ‘veggie meat’ won’t replace beef

by Justin Sexten, Ph.D.

Lately the news is overrun with features on how we humans plan to shift away from meat as we’ve always known it to plant protein alternatives. Personally, I refuse to call it meat; vegetables and legumes in a meat-like form perhaps, but meat it is not.

“Lab meat,” despite not being commercially available, continues to garner news coverage with the implication it may be coming soon to a store near you. The troubling aspects of these products are the claims they make against the methods and efficiency we use in raising cattle, and the suggestion that these alternatives are more sustainable than the ruminant model. Recent research offers some compelling arguments that will add to our enjoyment of watching cows and yearlings graze pastures this spring.

At the 2018 Plains Nutrition Conference, Texas A&M University graduate student Jessica Baber presented on evaluating bovine efficiency at converting feed, forage and some human-edible proteins (HEP) to one HEP better known as beef. The work considered all feed sources a beef animal needs from conception to consumption to calculate the return on HEP invested.

Baber’s team found differences in conversion efficiency by segment in the beef supply chain. On the farm or ranch, we may think cows less efficient because they spend all their time in maintenance. But considering they convert otherwise indigestible forage into new calves and milk for those calves, the conversion ratio of HEP out from HEP consumed in this stage was reported at 2,871 to 1. As you might expect, the huge factor in this lopsided
efficiency ratio for the cow-calf segment derives from the fact that it consumes so little HEP.

Since the stocker segment is also forage focused, the HEP conversion ratio is also favorable, but maintenance requirements for a growing calf coupled with greater feed supplement levels common to the stocker phase reduced that ratio to 5.94 to 1. The feedyard is the least efficient in the HEP conversion ratio, generating 0.65 pound of protein (beef) for 1 pound of HEP input, just due to the larger percentage of HEP concentrates used during the finishing phase.

When you look at the entire beef supply chain, the percentage each segment contributes is comparable to the amount of weight gained during the period. The cow-calf segment is responsible for 57% of human edible protein (yes, beef) while stocker makes up 10% and feedyard is 36% of the total.

Overall, the “return on protein invested” is favorable for the beef community, at 1.72 lb. of HEP returned for each pound consumed. Perhaps more importantly, the quality of this protein is enhanced threefold relative to human needs. While we often consider the protein needs of our cow herd, we rarely consider protein needs of the human race. Beef offers a much improved protein and amino acid balance to the human than any one plant or grain input consumed by cattle.

What the Baber study didn’t explore was the diversity and satisfaction of flavors associated with beef, but that goes without saying. Not much need to conduct that research in this context—I have yet to meet an omnivore who will argue that the protein found in cattle feed is tastier than beef itself, especially when it’s the Certified Angus Beef ® brand.

So tune out those persistent lab meat feature stories with their wild assumptions. Instead, as you watch the calves turned out this spring to graze forage only a ruminant can digest, remember you are watching the ultimate value addition of turning sunshine and rain into a high-quality and tasty human-edible protein. The next time you hear some herbivore arguing that plants are a more efficient protein source, relax and quote the data. Beef is the product of superior resource efficiency, making use of two-thirds of the U.S. land that is unable to raise crops and improving the protein quality and taste over feed grains. If that data isn’t compelling enough, then just offer them a scoop of feed for lunch.

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