The Angus Conversation
The Angus Conversation
Board Recap: Research, Strategic Planning and Data Recognition
With research and data top of mind for both the membership and the American Angus Association Board of Directors, the group’s June meeting was focused on topics and decisions to help keep the Angus breed progressing forward. This recap episode covers highlights from the meeting, including:
- Questions and details about livestock efficiency research funded through the Global Methane Hub
- Proposal of an AHIR data recognition program
- Heart health research update
- Success at the World Angus Forum
- Consumer research on Certified Angus Beef
- Upcoming business review for Angus Media regarding inflation factors
- Declarations for the Board Treasurer position
HOSTS: Mark McCully
GUESTS:
Jonathan Perry, chairman of the American Angus Association, has spent much of his life working in the purebred business. As general manager of Deer Valley, Perry developed an Angus program that balances all economically relevant traits in cattle that maintain structural soundness and phenotype. Perry and his wife established the Hickory House restaurant in 2014, and it specializes in serving 100% Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB)-branded product.
Darrell Stevenson, White Sulphur Spring, Mont., holds strong ties to the Angus breed and a history of activity in the Montana Angus Association. In 2019 Stevenson and his wife, Sara, expanded from Hobson onto a new unit in White Sulphur Springs to establish a later-calving herd operating as Stevenson Down T. Although separated by a mountain range, Darrell continues to breed and market genetics with Stevenson Angus Ranch.
John Dickinson is a fifth-generation Angus breeder and a former National Junior Angus Board (NJAB) chairman. A University of Illinois graduate and former regional manager for the American Angus Association, Dickinson often makes the trek between his cows in California and his home in Idaho, where he lives with his girlfriend, Katie Bishop, and their children, Blakely and Silas.
Danny Poss is a first-generation Angus breeder from Scotia, Neb. Poss has taken on several leadership roles in the industry, including the Nebraska American Angus Association Board of Directors and the Nebraska Cattlemen Burwell Affiliate. Poss and his wife, Kristi, have four children: Nolan, Nathan, Neleigh and Natalie. They live on the operation, where they run nearly 750 registered females and farm about 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans.
RELATED READING:
Letter from the Board of Directors
Angus Joins Global Initiative to Improve Livestock Efficiency
Don't miss news in the Angus breed. Visit www.AngusJournal.net and subscribe to the AJ Daily e-newsletter and our monthly magazine, the Angus Journal.
Mark McCully (00:03):
Welcome to The Angus Conversation. I'm Mark McCully, CEO of the American Angus Association and I am running solo today. I am missing my co-host Miranda Reiman dearly as she typically is the really, really good one at this, but we miss her. But we're wrapping up a really, really busy week and of board meetings and as we've traditionally done after each board meeting, we pulled together some board members that are able to share kind of their thoughts and feedback on the discussions we've had over the week. And I've got four guys that have joined here with me today. Start with our board chairman, Jonathan Perry.
Jonathan Perry (00:40):
Hi Mark. What a wonderful week it has been to be here in my home state and host everybody. We've had a lot on the agenda, we've had a lot to take care of this week, but had a very productive week.
Mark McCully (00:51):
Absolutely, absolutely. Darrell Stevenson from Montana's currently serving as the treasurer.
Darrell Stevenson (00:57):
Mark, such a privilege to be here. Thanks for the opportunity, JP. Just can't appreciate you enough for hosting us in your home state. It's been a great week.
Mark McCully (01:08):
And John Dickinson, I'm currently serving as AGI Angus Genetics Incorporated president.
John Dickinson (01:13):
Thanks Mark. Appreciate you being here. And as always, I like doing these podcasts to wrap up the week and get a chance to reach out about the information we went through.
Mark McCully (01:22):
Absolutely. And a new victim, I mean a new entry into the podcast. No, Danny Poss from Nebraska, first term board member, but the first time we've been able to have you on the podcast. Welcome Danny.
Danny Poss (01:33):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I sure appreciate you letting me do this and it was great to be, my first time in Nashville so I appreciate you having it here.
Jonathan Perry (01:44):
Enjoyed having you Danny.
Mark McCully (01:45):
Good deal. Alright, well let's get after it. We put a lot of items of discussion, the board agenda highlights that went out on the website on the 23rd of May there and we will try to cover a lot of these, but as you mentioned JP, there was one topic that we spent quite a bit of time, I know members have an awful lot of interest in.
Jonathan Perry (02:07):
Yeah, Mark, we had had a great week. We covered a lot of things. We plowed some ground for our membership. I think we touched on a lot of important topics, but one topic kind of consumed our week a little bit and we know members have questions and need some clarity around our research project and I hope we can clear some of those things up in this podcast. John, chairman of AGI, maybe we hand it off to you to clarify some of those.
John Dickinson (02:35):
Yeah, and let's just start there. Just we, on a similar level of understanding of what AGI is, what they do, AGI is Angus Genetics Incorporated. I know there's a lot of our members that are very familiar with the entity underneath the Angus umbrella about what they do and it's obviously a lot of folks have reference to AGI as their genetic service provider that takes care of our genomics and genetic evaluation and a lot of things inside St. Joe, Missouri. But they're also a very extensive research arm and they do a lot of projects out there. I think most folks have seen the work in the bovine congestive heart failure and some other similar projects and AGI was approached by a group of beef researchers to do a really unique project. That project wrapped around the study of methane emissions and methane emissions as that results in methane being a net energy loss and how cattle could be more efficient.
(03:36):
Obviously if they've got more or less methane emission that can be some efficiency differences and this is not new landscape that we've been involved in even inside AGI. We've got some methane projects working with K State and so forth, but it's a real unique trait research trait to do. It's also a very expensive trait to do and kind of complex. It's hard to get that information. It's hard to design the projects. An opportunity that came forward from these researchers and that was a group from Australia in terms of AGBU, New Zealand, UK, these researchers were coming together to design a project that would be complete from the way they collect phenotypes to the technology and equipment they use. It's really quite a large project, a vast project and it really looked like that information could be very fruitful in terms of the phenotypes. It does now some may say why AGI, and I guess we take a little bit of pride in the fact that we've got a pretty extensive team there.
(04:39):
We have possibly some of the best researchers and geneticists in the world and I don't know if there's anybody that can do Angus data like we can do Angus data and that's why the attraction to AGI to get involved was a big part of this deal. We teamed up with them and helped design the project and just how it works in terms of phenotypic collection. And this project of Dr. Steven Miller I think was a lead there at AGBU. He's got some AGI reference as well. And what makes this project unique is that it's studying the efficiency portion in terms of the loss side and when you're working with methane, it's more, I guess more visible or more exposed when you're talking about grazing efficiency and cows on grass opposed to maybe some of the efficiency pieces we already have in-house, we've got some feedlot data that you'll measure intake compared to what the output was of that result. This is actually using it looking at the other side of the equation on the energy loss, which I think is pretty unique. It's pretty hard to get. I think it's pretty relative to a lot of our membership in terms of what their cows are doing from an efficiency standpoint out on grass, out on pasture. Then when you factor in the fact that we're at the lowest cow numbers in 50 years and we will build back up and have to be more efficient going forward, it gets pretty timely as well.
Darrell Stevenson (06:08):
If I can just step in for a moment, John, I think it's really important to point out one side note as well that this is strictly about efficiency and that cow and how we can make this a better cow in the industry. And this is not the first time that this has been attempted. We're by no means running behind, but there are other species in the sheep industry, in the dairy industry that are actually conducting these types of research. Along with that, the studies that have been analyzed before are quite limited in scope and scale and therefore accuracy of heritability and where we can actually go. So this was a large aspiration from the beef industry, from a collective group of beef researchers to do this on our own narrative and we would be directly involved with the research, the analytics and validation. So it is literally our opportunity on a global scale on multiple continents to be able to describe our own cattle
John Dickinson (07:07):
Certainly. And with that group going together, there's a research coalition established that'll house a lot of this data, these phenotypes that you can access to do the analysis and that is the global methane hub. And maybe Mark you could speak a little bit more about the hub and how that contract and so forth goes with that project.
Mark McCully (07:27):
Yeah, and I think you said it, I think the word coalition, I think that's how they think of that. As you said, this data around methane is expensive to capture. And I guess a point too that you guys have continued to make, and I know it's a question that we're getting on this is not about, this was not about, obviously in our world we think methane and in the association with climate and all the debate around climate change, this was never about any of that. As you guys always looked at this research, it was a research priority around how can we better describe feed efficiency in particular of cows on grass. And so I guess I just kind of make that point again.
Jonathan Perry (08:07):
And I mean it's obvious we don't want to get in that arena. We don't want to become environmentalists and worry about methane emissions, how it affects the atmosphere. We are not interested in entering that arena,
Darrell Stevenson (08:19):
Not our lane,
Jonathan Perry (08:21):
Not our lane.
Mark McCully (08:23):
So the Global Methane Hub, as you well put it, is really a coalition of researchers. And so again, this research project that we were a part of was submitted to that global methane hub. The Bezos Earth Fund is a funding partner, one of many to the Global Methane Hub. And the word we got back was that they would like to consider the proposal as it was presented. That's when we were late November. So between board meetings and so we have an executive committee, JP, that we pulled together along with the AGI president and the Foundation president. We knew we had some questions.
Jonathan Perry (09:11):
Mark to give a little clarity to that executive committee. An executive committee is established every year on the board and their purpose is in between board meetings when board is not in session and things arise that staff needs clarity on or needs direction on, that committee is assembled and we hear the projects or we hear the needs and we make a decision on those. And y'all came to us as an executive committee with it, John?
John Dickinson (09:41):
Yeah, well and I wanted to mention too in regards to AGI, bringing this research project to us and explaining to us the pieces of it, who's involved and so forth, I mean AGI is a separate entity that does dozens of projects. I mean we're not there to micromanage and set all the different project and pieces and things they're working on. They thought with the relationship from the funding and the Global Methane Hub, they wanted to get more of, our eyes on it and make sure this is the direction that they need to be pursuing and going forward.
Jonathan Perry (10:16):
And John as a committee, we had the same questions that our members are asking us. I mean we had multiple things that we needed clarity on, multiple things that we wanted some real concrete definitions of who, how, why, where, and that was what was put in front of us.
Darrell Stevenson (10:38):
I'll step in for a moment. From a personal standpoint, I'll just say that it was really uneasy to begin with the initial proposal. There was such a series of questions that needed to be asked many from the membership that are coming today. But just off the top of my head is where's the money coming from? Who is it getting shared with? How is it getting or who is it getting transferred to? What do we owe to who at what point? And that was just from the funding standpoint. And then to me, which might even be more important is how do we protect, how do we gather this data, how do we analyze this data? How do we protect this data? Who is it going to be shared amongst if anybody at all? And so there was a lot of explanation and a lot of vetting to the executive group as well as the AGI chairperson and Angus Foundation before we started gaining somewhat of a comfort and then confidence level that we did make a decision in consensus to then give directive to AGI to move forward as well as with the Angus Foundation from the funding and then research standpoint.
(11:50):
So the staff was following the directives that came out of that committee
Jonathan Perry (11:56):
Once we were comfortable that the firewalls were in place and that our data was secure and the method that the project was going to go through was definitely not sensitive to anything that we thought might have issue as a group. We gained a consensus and we directed Mark and the staff to proceed with the project, see if we could get it funded
Darrell Stevenson (12:21):
And let me be clear, there is a distinct difference. There's no access from where it's funded by to the ability to access information, we are completely protected from that standpoint
John Dickinson (12:35):
And receiving a gift. And one clear piece of that too, I think the proposal that came in from that group and that coalition of beef researchers was unedited. I mean how, if we were going to sit down and do that project tomorrow in our own house, how we designed it, how we're going to collect it, how we're going to analyze it and how we're going to utilize it was unchanged,
Darrell Stevenson (12:57):
Literally playing by our rules.
Jonathan Perry (13:00):
And it's important to point out at that not once did they ask to change our research project in any way other than maybe back the funding down because our ask was maybe bigger, bigger than they were willing to fund on the first try, but that
Mark McCully (13:17):
For clarity there.
John Dickinson (13:17):
It's unique and expensive information to get.
Mark McCully (13:20):
Yeah, that original grant that went in had one more country, I think it was Brazil was in that and they chose to step back to get the grant amount lower I think is the one that got funded
John Dickinson (13:33):
Certainly.
Mark McCully (13:35):
So maybe fast forward to where we are today, Danny, I want to bring you into this conversation and as a new board member being elected in November, really this week was again new of the direction, but some of these questions obviously that our members had been asking, we spent a lot of time kind of going back through all of that. I mean with maybe fresh eyes. Talk about what you saw, what you felt.
Danny Poss (14:03):
Oh, I was just like any of you others. I had a lot of questions and concerns and once I got all the information in front of me and the timeline order, I mean I continued to build more confidence and I'm all about cow efficiency and when I knew that this would help cow efficiency and we don't ever get any data on cow calf, it's hard to measure. So once I learned more about that and the firewalls are all in place, we have control of the research. The grant was written by beef scientists. I continue to build more and more confidence
Jonathan Perry (14:48):
And it was clear through our process with the board. I mean we spent a lot of time on it this week. It kind of hijacked several other things that we were working on, but it was evident, it was extremely important to our membership and it needed to be vetted as thoroughly as possible through our board and we spent a lot of time on it. They put a lot of facts back in front of us. We went through it as a whole board. We gained all the facts that we felt like we needed and at the end of the day we had a full board decision that was voted on and was unanimously supported to send our team right back into this project and carried it out
Mark McCully (15:29):
Maybe a few other things that I know have been questions and have been talked about and feedback that we've received and one of them, I'll just address myself as staff and that is around the communication of this and some of our members learned about this project from someone other than us and we work awfully hard at being incredibly transparent and sharing the work and direction of this board and what we're up to. This one had some kind of odd timing to it, the way things were kind of quiet and then it was a go, there was multiple partners involved and some candidly wires got crossed and an announcement went out really without us knowing it was out. And then when we follow up with our own announcement, it just doesn't look good and we get that we own that. We apologize for that. That's not the way we want our members to learn information and we're going to work to do better. Absolutely do better in the future. I know that erodes trust and we get that. I guess guys, as you've talked to breeders and members here over the last few days, are there some other questions that you get maybe about data privacy or access or things that you want to talk about?
Danny Poss (16:52):
Well one thing always is protecting our data. We've worked hard to get that data so we want to keep it in-house and having that data against Angus cattle that are registered, I think that's very valuable too. And we always will have this data to go back onto since it's in house, and I think it's valuable that everything worked out like it did.
Jonathan Perry (17:19):
And I mean this is a multibreed project and I think it's important to be noted that we are a part of this project so that we can represent our genetics, our breeders and our data and have control of that data and have control of our narrative inside of that project.
Darrell Stevenson (17:41):
And I don't think this is futuristic at all. I mean the facts are in front of all of us that we're working on the lowest national cow herd we have in decades and we're expected to produce more with less. And so there is a constant call from our membership perspective on the feedlot side that these cattle have got to be more efficient. We actually have members that are participating in methane research. We have had membership requests. This is a response to this and the goal is to actually make a more productive or efficient animal and this is going to be one of the most effective ways to actually do that. So I'm very pleased and very excited to actually get to this point.
Jonathan Perry (18:23):
Sure Darrell, I mean one of the excitements to me, I mean anything we can do to make the Angus cow more efficient, anything we can do to keep her in the forefront of the industry,
Danny Poss (18:31):
That's my goal.
Jonathan Perry (18:31):
I think we have to do that.
Danny Poss (18:33):
Absolutely. We have to make that Angus cow more productive, more efficient and a better animal
John Dickinson (18:41):
Certainly. In regards to this whole topic and this week and Mark, I hear what you're saying as far as the way some information came out and when you're dealing with, yeah, I mean four or five different organizations on three different continents in different countries and there's a lot of moving parts. This is a very big project mean when you say it's 4.85 million grant, it's a massive project and the coordination and the efforts and there's a lot of stuff going on and we do apologize for that as a board member and so forth, but I really want to thank the membership that has reached out though. We've had a lot of phone calls, emails, texts and so forth and I encourage more that if you've got questions to kind talk about other points of that. But I can assure you just from my involvement, just to speak personally a little bit, we got an opportunity to see how the data was going to be kept in the Methane Hub, how the data's going to be kept in house as far as the donor goes on the project. They've got no association with it, any results or any
Mark McCully (19:44):
The data's anonymous. I think that
John Dickinson (19:45):
That's true, too
Mark McCully (19:46):
...anonymous piece we've talked about, there's no tie to a registration number, there's no tie that anyone accessing that data could trace back to that Darrell, it came off your ranch or Danny it came off yours. I know that's a question that,
Danny Poss (20:01):
And that's one question we all had
John Dickinson (20:04):
And after this project is over any of the research and the results and all that information that's afterward, that's ours to use for breeding improvement or any other use if we want to implement that into a more organized efficiency trait, things like that. I think that's an important piece and it just seemed like a win-win for what ... can do for our membership.
Darrell Stevenson (20:23):
I'll actually reemphasize that, John. I would like to applaud and thank everybody that's actually reached out. I can absolutely say on the airwaves that 90% of the people that I've spoken with by phone or text have been incredibly supportive of this decision and the board's action and they have a lot of questions and I know that we've got a big job in front of us to better educate and build this bridge and better connection, but I'm very grateful for that support. It's helped build confidence along the way.
Jonathan Perry (20:55):
Yeah, Darrell, I can tell you, I mean all of us have had calls, text, emails reached out to from lots of members. I've had some pretty good conversations in the last four or five days, been on the phone quite a bit, hadn't you, Mark? I mean it's been busy. Not everybody's a hundred percent in support of this. I think there are avenues of this that they have a lot of support and there's avenues of this that have some questions, but I will tell you that I really appreciate the outreach from the membership and please don't hesitate to keep that coming. If you have questions, if you have information that you want to seek out, call Mark. Call myself. Call one of the board members Darrell, and I promise you our association, if you go to our website, you go to the Angus Journal, we will continue to put every ounce of information that we know about this project and we can drum up about this project on those channels. So the facts are there, please go look at 'em, please read through it. Please seek out that information before you make judgment.
Mark McCully (22:10):
One of the things, and I guess I just want to specifically touch on because I know it's been heartburn with some members and we mentioned at the affiliation with the group that's obviously had investments in alternative proteins and some other things and I think that it's the same thing that you guys questioned and talked about and candidly, we as staff absolutely had the same reaction and I think as you talked about it and some would say the risk of being associated with that and I think it depends on how you see that risk. The flip side is, and I want to be careful with this idea that we're going to just totally change the narrative around cows and methane in the world with this research project. That was never the intent and but I think you've had also a lot of members reach out saying, you know what? I'm kind of tired of getting my teeth kicked in with this whole environmental narrative. We know cows and the planet are a really good thing. Let's finally get some data to fight back a little bit.
John Dickinson (23:12):
Yeah, I totally believe that. I mean cows are going to be part of the process of a sustainable planet if that's the lane you want to go in. But yeah, I would think there's some members out there that would say that they don't want to have their cattle described of what they do and what they don't do. They don't want to have some metrics or some numbers or some information or they can tell that story and I think I would want to hope folks trust the American Angus Association is providing that resource for them.
Jonathan Perry (23:38):
Well, quite frankly, John, my take on this is if somebody's going to describe my genetics and livelihood, I want to be in the picture.
John Dickinson (23:47):
Absolutely.
Jonathan Perry (23:47):
I want to be in the fight and I trust our association. I trust Angus Genetics to do the work and report the data and I don't want some outside entity representing what we do for a living every day.
Darrell Stevenson (24:01):
And besides the fact it's got to be tied back to the Angus population to actually have any accuracy to begin with. And so if we don't do it, it's not fitting our breeding parameters. Anyway,
Mark McCully (24:15):
I think you guys have talked about that too. I mean one of the priorities is making sure our members have access to data and we know there's a lot of this, this is not the only methane research project going on in this country or this world by any stretch of the imagination and I know you guys have talked about and we've heard some feedback around other breeders that know there's some of this data being collected out into some private hands with some places that our members are going to have to go compete against that data right here in the U.S. And
Darrell Stevenson (24:49):
This isn't futuristic, this isn't around the corner. This is happening as we speak right now with some specific health traits that you've got to go outside of the Angus population to be able to test.
Mark McCully (25:01):
Yeah, I guess Danny, we probably need to, there's a lot to this topic for certain...
Danny Poss (25:09):
I will, I want to make sure I thank all the people that sent emails and helped build our confidence and I trust. I just want to make sure all you members trust us because I'm absolutely more confident if you're not confident in this, you just got to do a little more educating yourself and there's plenty of resources out there and I guarantee you if you spend a little time educating yourself, you'll feel better.
John Dickinson (25:40):
If there's still disagreements, that's just fine. I don't have a problem if somebody is on the other side of this issue as long as they understand just what we're looking at, the information is accurate and they understand the lens we're looking through at this, but if they disagree with going that route, that's just fine.
Jonathan Perry (25:59):
John, I absolutely respect the people that feel differently about this. I mean, that is your prerogative and I do respect your opinion. What I do hate is I hate the division it's creating. I mean, Mark has done a tremendous job since the day he got here of creating some unity and we're all pulling the same wagon in the same direction and that is what our goal is. That's what we want to do. The heartburn for me is the division that we've seen over this.
Mark McCully (26:32):
Absolutely. I mean, I heard you guys say that time and time and time again and not to be dismissive of any other perspective. I mean I say it all the time with the membership of 22,000, we're going to have some very different opinions on what is right, what this association should prioritize, the decisions it should make. We have some people that have some very strong feelings on both ends of these things and we're talking about this particular research project and who we partnered with, but we know that that happens in a lot of other things we talk about. And you guys as board members, that's what you're elected by the membership through the delegates at the convention to step in and represent them and try to bring all of those perspectives and viewpoints together and it's not easy. This has been, I know, a hard week,
Jonathan Perry (27:20):
Hard week.
Mark McCully (27:20):
It's been a really, really hard week and we're going to continue to get information out to work as be as transparent on these things as we can to listen to share and answer questions as best we can.
Jonathan Perry (27:37):
And Mark, I want to commend you. I mean, what a great leader you are. I mean I've sat here for the last few days and right beside you watched the anguish that has caused you and I know how much you want to do right by every member in this association and that's why you're so effective and so good at your job and I just want to commend you for how you've managed the phone calls, how you've managed the dialogue, and I don't think that needs to go unspoken
Mark McCully (28:03):
And I appreciate that.
Darrell Stevenson (28:04):
Absolutely.
Jonathan Perry (28:05):
But we had a lot of other things going on this week, too.
John Dickinson (28:07):
What happened this week.
Mark McCully (28:09):
I'm looking at this list of other things that got talked about. So right here, first thing on the agenda was the fiscal '25 financial forecast, Darrell as treasurer. Maybe a quick report there?
Darrell Stevenson (28:21):
Yeah, actually proud to report that we're probably in a lot better situation. The report was from April 30th. That month in it was a very tumultuous month as everybody's aware with the prospect for tariffs in the marketplace being pretty radical. But we balanced out and in a very sound position, I was proud to report that
Mark McCully (28:43):
Kind of across the board. We always try to look at operations, right? Things we can manage. We know that investment portfolio is not something that we can manage very well. Next year was obviously the updates to the national cattle evaluation that came out on May 23rd.
Jonathan Perry (28:59):
What a nice lift, without a hitch. I mean that wasn't a small undertaking by AGI and breed improvement. I mean we introduced three new EPDs. We made it through that in a pretty seamless manner. I mean they did a really nice job. Economic assumptions were updated along with several other things, but I mean it was pretty seamless I think.
John Dickinson (29:22):
Yeah, well you've got three new traits to utilize and then also incorporated those into a multitrait economic index as well. Seemed to work very smoothly and so forth.
Jonathan Perry (29:32):
And we understand that those traits are infantile. They're just in their beginning. Do we think they're exact and absolutely rock solid today? No, but they are directionally in the right direction and I think utilized well and more data stacked on top of 'em, they'll get more and more precise as we go
Mark McCully (29:53):
Next, we had the membership survey data and I know that we kind of use that as a little bit. We'd been doing this membership survey, data membership survey that we started back in April was to get some input on not only customer service and communication style but also priorities of what they want us to focus on.
Danny Poss (30:14):
Number two was research, so that built more confidence with the membership, wanting more research. So that makes us feel a lot better
Mark McCully (30:26):
And we'll have those results out. There are things that we use. Number one was help them market their cattle. That was the one thing we asked if for those that have taken that survey, appreciated it, over the next three, five years, where can we bring more value and relevance to your operation? And yeah, one was help 'em market their cattle and two was research. So definitely fits to the objective there with AGI, we did some long range planning again, there was maybe just kind of roll through these you guys kind of chime in. The proposal for this was a topic and I know we had a little discussion on around our AHIR data submission recognition program and just a little more on that. It's not been a new topic of discussion. How do we recognize those breeders that are doing all the hard work to turn in the data? And I know there's some differences of opinion of what that should be, but the idea that it was in the breed improvement committee that was brought forward was kind of maybe a tiered recognition program
Jonathan Perry (31:31):
In this charge for more and more maternal data, more and more hard to collect data. We've had carcass data ultrasound, we've had weights, we've had many of those traits reported for years and they're easy to collect. We all do it
John Dickinson (31:49):
Easier.
Jonathan Perry (31:50):
Yeah, they're easier to collect obviously, but as we all want to characterize the cow better and all want to make that mother cow better, those phenotypic traits that we're collecting are not easy to get at. And in an effort to recognize those programs that are going that extra step, going that extra mile, we heard their desire and created a recognition program that will recognize those breeders that are going above and beyond,
Darrell Stevenson (32:19):
But it's not quite finalized yet. But I do want to point out that this was a membership request and they want the deserved recognition and I greatly respect that. So I'm looking forward to how this evolves
Danny Poss (32:31):
And last year at the convention it was a big concern by a lot of breeders that they turn in a lot of data, they want to be recognized and I think this will fit that.
John Dickinson (32:41):
And just to recognize that, to qualify for that program, you've got to be in the inventory reporting system or MaternalPlus and man hats off to those outfits and ranches and members that are involved in that program. That's a very, I guess heavy lift to get your information in to get your cow herd organized. I mean something that personally I struggle with
Jonathan Perry (33:04):
Yeah
John Dickinson (33:04):
And so forth. And at that to go ahead and put in those number of traits to hit a level of a program, it's valuable when you can start looking at some whole cycle traits across multiple parts of your production system and so forth. I mean I would venture to say that those programs are valuable and those members are valuable too for being able to get all that done. Absolutely,
Danny Poss (33:27):
Yeah. I feel confident that we're taking Angus cow to the next level. We're making her maternal genetics even better and giving us more tools that we can identify the ideal females.
Mark McCully (33:43):
Just rolling down the list here, again, you're talking about member feedback. This addition to the sale terms and conditions was absolutely something that we've been hearing from members that a lot more IVF females out there and maybe some lack of clarity at times as a young heifer that's been IVF'ed, is she a donor or is she not a donor? So that was all about adding some clarity around that particular item. I think we maybe mentioned earlier the heart health research update that came out of AGI know they've been working really hard on that important topic. Talked about trying to accelerate it as much as possible. It's hard to do, right? Hard data to get at, but
Darrell Stevenson (34:27):
To me this is huge. I mean it's kind of personal, customers and friends that have cattle on feed that are being affected by it and I can't tell you how excited that I am to get to this point. I mean it's been four years in the making and it is taken a long time to have these genomically or parentally identified cattle come through with liver, heart and lung scores to get to this point that potentially we're getting closer and closer to a research format. EPD and I strongly, anybody listening to encourage, if you don't know much about this heart health concern then do some research. I think this is a big trait moving forward
John Dickinson (35:07):
And hats off to our AGI team. I mean just the fact that we've got some lead end geneticists and researchers, they've also got such a practical and applied approach to production livestock and can take the trait of interest or the issue in terms of this congestive heart failure that seem to surface maybe more than less, I'm sure this is probably in relation to some higher carcass weights and those kinds of things. But trying to separate out the Angus genetics as far as what they can do, what they can't do, and again, design a project, go through the implementation of how a research project would work to get the identification of the trait and they're right on track to get that released. I think a lot of folks are excited about it
Darrell Stevenson (35:47):
And actually I mean would've never considered potential correlations too, obviously PAP EPD, maybe even hair shed. Look at all that we're learning out of this and as a great example to actually how we started this, I mean it's a big collaboration. There's a lot of people, a lot of researchers involved,
Mark McCully (36:05):
Just kind of keep going down the list here. We had, this has been a continual topic, this strategies around how do we get more important data from the commercial segments And we know that's a hard lift. We even talked about our existing structured salary evaluation program we do today. How do we continue to take something like that and continue to grow it, find more cooperating commercial herds to get more of that data again, some more of the longevity data and such that maybe sometimes isn't available in our registered herds that are turning generations and such. So just again, that's always been, I know a topic and a discussion in our events and junior activities committee where we talked about the phenotype and genotype show and I think did a little kind of visioning around where do we want that show to go. And I think the consensus of the board was really, we want to continue to grow that. We think it's a really a great tool to maybe bridge the gap a little bit at times between the show ring and the production world and so continue to find ways to grow that.
Jonathan Perry (37:11):
We had some discussions about maybe even taking that into the open show realm and trying to create more awareness around both phenotype and genotype and making that program robust and grow and expand into our membership more.
John Dickinson (37:29):
And as the members have also asked for that are involved in those shows too.
Mark McCully (37:33):
And we discussed some show rules and again, we always get some member feedback on different things both ways rules, additional rules they'd like or maybe rules they'd like us to get rid of. And so I know the committee really no decisions there but more of just an ongoing look at those and trying to stay relevant.
Jonathan Perry (37:55):
We outdated some of those rules. Do we need to look at 'em? We're going to go back and work on our events and education committee's going to work on that over the next few months and we come back together as a board. We're going to look at those again and see what times might have changed. And
Mark McCully (38:13):
We talked about the World Angus Forum. Darrell, I know you're going to want to talk about that. Nothing gets you more passionate than talking about the World Angus Forum.
Darrell Stevenson (38:20):
Couldn't be more excited. What an opportunity that was to actually travel. And I commend, I know that we have Australian visitors that listen to this podcast. I can't commend, the World Angus Secretariat, but specifically Angus Australia, for the work and efforts that they did to creating such an opportunity. I'll keep this real brief, Mark, from a personal standpoint, I just want to report to the membership. As an American, you couldn't be more proud of our representation. Mark and Kelli Retallick and John Stika all had opportunity to present not only in the world Secretariat meeting but on the main stage the presence of the American Angus Association was prominent and our genetics were found in a lot of the pedigrees and that influence, but the general optimism and overall passion for the industry was exemplified by having 26 countries participating with the exposition at Tamworth, swelling to over 3000 people in attendance. I was told close to 50 Americans that attended and it was just an opportunity of a lifetime. Actually. The second,
Jonathan Perry (39:38):
Don't forget our youth team.
Darrell Stevenson (39:38):
Oh yeah. The second part, I'm obviously
Mark McCully (39:41):
With the daughter on the youth team. Let me brag on 'em so it doesn't sound like you're self serving, but
(39:46):
You guys, I hope listening have seen some of the posts we've made or they're going to have some articles. But I tell you what, we had four young rock stars that represented our country so incredibly well. Went through a contest that was so tough and half on, it was an endurance competition I think in many ways. But gosh, they did a great job and came away as the number one team overall. So we were sure proud of them. And we're also talking about the 2029. We have agreed back many years ago to host the World Angus Forum here in the US in 2029, so we're starting to put
Jonathan Perry (40:23):
It'll be here before you know it.
Mark McCully (40:24):
Yeah, we're starting to put some plans together for that for sure.
Darrell Stevenson (40:27):
And I really think maybe to wrap up this portion, it's critically important to actually review the World Angus Evaluation and that collaboration that started a few years ago with AGI's collaboration with the Canadian Angus Association and Angus Australia to bring our databases together. And so it was kind of opened up for business about 18 months ago and it was announced at the Secretariat at that point in time and there's getting a real feel and now understanding opportunities for further inclusion and I think this is critical for us moving forward, not only put us on the same playing field when sorting data and looking for options, but it's for me been an opportunity to get all the data for us, the Angus brethren under one roof and it's made us just that much more powerful from a data mindset.
Mark McCully (41:27):
The World Angus Evaluation was absolutely, and Kelli did just a fantastic job over there and Andre, talking about it and answering, I know they had a lot of interest in a lot of questions as we talk here and as we put in here about the growth, we actually had the Red Angus Association of America here had actually come forward, John, with a request around the potential addition on some foot scores,
John Dickinson (41:52):
Yeah, their foot and claw evaluation, including that into the World Angus Evaluation. Yeah, another great, securing a genetic service provider contract to do that work inside the World Angus Evaluation I think is a great opportunity and just to make that whole system more robust and more useful and obviously like Darrell mentioned, worldwide attention coming toward it.
Mark McCully (42:14):
Thanks for sticking with us. I know we've got a lot of stuff here on the podcast so we'll try to be brief but I don't want to brush over any of these things either the Certified Angus Beef Prime Targeting the Brand designation, just a little more on that one and I know that maybe perked a couple people's ears of what that was and some may know that the Certified Angus Beef Targeting the Brand, you probably recognize that that shows up on some pedigrees. That decision was made years ago. It was a product of the CAB best practices manual that had some EPD recommendations and where that's gone is to the point where we've had some members that have really targeted Prime and I think most know the premiums that are out there for Prime and had some customers, so it was a request that we've gotten many times of could there ever be a Certified Angus Beef Prime Targeting the Brand, not necessarily something that goes on the pedigree but more of what would those EPDs be.
(43:12):
So that's what that discussion was and the team was going to be working on maybe what those EPDs would be and could that be in again, some of the best practices kind of literature that Certified Angus Beef promotes and talks about, but that's what that topic was about. We had some other CAB topics, got some great research back on CAB brand deli products and some of the new products that are out there growing and again, continuing to grow carcass utilization for the brand and putting that brand in front of consumers and some more great products. They had some feedback, consumer feedback
Jonathan Perry (43:52):
I think that was pretty amazing that they put the CAB brand besides some of the most notable deli meat brands in the world and we were right there. I mean we had consumers picking our brand and identifying with it at the same rate that they were some of the major brands in the business.
Mark McCully (44:12):
Because I've been around just a little bit, I remember some of that early data when we didn't rank quite that high in the deli case. We were fourth, fifth, sixth down in line in the deli case and now most of that data, I think we were number two in terms of brand awareness and brand value in deli. And so that's a fast growing area and so pretty exciting to hear that
Jonathan Perry (44:34):
Driving premiums to parts of the carcass that we haven't been able to drive premiums to before. I mean just making that CAB carcass even more valuable
John Dickinson (44:42):
And I think probably is a large part of what their sale numbers show in terms of demand for the product compared to what numbers of available carcasses and available cattle. As we're sinking back in numbers across the country, their sales numbers are up as strong as ever.
Jonathan Perry (44:56):
It's crazy how in this tight of supply we can still grow demand for Certified Angus Beef,
John Dickinson (45:03):
Which in the end is pull through value for our breed, for our bull battery and so forth. And for just
Jonathan Perry (45:13):
Registered Angus bulls.
John Dickinson (45:14):
Yes,
Mark McCully (45:14):
We all know what cattle numbers are, but maybe not everybody knows that March was the best month in the history of the Certified Angus Beef brand In terms of sales. It's
Jonathan Perry (45:25):
Pretty staggering when you think about it
Mark McCully (45:27):
Considering where we are.
Jonathan Perry (45:28):
Yeah, one of the tightest supplies in history we managed
Mark McCully (45:32):
and highest priced
Jonathan Perry (45:33):
and highest priced. We see that every day and our team at CAB manages to hit a goal, never hit before in that time frame,
Danny Poss (45:44):
But CAB continues to impress people. How they keep building demand on consistency and people's satisfied eating experiences.
Mark McCully (45:54):
Yeah, one consumer at a time. Absolutely.
Danny Poss (45:57):
It adds a lot of value to each carcass. Yes,
Mark McCully (46:00):
The Angus Media team, the Angus Media board meeting, we had some great discussions there. All the great projects they've got going on and I don't know how many new additions to the Pasture to Publish 12, 13 new editions maybe since we were features that we were together last. And then I know they're spending a lot of time and a lot of work looking at our costs, looking at paper, looking at postage. John, I know
John Dickinson (46:21):
All those prices are going up. That's no stranger to anybody there when you start talking about the inflation and postage and what paper's going to cost. And Benjie presented this with a lot of challenges he's going to have as far as his team, as far as organizing those costs. What I liked to hear in the meeting was just all the options he's got coming forward in terms of adding value. He's got some bundle packages coming down the road, I mean their digital team and that's a little bit out of my space, but in my eyes next level with what they can do with their reels and what they can do with their reach and posting and your social and they can be literally a one-stop shop that's just got more options than you've had before. I mean you talk about, we mentioned the CAB reach we had in terms of growth. Their growth on the digital platform is just skyrocketing. I know come fall, we're working on right now over the summer here of all your fall sales and all your fall marketings and they've got a ton out there. So if you're remember that's got a fall event planned. I mean there's going to be a lot of neat options going forward in that.
Mark McCully (47:21):
I think back to the survey research was number two. Number one was help marketing cattle. And if you've not checked out Angus Media lately, I'd sure encourage you to do so and visit with your regional manager and the team there because to your point, there's a lot of things in the arsenal there to pick from to build a marketing program
John Dickinson (47:40):
And they can literally do 'em for you. I mean everybody's used to the assistance they get in the catalog book production and now there's more enhancements on the Pasture to Publish site and the printing. But on the digital side, I mean you can just send them clips and videos and so forth and they can construct it for you and get you a whole social platform as well.
Mark McCully (47:58):
Well, we need to land this plane. Maybe one last topic we had on here on our list was the declarations for board treasury, the meeting and
Jonathan Perry (48:08):
Yeah, at this meeting every year we have our declarations for the treasurer's race and this year we had one candidate declare, so Smitty Lamb from Georgia is our one candidate for treasurer this year. So we're excited to see him work through that process and move right on up hopefully. Yeah,
Mark McCully (48:30):
Fantastic. So good deal. Well guys, like I said, we probably better land this plane. I know we covered a lot of ground and thanks for sticking with us through this. We really want this to this podcast always to truly be a conversation, give you, I hope you felt like you have a front row seat and right here in the board rooms visiting with these guys of what they're thinking about, all the considerations. And that's really what the purpose of this is. But we want to continue this conversation. We want to continue to listen again. We know we've got topics where we've got some differing thoughts and opinions. We respect those and we want to hear 'em. We want to continue to be the best organization we can moving forward. And so kudos guys to you for a very, very productive week and covering a lot of ground. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you next time. I hope you'll stay tuned for this summer. We're going to have some special additions with some young folks as the juniors takeover Angus Conversation along with Miranda. And if I don't get kicked off, I'll get to join as well. Those young folks are awfully, awfully good at this and they make me look very amateurish, so it's going to be good. Thank you for joining and thank you for listening to the Angus Conversation, and Angus Journal podcast.
