Board Recap: Strong Market, Member Feedback and Strategic Planning

The American Angus Association Board of Directors met in Saint Joseph, Mo., Sept. 8-11 and covered a variety of topics including:  

• Long-range Association objectives  
• Research project updates 
• Review of genomic ownership policy  
• Association financial forecasts and entity budgets 
• Events and opportunities to come at the 2025 Angus Convention 

HOST: 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% CAB-branded product.  

Jim Brinkley, current vice chairman, has served on the American Angus Association Board of Directors for the past seven years. Along with their children, Crystal and Justin, Brinkley and his wife, Sherry, own 1,300 acres and 400 registered Angus cattle at Brinkley Angus Ranch (BAR).  

Darrell Stevenson, treasurer of the American Angus Association Board and native of 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. 

Mark Johnson, director on the American Angus Association Board, operates J&J Beef Genetics, LLC along with his wife, Brenda, and two daughters, Sydney and Charley, near Orlando, Okla. Johnson grew up on a centennial family farm in Deerfield, Mo. He attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M junior college and later Oklahoma State University (OSU). He then completed his doctorate at Kansas State University in 1992. Since then, Johnson has been a professor of animal and food sciences at OSU and has served as supervisor of the OSU Purebred Beef operation for 32 years.

RELATED READING: 
President's Letter
Driving Breed Improvement Amid Diverse Perspectives
DNA Genotyping Policy and Benefits 

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.

Transcript

Mark McCully (00:00:02):

Welcome to the Angus Conversation. I am Mark McCully, chief executive officer of the American Angus Association, and I'm running solo. I am without my normal co-host, Ms. Miranda Reiman is out enjoying new baby Lila Jean. And so we send all our best out to Miranda. We miss her and can't wait to meet Lila in person. So I'm running solo, but I've got four guys here to carry on what I know will be a loaded conversation of great information. This is really a special episode as we come off the September board meeting and we've been busy. You guys have been busy. I don't have my total hour count, but in committee meetings leading up to board meetings, we were somewhere around 15 hours of virtual committee meetings. We started here Monday, excuse me, at one o'clock and we ended at noon on Thursday. And so I don't know how many more hours that is, but it's a lot guys. It's a lot.

Jonathan Perry (00:01:04):

It's plenty.

Mark McCully (00:01:04):

And I guess I just want our members to know the amount of time and dedication that you guys give this organization and the amount of hours and some really great conversations over. We're a pretty big organization with lots of moving pieces and parts, so we had lots of things to cover. And you guys, again, kudos to the whole board for sticking with a really, really long couple of weeks of lots of things. So let's get at some of those things. But first, want to introduce those guys around the table. Mr. Jonathan Perry, chairman of the board.

Jonathan Perry (00:01:37):

Thank you, Mark. While you're quite capable of handling most things, I'm not real sure you can cover for Miranda, but

Mark McCully (00:01:43):

I am certainly

Jonathan Perry (00:01:45):

We'll do our best today, I promise.

Mark McCully (00:01:46):

Bear with us. Absolutely. Great. Well great to have you.

Jonathan Perry (00:01:50):

Great, great week. Great week

Mark McCully (00:01:53):

Next to you, Mr. Darrell Stevenson, our current treasurer of the board.

Darrell Stevenson (00:01:58):

Mark, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here and I will reemphasize, it's been a big week. We got a lot of things going on

Mark McCully (00:02:05):

Across the table. Jim Brinkley currently serving as our vice chairman, Jim

Jim Brinkley (00:02:10):

Mark, thank you very much for having me and appreciate it long week, but accomplished a lot, so appreciate it.

Mark McCully (00:02:18):

Awesome. And from the great state of Oklahoma, Mark Johnson, we're getting to be about a wrap on your first year on the board and so I think first time joining us on the podcast after a board meeting.

Mark Johnson (00:02:29):

Thank you, Mark. Good to be here. And it's been a good two weeks. We had the junior board meetings the week prior. Been very productive.

Mark McCully (00:02:37):

That's right. I should mention you serve as the junior board, one of the junior board advisors, which meant you were in here, you had extra hours into your duties over the last three weeks. You've been here two weeks in a row. So I know your guidance in working with those juniors. What an outstanding junior board we have. And I know they take their role very seriously and you being there as an advisor to help bounce some things off of them and be there for them is super valuable. So thanks for doing that.

Mark Johnson (00:03:05):

Good to be here.

Mark McCully (00:03:06):

Awesome. Well maybe let's just, it is hard not to get together and want to talk about the markets.

Jonathan Perry (00:03:11):

It's pretty good right now. Mark, I don't care what size calf you're trying to sell at this moment, he's worth more than you've ever seen. It is amazing. And the demand for registered Angus sired calves through the roof. AngusLink program is making hay for our commercial customers and the fact that they're Angus sire verified and have some metrics with 'em through that Angus Link scorecard, really paying dividends as well.

Darrell Stevenson (00:03:38):

You can't deny that one of the high point reports for the entire week had to be Troy Marshall Commercial programs with AngusLink and the successes of those summer video sales. I mean to me it's been absolutely astounding. I mean, we're talking big a hundred, 200,000 head sales and we have 10 to 12 to 14% of those offerings with our AngusVerified or GMS scores. It's just completely impressive. But there was two statistics that I think everybody needs to take away and that is in this fiscal year 25 for the first time we will sell our 1,000,000th head of cattle through the Angus Link program. There was a time a few years ago that might've seemed out of reach, but to me that's just completely impressive. And the other metric, which is quite measurable is we have validated proof that those cattle that have been enrolled over the years that we have actually we will surpass our hundred million dollars worth of premiums back to those loyal producers that are using the program. So I think two big high points to get the week started off

Mark Johnson (00:04:49):

Really exciting stuff and we look at the cow inventory in this United States right now. It looks like these markets are going to be around for a while. Yeah, yeah.

Jim Brinkley (00:05:01):

Well for sure. And Darrell talked briefly about the AngusLink enrollment program moving maybe a step further. Bull sales in California. I mean that season's kicked off and wow, the demand for Angus registered Angus bulls in California has never been better.

Jonathan Perry (00:05:24):

Amazing.

Jim Brinkley (00:05:24):

And I really feel that coming down the pike within the next year, I mean everyone that's having bull sales will see record times. Very exciting.

Mark McCully (00:05:38):

We were doing just comparisons of reported sales. Of course that's not all registered sales but reported sales on the fiscal year, so October through August and the averages are up, I think a thousand plus on bulls and more than that on females. But a hundred million dollars more in gross reported sales of registered seedstock year over year. I mean you think about that money all flowing back into our members, that's some pretty incredible demand out there and I think it's got spring in most people stepped. You go to these video sales and these registered sales, it's pretty good times. It's pretty good times and only will get better. Absolutely.

Darrell Stevenson (00:06:19):

We still have our work cut out as breeders though. I think that there's a significant portion of the commercial industry, if you're a first time listener, reach out and get engaged and learn more about the AngusLink program because I think there is even that much more value to capture and reach out to your regional manager, your seedstock provider, and we'll get this thing moving in the right direction for you. That's a great point.

Mark McCully (00:06:43):

So guys, since switching topics here, since we were together last in Nashville obviously, and there's been a lot of conversations that I know you guys have been a part of since then around the methane research and that whole project. JP, I look across the table, I know well that you have spent a lot of hours on phone reaching out to members, responding to members, phone calls, text messages, any emails that we've gotten. And so maybe talk about some of those conversations and maybe some of the things that we continue to hear and work towards.

Jonathan Perry (00:07:20):

Yeah, Mark, I mean you realize through a lot of conversations that members have some concerns and we've tried to listen and hear those concerns. We spent the week addressing some of those things that we've heard as concerns. We didn't just hunker down and disappear for the last 60 days. I mean in between board meetings we do go home and we do take care of cattle and families and do some things in between, but I promise you it was front and center and we've continued to engage in it. We spent the week tearing it apart and seeing how we could do a better job of member outreach, do a better job of listening to memberships concerns and finding channels that while we feel like we put quite a bit of stuff out there, we got a lot of channels that we believe we're getting information out on. But obviously those conversations have proven that maybe we still need to evaluate and find better ways. And so a lot of this week was definitely spent not only discussing the methane research project, but member outreach and how to get that input from the membership and bring it into this building and bring it into our board and make sure that those concerns and those ideas and inputs are heard.

Darrell Stevenson (00:08:39):

And JP, I was actually quite pleased. We have policy that if a member wants input or wants time for presentation, we allocated that and we did have a member visit and to me it was critically important to hear that input, that feedback and his concerns. I think all strong for consideration and I want not only that individual but everybody else to realize that we are open for this communication because I think it's a two-way street here. So that feedback is critically important for everything that we do under one entity, every entity and every committee as well moving forward.

Jonathan Perry (00:09:19):

Sure. And I mean it is an ongoing process that we have to realize that the diversity in our membership is huge, 22,000 members and every one of 'em has a different desire or need or want out of our association and the challenge is only going to grow as we go forward. How do we satisfy every one of those members' needs and wants and desires and that is something we've got to accomplish. I mean, we've got to stay relevant as an association and if we don't figure out a way to supply those needs and satisfy 'em, I mean we will struggle to exist.

Mark McCully (00:09:54):

Yeah. Well I think one of the things, as you guys talked about and relayed some of your conversations, I know conversations I've had in this day and age, getting all of the information out is always hard and sometimes when there's information that gets out in social media circles that you've got to try to get corrected or redirected at times it's just hard. But we've worked hard at getting all of that out on our website. We've got articles in the Angus Journal that updates membership, they can get into the details of what the research project is. We've got time dedicated at convention for those that are there that will be able to come here and hear directly from you guys around even the decision making process. Again, again realizing not everybody has, some people have totally tuned in through all this some are maybe new to the topic and wanting to get fully informed and sure want to make every effort we can to make sure our members have all of the pieces of information that they need.

Jonathan Perry (00:10:56):

Yeah, Mark, I mean through a lot of the phone calls as you just referenced, I mean we got members that are very plugged into it, members that are just now calling and saying, Hey, what's this all about? What am I hearing? And obviously the narrative on Facebook and social media got pretty rampant and pretty big and large and it's sometimes pretty fairytale and fantastic, but the facts are the facts and we gladly will be transparent. I mean we've heard that word over and over and over again and I promise you I have fielded call after call after call and will gladly field more. I think we have done a very good job of trying to get those facts out and get 'em out and as we go into convention, absolutely. We've made it a big part of the focus of convention that we have some sessions there that we could spell out everything from the process to what's involved in the research, what the deliverables are for the American Angus Association, AGI, all the things that may be in question. We want to be absolutely out front and put it all out there. So

(00:12:02):

We've directed staff and we've directed the organization of the convention coming in that that's going to be a big part of what we do while we're there.

Mark McCully (00:12:09):

Yeah, make sure everyone has their questions answered.

Mark Johnson (00:12:12):

And I believe there's been a lot of great opportunities to visit with membership that are curious about what we're doing through AGI and research projects and that really our feedback from our survey membership identifies research and learning more about our breed and what they're capable of doing is one of our two big priorities. That opportunity to have the conversation to talk about this particular project I think has been beneficial to us.

Mark McCully (00:12:43):

I think that came up a lot throughout this week and definitely in conversations that we have with members and we'll get into this membership survey data a little bit. I do think the timing of it was really perfect and it was as a part of our strategic planning process, a membership survey that went out in April and closed in June and we'll be putting more information out. We actually just did a video on this that'll be out on the website here pretty shortly that you can watch through, but you guys as board members got your first look at a lot of this data. We had about 1200 members that filled out this survey. We had a nice mix of folks that had different demographics, had been in the business different lengths of time.

Jonathan Perry (00:13:30):

That part was amazing.

Mark McCully (00:13:32):

It was the big takeaway from me and the stat was this guys, what we heard was 43% of those taking our membership survey had been with us for 20 plus years, had been members for 20 plus years, but 23% had been members for less than five years.

Jonathan Perry (00:13:48):

I mean we referenced it. I've been on this board longer than most of those guys have been in the business. So we lose sight of the fact that we think and we assume that those members know everything that we know and that they're exposed to the same things, their perspective is the same, right? The rest of us. And so pretty good eyeopener that maybe we go back and we revisit some of these topics on a more regular basis. Maybe we don't just assume that every member knows every program and everything that we have out there.

Darrell Stevenson (00:14:20):

I'll just reemphasize what you just said, that was a surprise to me and we heard that and that's the value of these surveys is that with such a young portion of our membership in this response that I do think that it is our duty and responsibility to go back and revisit a lot of our policies within the entities on why we do what we do. And a lot of these things were established several years ago, 10 or 20, decades ago, that there needs be an explanation of why an entity or a committee is doing what we're doing so that everybody has a clear understanding of the end goal objectives.

Mark McCully (00:15:01):

I think one of those things was AGI and I think that was a topic probably we found an article from that was in the '07 December '07 Angus Journal that walked out when Angus Genetics Incorporated was first announced to the membership. It was, here's what AGI is. And it was a question and answer with the board at the time and what the entity was set up to do. And I think for maybe some of us had been around for a while, we just assume everybody kind of knows that but not the case.

Jonathan Perry (00:15:30):

And in an effort to kind of clarify some of those policies from telephone calls and questions we'd had, I asked Mark to go back and find what policy we had in place where AGI was concerned what the governance between AAA and AGI were and how it was spelled out and pretty amazing that it goes all the way back to 2007. And so we did spend some time looking at that, discussing that.

Jim Brinkley (00:15:58):

You touched on it about membership, not, some of 'em young, some younger members, some recent five year, seven year. Well, I've been a member for, I don't know, 30 years and whenever I ran for the board I had no idea what went on in that boardroom. I mean

Jonathan Perry (00:16:24):

We all learn quite a bit when we come in.

Jim Brinkley (00:16:26):

I'm going to tell you something, it was shell shocking for me. It just incredible what goes on in that boardroom and how thorough the discussions are, how membership sensitive that board is. It was very, very, very impressive to me my first year on the board and I've been there seven, it was a learning curve and I had a lot more respect for those board members sitting there dedicating their time and discussing things in such great detail.

Darrell Stevenson (00:17:08):

It is pretty obvious that we need to have improve outreach on drawing these lines and explaining what you're referencing and that's part of what I would call the membership outreach. I mean it's got to be improved and we've heard that and it's going to get done

Mark Johnson (00:17:29):

As several around this table have pointed out, I'm a rookie board member and I have been astounded in the last nine, 10 months the services that are provided through the association and its entities on behalf of breeders and the breed. So I echo Jim's comments, there's a lot going on and a lot available to us.

Darrell Stevenson (00:17:53):

I think. Mark, you mentioned the membership survey. This was the first time we laid eyes on it and there's just a lot of interesting line items there and I am excited to actually get that out to the membership side so they can actually see where these responses are at. And I think that'll actually be scheduled maybe for a visit even actually at the annual meeting so that we can get even further input because this is very valid for us as a board to gain direction from. So if anybody's got questions in the meantime, I mean speak to you or wait for annual meeting for that. So I think it's exciting stuff.

Mark McCully (00:18:30):

Well, and in the survey things, and I won't get through all of it by any stretch, but identified what some of the top five services are most valued services and we see pedigree, obviously the pedigree and the breed registry is number one. We all know that and assume that, but then very quickly, genetic evaluation selection tools is number two. Genomic tests for registered or for seedstock was three our overall member services and then AHIR rounded out the top five. But it's always important to note, there was a list of 25 things that folks had selected as things they find most valuable and why they are a member of this association from obviously shows and junior programs and all of the other, to your point Mark, all of the other services and things. And then we asked for opportunities in cow selection tools, more selection tools for building a better cow was the number one thing we got told. And then growth in market share was the second biggest opportunity. The growth in Prime and CAB where the premium beef markets was three. Selection for health traits was identified as number four as an opportunity is what our breeders told us

(00:19:41):

In kind of an unchartered territory a little bit to be very honest. We've done a little in that realm but not much. And then CAB premiums was top five, but our membership is also pretty optimistic. They listed a whole bunch of stuff under opportunities.

Jonathan Perry (00:19:54):

Just another reminder of the diversity in our membership and how many different things that our members ask for that are offered. And another thing that kind of tickles me is it always comes back to the cow maternal. The number one thing that they want us to do is to continue to find ways to describe that mother cow and her viability and how to make her stay where she is and produce longer and get better.

Jim Brinkley (00:20:21):

Well as you know, the mama cow is what keeps us in business and it keeps our customers in business and we have to be very cognitive of that

Mark McCully (00:20:32):

We asked too about priorities and this became I think something that we've looked at as staff and I know as board members referring to these priorities as where does our membership want us to put the most emphasis moving forward over the next three to five years? And that research was mentioned earlier was number two, just closely behind marketing assistance and that probably means some different things to different people, different people. Research I'm sure means some different when they answer when they check that box. I'm sure folks answered that a little bit different. So those are all things we need to get more feedback on and that's things we're planning to do at convention details to still be sorted out, but we're planning a general session where we'll do some polling of the members on some of these topics to help get a little bit more insight into where our membership wants us to go and where to prioritize.

(00:21:27):

But then also we hear about more selection tools, producer education, CAB, promotion, all those other things that kind of round out that top five. But again, a very diverse member and we'll continue to dig in. These surveys are great, you got to always take 'em for what they are. We're continuing to look at how do we get more information out to our membership but maybe more importantly, how do we get more information back from our membership? And they identified lots of different ways that we have from podcasts, but Angus Journal print was Ms. Julie Mais here is running the show here. An editor of Angus Journal is still the number one thing our members told us by far that they want to get their Angus information from. And so we'll continue, that is our flagship publication. I continue to say that if you're a registered Angus breeder not taking the Angus Journal, you're at risk of missing some information because we put it in the Angus Journal and it's such a great piece of information or publication, what we really lean heavy on.

(00:22:34):

But we've got lots of other opportunities like podcasts and social media and all sorts of other places log in and emails and things that we'll continue to invest in. It moved into some, we spent probably more time this meeting in some long range planning discussions just kind of the way it timed up. We did some long range planning and the bigger, what I can call the Angus long range objectives and I hope folks got a chance to look at that draft. We put it out there ahead of time in the meeting. It's something we've been talking about for quite a while and it's not drastically different than the long range objectives that we've identified in 20 and then refreshed in 22. But I think they're super important to have out there. It's a way for board members to be very clear of where they want us as staff to put our priorities.

(00:23:26):

I think it's equally as important for members to understand in the spirit of transparency, have input on what our priorities should be and the things we're working towards. And so we spent quite a bit of time and you guys as a board approve the long range objectives that we had drafted. So members will be seeing more from that. The draft again, we had put out in the agenda highlights letter, we'll also be doing a video on that. So be watching your member center and things. I'm going to produce a video that walks through what those long range objectives are and these things aren't set in stone. These things are not casted the okay, this is we're exactly what we're doing for the next three to five years. It's just general direction and we need input on how we accomplish these objectives and I know you as a board continue to look for that input.

Jonathan Perry (00:24:17):

Mark, I want to comment on that and I said this in the board meeting earlier today. There's 17 of us on this board. We meet four or five times a year. We leave this building, we go home, we run our family's operations, we get back to our business at hand. We stay engaged, we stay involved. But I don't think membership understands how critical these long range plans and these strategic plans are. We get those phone calls and they say, well the board should run directives, not the staff. Well, staff has to have a directive when we leave here. We walk out of this building today, we may not be back for two months. And I think it's critical that staff has these plans in place that are directives from the board, that are directives from the membership feedback that we've received. And I think that is what these dedicated people in this building and this association get up and operate and charge theirselves with every day by a plan that we've laid in place. And so I think it's very important that we put time and we put effort and we put lots of continuity and understanding into these.

Mark Johnson (00:25:24):

Well said, JP.

Darrell Stevenson (00:25:26):

Couldn't agree more. It's critically important to understand that the staff needs these parameters, they need these directives and it is up to the discretion of the board when we leave here. It seems like we might spend a lot of time strategic planning or long range planning, but you can't keep these folks that are working for us every single day headed in the right direction unless they've got these strategic plans laid out in front of them.

Mark McCully (00:25:53):

And I always think you think about the role of a board, obviously you're here to govern in today and what we're dealing with today. But I think challenge of a board and what a membership I think expects of a board is to also be looking down the road, and to make sure, and I think it was repeated in the boardroom a time or two is your job is to make sure that we're in business three and five and 10 and 20 years from now. And so as best we can we try to anticipate some of these changes and plan accordingly.

Jonathan Perry (00:26:27):

Back to that same train of thought, I mean we have a talented team of professionals assembled in this association and it's their job to, while we're back home keeping the fires burning and we're tending cattle, raising the next calf crop, doing the things that keep us in business. I mean their charges is to know what's out ahead of us, advise us of what's coming, what do we need to be engaged in and I think as a board we charge them with that. That is something we expect out of them

Mark McCully (00:27:01):

Good stuff. Well I know as staff we value those plans and I know we certainly as you as board and us as staff always want input into 'em. I guess I'm like a fifth of the way down my list of things and so we better keep making hay here. Sorry. No, this is but it is such a, we covered a lot this week. We covered a lot and in the committee meetings leading in, but this time of year as folks I think know that we end our fiscal year here and the end of this month in September and start a new one in October. So this is a really important meeting as we come in and forecast how things are going to end where one of our core metrics from an association standpoint are registrations and while the month is not complete here in September, it looks like we will end with this year up probably about 5,000 registrations somewhere around in there. So going to be up pretty nicely in registrations. But as you look I guess guys across the organization and we approve budgets, guys spent a lot of time in the numbers and making sure we got our money allocated in the right spots.

Jonathan Perry (00:28:12):

Yeah, I think kudos to the staff and this building. I think in all the years I've been on this board, we're probably in as positive a spot across every entity and every organization inside of AAA as far as being very responsible and physical with the money. And we are in a good spot. We've ended the years, we've ended the year positive in every entity, and we passed budgets that are positive bottom lines that lay out some pretty good guidelines going forward through the next year. But it's nice to see how frugal you guys are with our money and how fiscally responsible

Mark McCully (00:28:54):

I'm glad you didn't say cheap.

Jonathan Perry (00:28:55):

No, I didn't say cheap, but there's a lot of attention put to it and I appreciate it.

Darrell Stevenson (00:29:02):

The financial report was quite positive. JP just mentioned our very healthy financial status in every entity across the board, we of course touch on current financials, look at year end projections and then this is the meeting that we actually really study and analyze the fiscal year 26th budgeting and I'll reemphasize, I do believe that this team that we have here has proven to be incredibly fiscally responsible and by every measurable metric in this arena I can call it a success. So congratulations to Mark and Kenny and Tara and the whole team overseeing that

Mark McCully (00:29:40):

Good stuff. One of the things we tend to balance or look at our budgets here, and I think it's important for members to know, we do have a large reserves and investment reserves and a big, big chunk of those reserves are restricted. And I know sometimes members look at our assets and go, what are we doing here? And so I'd encourage members if you have questions, we put those things out in our annual report, in our financial statements on the website, but I'd encourage you to visit with anyone about those. That balance sheet has, that investment portfolio has a lot of restricted money in there that are there for specific things, scholarships and a big chunk of that is around the Foundation and such. But at the same time when we look at budgets, we also, we use some of that interest income and investment income to balance budgets, but we also really focus on the operations. We try not to lean on that too hard. You never know from year to year how those investments are going to do. So that's been the philosophy we've been charged with.

Jonathan Perry (00:30:45):

The nice thing about those reserves Mark is when we do find something that's truly an investment for the membership, we had a wherewithal to go and at it we have the wherewithal and the reserves to do those things that give us some flexibility

Darrell Stevenson (00:31:01):

And that way we're prepared for the lean years because that will happen.

Jonathan Perry (00:31:05):

It will happen again, I promise.

Mark McCully (00:31:07):

So yeah, gosh, thinking about convention, I know we talked through the schedule of events and at you guys we went through all that, got some feedback there. We approved all of the documents around the convention, the annual meeting and such. We're going to be getting more of that information out to members and those come into the conference and again, we've mentioned some of these videos we've been putting out. So lots of things I think that we've invested in and planning for here over the next couple months to keep our members informed of everything, all the good stuff going on in some other association topics in the breed improvement committee. I know one of the things was as a breed improvement committee looked and talked about and you later as a full board feedback on some of the new EPDs that are out there that were released in May with functional longevity and teat and udder and those inclusions into $M and I know you guys continue to gather feedback from breeders.

Jonathan Perry (00:32:08):

Yeah, feedback has been good. Mixed reviews obviously. I think the big thing to understand is that our team is building these tools with the data that we as members send to 'em. And so they have to have a starting point. They have to have a spot to begin with and they utilize what data we've sent them, but if we want this data, we want these tools to be better, we've got to continue to send more data and update those. If the numbers don't match your herd or your animals, are you sending phenotypes in? Are you doing what you need to do to make sure that you help make that data accurate?

Mark Johnson (00:32:47):

Yeah, the bigger the database gets, the more phenotypes we collect and genomics on top of that, the more accurate and the more powerful tool of prediction those are going to be.

Jonathan Perry (00:32:58):

Yeah, I still think that it's imperative that we are vocal about the fact that the phenotypes still drive EPDs and the genomics. The genomics are created off the phenotypes and it starts with phenotypes.

Jim Brinkley (00:33:14):

You touched on the new EPDs, there's going to be some variance in it when birth weight and weaning weight come out years and years ago it wasn't near as accurate as it is today because it didn't have the phenotype data to drive it. So give this a little time, turn in your data and it'll become more and more and more accurate

Jonathan Perry (00:33:40):

And I think it's important to note and to pay attention to what the accuracy level of those tools are.

Jim Brinkley (00:33:45):

Absolutely.

Jonathan Perry (00:33:46):

I mean they are infantile. They are just beginning and accuracy level, very low. And as time goes by, if the system works right, we keep feeding phenotypes to it, accuracy level will go up and the numbers will become more accurate and definitely directionally send us where we need to go.

Mark McCully (00:34:03):

Speaking of accuracy, one of the things, one of the topics on here was some discussion that started in breed improvement as well was we do have some cases of non genomically tested animals where there will be some missing spots on some component traits of EPDs that go into the indexes and yet those indexes are still produced. And so continuing to look at that and research that and that was really the direction you guys gave us as a board is to go back and continue to look at that, bring some options forward, study it and most definitely continue to have discussions around those topics. And just in general, how do we make these indexes as good as they can be and knowing and making sure that our commercial producers and our breeders are as confident in those tools as they can be. Gosh, one of the topics was a mating tool and this was a request.

(00:35:02):

Something we've gotten actually over the years. I think we've heard from breeders we do offer and by mating tool basically think about it as a kind of a calculator that you could enter in your cows and a handful of potential sires and it would calculate those parental average EPDs for you. We've had that request. It actually sits in our AIMS program. It is an option there. The request was some time to look at putting that behind login for all breeders and so Esther Tarpoff as director of programs brought some concepts to the committee and to the board to consider and you guys gave us direction to kind of keep advancing in that direction

Jonathan Perry (00:35:48):

And Mark that tool's put in place not as a tool to give people a calculator that they can just boldly add numbers and create EPDs. I mean our idea is that that calculator gives a breeder the ability to mate animals and see, okay, where am I going in a positive direction and in the adverse effect where am I creating deficiencies and where am I getting out of bounds with things? And so hopefully that gives 'em a little easier way.

Mark McCully (00:36:21):

It's a tool that somebody wants. It's also going to have an inbreeding coefficient right in there. We know that inbreeding coefficient calculator is something that's on our website today and we know members use, it's a little more of a simple tool you add, you just put a mating, a sire and a dam and it plugs that number. This would allow you to maybe populate those, maybe make that whole process a little easier if that's something you're wanting to watch and pay attention to

Darrell Stevenson (00:36:44):

And to reemphasize. This was from membership requests. This is a direct response to not just one but several members coming back and back with this request. And in trying to achieve that, I think that we might be moving in the right direction for a need or a service that portion of the membership is interested in.

Mark McCully (00:37:06):

We had some discussion around our genomic ownership policy. I think from time to time it's always good. We have policies. This particular policy, if I remember correct was maybe

Darrell Stevenson (00:37:18):

2009

Mark McCully (00:37:18):

2009 I believe is where it's been in place. There's been a little confusion I think out there, understandably so. It's a policy that you click on when you make an order through AGI, but ultimately it's the American Angus Association's policy around DNA ownership of that information as well as any resulting remaining sample that may be left. And I think folks that have been the ordered a genomic test have looked at that click wrap, we call it a click wrap agreement or that agreement. So we went back through that and had it out and for you guys to review and talk about. We also want to point you to the Levi Landers and his membership tips article that went in the September Angus Journal is a really, really good piece that outlines what the policy is and some of the benefits of the policy and some of the wisdom that the board back in '09 had when they put that policy in place. One of those things kind of come into fruition and you guys heard about was our ability to do parent discovery pipeline. That is a benefit of having ownership of that DNA.

Jonathan Perry (00:38:29):

Yeah, without that DNA in house that parentage pipeline would've never been able to create. Many of us call in all the time and we have parentage issues and they work with us back and forth trying to figure it out. If they didn't have access to that DNA, there's no way they could help us with that process without sending multiple samples back in and trying different things. And I think one of the things I want to point out here, Mark, that a lot of my conversations over the last 60 to 90 days where that DNA and that database is concerned, I think there is some misconception out there that database is owned by the American Angus Association membership. It is not owned by AGI, it doesn't live in AGI, it lives in the building. It lives in the membership and it is totally owned by American Angus Association. So AGI utilizes that membership through a contract. They have definite requirements they have to meet and go through to use that, use that membership on database and I think it's a good spot to clarify that right here.

Darrell Stevenson (00:39:35):

Well, and I strongly encourage any of the listeners or members to actually go find the article that Mark just mentioned in the September Angus Journal. I thought Levi did an extraordinary job outlining the bullet points of that general policy that was created in 2009 and the wisdom of that leadership back then. This kind of pulls back to what we were talking about originally on the membership survey and realization that we are working with, I'll label younger breeders that have been with us less than five years. This policy was written 16 years ago. So it's good review not only for some of us older breeders, but it gives credence to the next generation on why these policies were established. And I think that information was displayed perfectly in this article for why there is a value to the membership on AAA owning these profiles.

Jonathan Perry (00:40:32):

Not just for parentage clarification, not for research, but think of it from a birth defect standpoint. We have a birth defect come in and there's 46,000 of the member's cattle that are potentially affected by this new defect, whatever it may be. And through that database and through that stack of phenotypes that AAA has here in the building, we can sometimes clear one animal that may clear 40,000 potential carriers and having access to it and having the ability to do that. Just imagine how many dollars that just saved, 46,000 members when they didn't have to test those animals and clear 'em from a potential defect. I mean there's multiple reasons, but those are some of the strong ones.

Mark Johnson (00:41:17):

Well it keeps us nimble. The time as well as the financial factor,

Jim Brinkley (00:41:22):

Right? Yeah, you can clear it up so much faster. I've talking to a former staff member, it hadn't been very long ago and he alluded to the fact when we did have a genetic defect that they went to the archive and cleared up thousands of animals just with in-house from one sample sample, one sample, that's

Jonathan Perry (00:41:50):

One influential sire, one could change...

Jim Brinkley (00:41:54):

And as you mentioned, that was a huge savings to membership. We

Mark McCully (00:41:59):

Had this just not that long ago. Somebody had for whatever reason had been tested and they did a genomic test on a much an older bull, I think a bull back in the sixties and when, it was an M1 and some things then it popped up on a lot of pedigrees, which we could very quickly clear those out and take that potential carrier off of those cattle very quickly. Without that, we're asking now members to go out and start retesting. Yeah, great examples of the vision behind and the wisdom behind that policy when it was put in place some time ago and that parent discovery pipeline that is something we kind of threw it out there. It is been in the works. You guys continue to have heard updates on that front. AGI is actually working with it right now kind of is still in a testing pilot internal process.

(00:42:48):

But the plan is hopefully by, we can get all the kinks and have worked out of the system, not the science but the system that when come first of the calendar year, as breeders be able to use that pipeline where it'll will tell you basically through genomics help you identify those parents, you're still going to be back on the breeder. We still want the breeder to then still will go in and agree that yes, in fact that that is a mating that I made that is, we'll make sure we don't, there could be a mixed up sample or something that could take us down the wrong path there. So it's one of the things we heard in that membership survey specifically around AGI was here, you guys know what these are, just tell us and then we'll confirm if that's in fact what they are and that's ultimately what this parentage discovery pipeline will allow

Jonathan Perry (00:43:45):

Yeah, I think it'll be a huge tool of convenience behind login that members can go in and resolve those issues relatively fast and get it done. It'll be a great service.

Darrell Stevenson (00:43:57):

This was clearly a membership concern from the membership survey. We heard it and I think this is going to ease up a lot of that data management from a member standpoint, but this is going to free up and make AGI customer service reps so much more efficient as well. I am actually quite excited for this to set up and start operating

Mark McCully (00:44:18):

And we can put this over on GeneMax too and so we can do that sire discovery for our commercial customers and make that an even easier process for them. Switching gears here a little bit, but this was a super busy summer from the last time we were together in June to today of all of the activities and Caitlyn and her team updated the great events that went on at the LEAD conference and then of course there was this little event down in Tulsa. Mark, the National Junior Angus show. And I know you guys kind of did a full recap of that event and ways maybe we could even get better

Mark Johnson (00:44:53):

And I want to give a shout out to all the volunteers in Oklahoma that pitched in, made that such a great event. My neighbors Jim and Janet Strate, it is a labor of love to put on a junior national as we all know. And your staff here, Mark, Caitlyn, her crew. That was a really great event. Having said that, we always look for ways to make 'em better and so last week during the junior board meetings, very impressive. 12 member junior board enjoyed that a great deal and feedback we've got after the NJAS this year we are looking at some things to elevate this junior experience even more. Whether it is potentially lowering our age that a Angus Junior could join, potentially expanding the age groups in the steer show or going to divisions there potentially allowing siblings, children within a family to multi-own their show cattle. These are all things that we're taking a look at we'll continue to take a look at and try to bring to fruition in some form or another to improve upon that junior experience.

Jonathan Perry (00:46:07):

Mark and Mark both, as we go forward. I think it's just imperative that we continue to invest in our youth. I mean while junior shows and activities may not be an enormous part of our overall budget, I think it's one of the most important things we do every day. If we're not developing the young leaders to come back into our industry every day, we are sorely failing. And one of my greatest loves of this building is you walk through it and you deal with some of the staff and you realize that those are the very youngsters that you watched grow up through our junior program, go off to school, get an education and come right back into the very world that built 'em. And if we're not continuing to invest in that and create those young leaders, we all know that there is no path forward. So let's please keep doing that.

Mark McCully (00:47:00):

Well, back to our survey, I think it was number two or number three risk was generational turnover and someone to hand off the reins. And so we talk about it all the time. That's the on-ramp to our business. And many of us sitting around this table would say said myself that was, that's how I got you was my on ramp. And so well I appreciate the openness and I think important to remember, I'm glad you pointed out Mark of the junior board and that junior board. I mean this is really something that they get asked, put back as their responsibilities too of what things do they see and give them an opportunity to exercise their leadership and their vision. And obviously these are their peers of how we make that event better. So I know getting their feedback and input and insight on these things is paramount.

Jonathan Perry (00:47:49):

And there again, that's an area where we've heard some member input, some desires to look into how can we modernize without losing tradition? How can we bring some excitement and new waves to that activity but not forget the tradition and the staple that's gotten us there.

Mark Johnson (00:48:09):

And those members of the junior board take that seriously. It's impressive to watch them work. They're creative, they're energetic. And again, I'm deeply impressed with the thoughts that came out of that group.

Mark McCully (00:48:22):

Yeah, awesome. Well we'll switch gears here a little. We moved to the AGI board meeting and we kind of touched on some AGI topics earlier and I guess very specifically spent quite a bit of time here as I mentioned earlier in the strategic planning process of AGI and really getting back to that defining clarity of what you as board members want AGI to be. Again, reflecting on kind of what the initial vision for AGI was, but that was almost 20 years ago. So we're looking forward where do you want AGI to be for this organization? And so quite a bit of time spent around that particular topic

Jonathan Perry (00:49:01):

And I think it's very important that especially in light of what we've been through in the last 75, 90 days, I mean there are some misconceptions, some misunderstandings of maybe exactly where AGI lies, what aAGI's charges are. And so I think we're in the middle of a pretty extensive strategic planning mission with AGI at this very moment. The desires are to build a set of guidelines and guardrails that they've asked for that Kelli and her team have absolutely asked for. Tell us where you expect us to go. Tell us where you want us to engage, tell us where you don't want us to engage. And I think in response to a lot of the calls and questions, the strategic plan is going to be pretty detailed and it's going to be put out in public and pretty accessible so that nobody has a question about where those parameters are and what our charge is. And I'll give them credit. They are aggressive and they are charged every day to move forward for us, but they want direction. They want clear direction as to where they need to go.

Darrell Stevenson (00:50:09):

Where are their parameters? They're asking

Mark McCully (00:50:12):

No, it's really good. And I know some great work that they've been doing in different research fronts was one of the areas. I always tend to think of AGI always kind of call it our research and innovation entity

Jonathan Perry (00:50:25):

And it is.

Mark McCully (00:50:26):

So taking, tackling some of this research, you guys got an update on the heart health project that's one of those. I think everyone including Kelli and Pedro and those working on it would like it to go faster. It is. They explained some of the difficulties with some of the data structures and things and getting these phenotypic data into that, but showed some nice progress in that research project and that's continuing to move along.

Darrell Stevenson (00:50:56):

High priority. It is.

Jonathan Perry (00:50:59):

But there again, Kelli and her team, they want it to be accurate and they want it to be right when it does come out. They want to be sure they've got it nailed down and exact before it goes out the door.

Mark McCully (00:51:11):

There will be we talking about some of these videos. It's one of the things that we've just in an attempt to again communicate more. We're trying some video series. We've mentioned the member survey. We're going to do a video series on the long range objectives. I'm going to do a video series a little bit on some of this organizational governance, how our organization is set up with the different entity structures and such, and then Kelli's planning on one as well and just all of the research projects that we've got going on. And so stay tuned for that one. So gosh, they rolled through, I think there was a slide up there that had about 15, 16 or

Jonathan Perry (00:51:49):

16 or 17 projects. Yeah,

Mark McCully (00:51:51):

Different research projects that we're involved in. I think one of the important parts that I know you guys had asked for was a review of around data security. How do we do this when we have a so many times, and I'm still old school enough, I think research, I think Mark the feed 'em and weigh 'em stuff I did in grad school. And so much of what we're doing today in research is around data. And so Kelli and the team walk through our data security procedures of how we do this. We have a separate server that data sits on. We have data sharing agreements, access agreements. That data never leaves our internal servers that are physically here in the building. So walk through all of that with you guys. I know sometimes those are questions that you get and members want to make sure that their data is secure and that's something I know we take super seriously here.

Jonathan Perry (00:52:43):

It's clear that data is not given sold bartered trade. I mean that data stays here, it remains in house and it is the holy grail. I mean Mark doesn't even have access to it.

Mark McCully (00:52:55):

I can hardly get on my emails. Yes, we covered a lot of other things in aAGI obviously GeneMax update on the GeneMax Advantage product and the growth that we've got seen there. Nice uptake through the summer of some new clients that have come to GeneMax and finding the value in that. You heard from a report of all the different genetic evaluation clients that AGI has other breed associations here in the states and even some international stuff that AGI has called upon to provide that genetic evaluation service for. And again, been in that business for a while. So you guys got an update of some of those different clients.

Jonathan Perry (00:53:36):

Great way to leverage our staff and our tools. I mean create some income. I think it's a very good process.

Darrell Stevenson (00:53:44):

Well not only that, but truly the leadership. I mean from the World Angus Evaluation, they're expecting Kelli and team with AGI to be the leaders on these genetic evaluations. So it is just a tremendous honor for us and that team to be revered in that position.

Mark McCully (00:54:04):

Switching to Angus Foundation, we actually started the week with the Angus Foundation board of directors and here again, did some long range planning. Jaclyn did a nice job of outlining some vision and collecting the feedback we've heard from the Foundation board and where we want the Foundation to grow and where we want to put our emphasis. One of the things we've continued to see growth is on the Fund the Future. We continue to see breeders grab a hold of that as a way to dedicate a lot in their sale and donate a percentage of the proceeds to the Foundation. That's been fun to watch, that continue to grow. We spent more time, this meeting in particular, we'd had a request of a member to look at our scholarship process and honestly that's not something that the Foundation board had done in a little while of kind of step back and take that thing from head to tail and really walk through every step of the way how the applications are sent out, how the applications come in, how the judges' criteria, the score sheets. You guys went through the point assessments of each of the different categories and really, really did a thorough review of that whole process to give us some feedback.

Jonathan Perry (00:55:26):

Yeah, Mark, we did a really deep dive into that and honestly probably as a little enlightening to some of us board members, I mean that process is pretty anonymous and we use outside people to come in and evaluate those scholarship applications and I mean the process is pretty in depth. There's a pretty rigorous scoring system. It is. It's a pretty fair process.

Mark Johnson (00:55:54):

Yeah. I think I feel safe in saying we all felt really good about that process and the teeth and the integrity that went into it.

Mark McCully (00:56:04):

I think one of the learnings maybe that came through this and one of the things we stepped back and around a communication of that we talk about 87, I may not have my number right, 87 scholarships awarded. One of the things is there's a number of scholarships that have some pretty restricted criteria. They need to be from the state of Alabama and studying ag economics or something. And that's a little, but there are some restrictions around the, there's maybe at times not as much subjectivity or discretion on some of those scholarships of who is eligible. And that's probably something we can do a better job of communicating around

Jonathan Perry (00:56:42):

The number of totally unrestricted scholarships was like in the 20 range. Is that right?

Mark McCully (00:56:48):

I think that's right.

Jonathan Perry (00:56:49):

Yeah. I mean it way less than you would think. And most donors, when they put a scholarship in place, they have desires and areas that they would like to have that scholarship directed towards in

Mark McCully (00:57:02):

A certain state or certain major,

Jonathan Perry (00:57:04):

Certain state, certain major. And so there are quite a bit of restrictions in those

Jim Brinkley (00:57:09):

Just so membership knows that when they evaluate these scholarships, they do it individually and they score 'em and then they turn, the evaluator turns that in and then they average who scored what. And it's not a collaboration of so many evaluators get their heads together and say, well I think this one needs it. And they're all scored... Yes, individually scored.

Mark McCully (00:57:44):

Yep. Yep. We saw the big giant spreadsheet that they use and then bring it back together.

Jim Brinkley (00:57:49):

It's pretty in depth.

Mark McCully (00:57:49):

Yeah.

Jim Brinkley (00:57:50):

Very in depth.

Mark McCully (00:57:52):

Jim, switching over to Angus Media, you currently chair Angus Media, had some great updates from the team there and Benjie got to brag on the team of Angus Media as well as the entire organization, association communications team, Certified Angus Beef team. I think he said he had the hotel that they hosted the Livestock LPC Award Recognition Banquet at, got him. They worn out the carpet going up and down to get all the awards there was. We just have such a talented team there and man, we're so fortunate to have them.

Jim Brinkley (00:58:34):

Benjie's a tremendous leader whenever he's got that staff that he has that team. And I mean to tell you they are incredible. We're very blessed as an association to have such a great team assembled and to put together those catalogs and the articles and I mean I could go on and on and on, but the whole media team, we're blessed.

Mark McCully (00:59:04):

Absolutely. And you think about back to where do we want, going back to the survey and what did our members tell us that they wanted as the number one priority? A thing for us to focus on was marketing assistance. And so we heard about all the great work and ideas they've got, even a new special issue, Angus Journal, the bull book that will be coming out as a new feature, a new resource for folks to help market their genetics. Also spent quite a bit of time talking about Pasture to Publish. They just finished some webinars that were well received and folks that were able to come in and learn more about. And then we had some discussions around our policy around printing of EPDs on embryos and pregnancies in our catalogs moving forward.

Jim Brinkley (00:59:55):

Yeah, I'm happy to report that the association now will be calculating the parent averages on the frozen embryos and the pregnancies and they'll be updated every week. Just like

Jonathan Perry (01:00:12):

Be live.

Jim Brinkley (01:00:12):

Yeah, they'll be live just like a live lot would be, but I mean it will be spelled out in there, parent averages. But I do think it's a service to our members to be able to do that. And

Mark McCully (01:00:30):

That was a request we'd been getting, more and more frozen genetic kind of sales. And our policy for what we would put in a book would be that we would print the sire and the dam. And as some would say, you're just forcing them to do the math on parental averages and they're not live. And so this was a step that the board considered and a recommendation to make that change. And again, we still want to be super clear that these are parental average EPDs and so we'll work really hard to make that known and make sure that that's as clearly communicated through the marketing process as we can. But a nice feature and I think a nice advancement that you guys made the decision to move forward on.

Jim Brinkley (01:01:12):

And this derived from membership, I mean membership requested this and I just can't thank membership enough for if you need something we're not providing. If we can do it, we're going to try to help you.

Mark McCully (01:01:31):

Let us know. You bet. And they also shared, I thought, some pretty staggering statistics around our digital audience. 113 million audience touch points

Darrell Stevenson (01:01:40):

Say that again. Say that again.

Mark McCully (01:01:41):

113 million.

Darrell Stevenson (01:01:43):

That is staggering. Last year I think Benjie said it was 79 million. The growth has been that much in just one year.

Mark McCully (01:01:49):

69 million page views on angus.org. If you want to get your cattle recognized and seen, there's a lot of Angus eyeballs on the Angus properties. That's pretty fun to watch that growth.

Jim Brinkley (01:02:03):

And please reach out to Benjie and his team. I mean if you've got a sale coming up or you're thinking about doing a sale, they can help you immensely with the advertising, the catalog, all that stuff. So he's got a great team.

Mark McCully (01:02:22):

Absolutely. And then we'll wrap here with, we got a pretty sizable update around Certified Angus Beef and the things going on there in Wooster with the team there. One of the things that we talked about, and I know it was on the agenda highlights, was a discussion that we've had for some time here. Again, a request of members around, we've had the Targeting the Brand EPD recommendations out there for some time and we've had a fair amount of requests of what about Prime? Prime is now this new target market that so many folks have set their eye on. And we heard that in our surveys as well. And could we ever develop a Certified Angus Beef Prime targeting Certified Angus Beef Prime kind of EPD requirement or recommendation rather recommendation. And so I think what, to be clear, this isn't something to envision going on a paper, but more just something that we could add to some educational materials, maybe go in a sale catalog supplement. And so the team had done some research, gone into our data around what would that EPD recommendation look like to target a high percentage of Prime. And you'll be seeing a little bit more on that. But again, not something that's going to be showing up on the pedigree on the paper

Jonathan Perry (01:03:37):

Mark that would've basically started when you were at CAB I guess best practices is kind of where we started the Targeting the Brand logo and how could we help producers, commercial producers improve, improve their genetics to a target to hit CAB. And I think this is very much something that we've continued to get member desire and member requests about is help us with a metric. How do we raise the level from CAB to CAB prime? And obviously the pounds of gold in Prime are tremendous right now, and producers are wanting to figure out a way to hit those targets easier. So

Jim Brinkley (01:04:21):

Equally important would be my customers. Your customers, most people's customers come to you and say, where do I need to be to have more Prime? So how can well naturally you increase the marbling? But as far as a guideline, we didn't have that tool. And I think it's important to be able to offer our commercial customers and a guideline to look at and if they so choose to go that direction, that's their decision. I think it's important to be able to offer it.

Jonathan Perry (01:05:00):

And I think the feedback was they're going to continue to look at that and hone in on it and come back with some pretty good recommendations.

Mark McCully (01:05:11):

Just in general, we heard an update from the whole CAB team, obviously on this side, the cattle side, we talked to cattle producers. These low supplies have built some pretty incredible prices out there. Well, on the other side of our business, it's built some pretty tight supplies and when we're in, as that team has been out to grow sales in this time of tight supplies, it's been a fight and they've been out there trying to fight for every pound and excited to report this will be the 10th year, over a billion pounds of product sold. Going to have another really, really strong year. Probably going to be off just a nickel from last year.

Jonathan Perry (01:05:55):

Yeah, last year was the largest year ever

Mark McCully (01:05:59):

One of, maybe second, I think we still have to come back off of that peak off of COVID, but March was our best month ever.

Jonathan Perry (01:06:07):

March was our best month

Mark McCully (01:06:09):

This March. We had four months that were record for that particular month. So the demand for the product is pretty incredible. And we heard some pretty good things there from the CAB team,

Darrell Stevenson (01:06:19):

Simply astounding, just 10 years over 1 billion pounds in the tightest supply that we've been confronted with. It's simply amazing. And these guys and the stress level for them trying to market this product, I mean it's a challenge and it's a huge compliment to our breeders, to this breed. And it's just such a grand thing for us to have them working on our behalf every day.

Mark McCully (01:06:49):

I think back to the survey and I went back to the 2016 survey and looked at threats of what our members said then. And a very high level, one of the threats identified was competing competition from other proteins that didn't even make like the top seven or eight today. And you think about the price spread that we are out there operating and competing against chicken and pork. That spread is enormous. And yet we're not even considering it a challenge because what we know is when we put a high quality product out there, we have, the consumer, it's about price, value, relationship, and man, that equation just continues to work and we continue to see our licensees committed. Still the fastest growing category in CAB this year will be CAB Prime again, CAB Prime, the most expensive thing we have to sell.

Jonathan Perry (01:07:34):

They still speak with their wallet and they still want quality. The demand is growing.

Mark McCully (01:07:40):

So guys, we probably better land this plane. We've been up in the air here for a while, but

Jonathan Perry (01:07:44):

One thing we forgot, Mark, we did elect a new treasurer today. Our good friend Smitty Lamb from Georgia was elected treasurer of the board. So congratulations to him. We welcome him into the officer ranks and that means I'm one step closer to getting out of y'all's way. So yeah, I have enjoyed it.

Jim Brinkley (01:08:04):

So with you saying that this would be your last podcast, probably.

Jonathan Perry (01:08:08):

Probably. I hope.

Mark McCully (01:08:11):

We might let you join in November. We may let you join as the outgoing. How about that?

Jonathan Perry (01:08:16):

Well, we'll do whatever we need to. We'll do whatever we need to.

Mark McCully (01:08:19):

Alright.

Jonathan Perry (01:08:20):

But I do just want to thank the board and the crew and the staff. We put a lot of effort into the last couple three weeks and very productive. I think we covered a lot of targets, a lot of subjects. But understand we still got ways to go and we will leave here with those charges still in our mind. And you guys, we've left y'all a pretty good list of things to work on while we go back to the farm and we appreciate everybody's hardworking effort.

Darrell Stevenson (01:08:51):

It was a great week. Thanks, JP.

Mark McCully (01:08:52):

Well guys, thank you for joining. Thank you for your immense amount of time here these last multiple weeks, and thanks for coming on and sharing some of the conversations that have taken place around the boardroom and thanks for your leadership.

Jim Brinkley (01:09:06):

Thanks for the opportunity to be on the podcast.

Miranda Reiman  (01:09:09):

We hope you've been enjoying this new season of the Angus Conversation. If you'd like more stories on producers just like you, be sure to subscribe to the monthly Angus Journal. There you'll get your regular dose of news and information in the breed, show results, important announcements, and of course all the latest genetics up for sale. Visit angusjournal.net and hit subscribe to learn more. This has been the Angus Conversation, an Angus Journal podcast.