News Update
March 12, 2009

Colvin Portrait to “Hang” in Saddle & Sirloin Gallery

Only one honored stockman each year can win a spot in the hallowed hall of fame in Louisville, Ky. Officials of the Kentucky State Fair Board have announced that Louis M. “Mick” Colvin will receive the 2009 Saddle & Sirloin Portrait Award. Colvin’s portrait will be hung in November in the historic gallery at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center. The Saddle & Sirloin gallery honors pioneers in animal agriculture, with the earliest portraits of European stockmen from the 1700s.

During his 55 years in animal agriculture, Colvin served as a farm manager and herdsman, earning the coveted John B. Memorial Trophy for herdsman of the year in 1963. He then served as fieldman for the American Angus Association beginning in 1968, and he established Colvin Angus Farm soon after. By 1978, Colvin’s vision, integrity and determination led him to embark on his most noted role of brand creator and beef marketer with the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand.

“Mick Colvin steadfastly held to the belief that quality and consistency would result in consumer demand,” says Bill Rishel, owner of Rishel Angus, North Platte, Neb., and past chairman of the brand’s Board of Directors. “Through Mick, the brand’s success created one of the great paradigm shifts in the beef industry as it ushered in the era of specification-based, value-added, brand-name beef and beef products.”

As executive director for 21 years, Colvin took the concept of identifying and marketing beef with consumer-focused quality specifications to a worldwide brand. CAB product became the benchmark for quality beef within the food industry and a catalyst for consumer-driven approaches to cattle and beef marketing. During 2008, 634 million pounds of CAB products were sold to consumers throughout the United States and in 45 other countries.

The efforts Colvin led for two decades encouraged packers to pay premiums for qualifying cattle. In the past 12 years of grid payments to producers, the CAB share alone has reached $250 million. Additionally, Cattle-Fax in 2007 estimated the CAB brand and other USDA premium Choice and Prime programs add about $500 billion to the entire cattle industry each year. That’s an additional $19 for every head of finished cattle.

“Mick forged the Certified Angus Beef brand around a quality product, produced and merchandized by quality people with the utmost integrity. He set the example, and this philosophy continues to be core to the brand’s success and its lasting impression on today’s meat industry,” says John Stika, the brand’s president. “Mick’s legacy has changed the way cattle are selected – not just domestically but globally – and has also influenced other food programs.”

The induction ceremony and presentation of Colvin’s portrait will take place during the 2009 North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in November. Those interested in attending the banquet should contact the Mick Colvin Portrait Committee, c/o Certified Angus Beef LLC, 206 Riffel Rd., Wooster, OH 44691, phone 330-345-2333, ext. 268, or e-mail ColvinCommittee@certifiedangusbeef.com.

— Release provided by CAB.

Alabama BCIA Announces the 2008 Richard Deese Award Recipient

The Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) recently honored Richard Dyar as the 2008 Richard Deese Award recipient during its Annual Meeting and Awards Program in conjunction with the 66th Annual Alabama Cattlemen’s Association Annual Meeting in Montgomery Feb. 14.

The Richard Deese Award was established in 1986 to honor Deese, an Extension animal scientist in charge of the BCIA program in the 1970s and early 1980s. The award is presented to individuals who uphold the principles of performance testing and genetic improvement of beef cattle in Alabama. Since 1986, breeders, Extension workers and beef industry supporters have received the award.

Richard Dyar has truly embodied the spirit of performance testing. He is and has been involved in the Alabama cattle industry in many facets for more than 30 years. He has always promoted performance in each level of his involvement within the beef cattle industry in Alabama and across the southeast. Dyar has been a breeder of Angus cattle since 1975 and has participated in BCIA bull evaluations and consignment sales earning top bull honors and producing top-selling bulls for many years. He has served on numerous BCIA bull evaluations and consignment sale committees. Dyar also served as the President of Alabama BCIA in 2007 and is the current President of the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Foundation, in which he is the primary originator of the foundation and its efforts. He also has served on the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association Board of Directors and as a past president of the Purebred Beef Breeds Council.

Dyar is a native of DeKalb County, Alabama, and a graduate of Auburn University, where he was a member of the Auburn University Livestock Judging Team. He has served as the past-president and co-founder of the Auburn University Livestock Judging Team Alumni Association. He is also a graduate of Western Kentucky University where he earned his master’s degree. In 1978, he joined the staff of the American Angus Association as a regional representative for four southeastern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi), where he continues to work today and strongly promotes performance and the Alabama BCIA program across the southeast.

The Alabama BCIA is a non-profit organization seeking to promote, educate and facilitate the use of performance data, recordkeeping and marketing opportunities to improve the Alabama cattle industry. Formed in 1964, BCIA cooperates with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) of Auburn University under a formal agreement.

— Release provided by Alabama BCIA.

A Burning Issue in Winter Wheat Production

Some Pacific Northwest winter wheat producers burn fields to remove straw left after harvest before reseeding. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have shown that with careful management, this practice does not result in any more soil erosion than other postharvest practices.

Continuous winter wheat cropping systems are used in some parts of the Pacific Northwest where high amounts of rainfall result in excessive residues that must be managed after grain harvest. Conventionally managed (CM) winter wheat crops typically require multiple tillage operations before this residue is adequately incorporated into the soil. Although CM techniques reduce residues and control weeds and diseases, repeated tillage also promotes higher levels of soil erosion.

The practice of burning fields and then conducting no-till or two-operation seeding — called burn/low-till (BLT) — provides an alternative to CM. After the postharvest residue is burned, only one or two tillage operations, including seeding, are needed in the next round of crop production. Burning the fields leaves the soil surface bare before new wheat seedlings begin to emerge, but undisturbed plant crowns that remain after burning help hold soil in place.

Agricultural engineer Don McCool and soil scientist Ann Kennedy work at the ARS Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit in Pullman, Wash. They teamed with U.S. Forest Service scientist Pam Fletcher and Washington State University soil scientist Chris Pannkuk to conduct a three-year study that compared soil erosion rates and other factors affecting soil quality between BLT fields and CM fields.

The team found that BLT did not adversely affect soil loss or soil quality in fields used for continuous winter wheat production. Soil loss from BLT fields was as closely related to the number of tillage operations as to the amount of straw residue remaining on the soil surface. As in CM production, higher tillage rates in BLT fields generally resulted in increased soil loss.

This information can help producers evaluate the pros and cons of converting to BLT practices — which are subject to burning regulations that vary from state to state — for winter wheat production.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

— Release provided by ARS News Service.

— compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.