News Update
October 25, 2016
Angus Fiscal Year Report
The American Angus Association completed its fiscal year Sept. 30, and reports an overall positive year of growth for the Angus breed and the organization’s 25,000 members.
In sales reported to the organization, bulls brought an average of more than $5,600 per head, while females averaged more than $5,000 per head. While averages are lower than the record-setting prices of 2015, Angus genetics continued to bring high values and members marketed nearly 10,000 more animals during the fiscal year.
Registrations for Angus cattle grew by 4.5% and totaled nearly 335,000 head. That’s the 15th largest number of registrations in the Association’s 133-year history.
At Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI), genomic profile testing for Angus seedstock increased by 45%, and cattlemen submitted more than 100,000 tests for the first time ever.
Hear more numbers from the Association’s fiscal year by tuning into The Angus Report online. You can also catch the show at 1:30 p.m. CST Saturday and 7:30 a.m. CST Monday morning on RFD-TV.
The Decathlete
The Olympics have long been a fascination. The combination of competition, culture, international cooperation and the individual stories of athletes woven together create a dramatic story that goes beyond the imagination of the most prolific novelists and screenwriters.
There are lessons to be found in so many places — gold-medal-winning performances, lost opportunities, moments of epic sportsmanship, and even failures in judgment and character. One event, above all the others, carries a lesson for enterprise leaders, decision makers and, yes, cattle breeders — the decathlon.
While most track-and-field athletes focus on a specialty — sprinting, leaping or launching heavy objects through space — the decathlete endeavors to excel in all. However, the decathlete also accepts that he will likely never be the best in the world at any one of the events. Rather, the athlete sets out on a course to optimize performance that yields a favorable outcome based on a multitude of metrics.
Continue reading in the Angus Journal article online.
Ag Expert Sees a Different Future for Meat
Richard Kottmeyer stands at the intersection of data and anecdote.
The stories the numbers tell him about the meat industry often run counter to conventional wisdom.
To hear him tell it, there are only three ways to meet the skyrocketing demand for food by 2050: grow more, waste less and/or get more out of the resources already being used. Two of the three, he says, rely increasingly on complex software platforms and lots and lots of data.
Some of that perspective is a personal sales pitch for the vice president of agriculture and food for the Swiss software consulting firm Luxoft. But then, he’s spent decades analyzing data and how to use it to improve agriculture, food security, food and beverage marketing and distribution, and general understanding of consumer behavior in more than 100 countries.
But he also has a point. With criticism mounting of Western-style concentrated ag systems, but demand growing — particularly in developing countries and particularly for meat — the pressure is on to improve the U.S. sector’s “sustainability” and environmental footprint. Data analysis and technology can improve these ratios across the supply chain.
For more information, view the release online at www.meatingplace.com.
Historic Investments in Renewable Energy
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will travel to Austin, Texas, to announce two multimillion-dollar investments that will help America’s small businesses and homeowners save money on their energy costs by making more renewable choices. During the visit, Vilsack will also take part in a roundtable discussion with local recipients of these investments.
Since the start of the Obama Administration, USDA has invested more than $100 billion in Texas to support the state’s farmers and ranchers, ensure availability of affordable housing, create jobs and promote economic opportunity for those who live, work and raise their families in rural Texas.
While in Texas, Vilsack will add to that historic commitment by announcing a new effort that will help some Texas residents and businesses save money on their energy bills.
For more information, view the full USDA news release online.
Causes, Solutions to Cattle Price Collapse
In the wake of falling cattle prices, which have fallen farther and faster than in any time in history, livestock auction yards in central and eastern South Dakota and North Dakota will host a series of meetings to address the depressed market.
Beginning Thursday, Nov. 10, Hub City Livestock Auction, Aberdeen, S.D., will host the first of five public meetings designed to explore the causes of the ongoing price collapse and identify solutions that livestock producers can pursue to reverse the unprecedented price declines. The Nov. 10 meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel, Aberdeen, S.D. All meetings are open to the public.
Herman Schumacher, co-founder of R-CALF USA, area cattle feeder and former owner of Herreid Livestock Auction, is organizing the meetings, so area cattle producers can learn about the forces causing both cash cattle markets and cattle futures markets to act irrationally despite tight cattle supplies and strong beef demand, factors that suggest prices should be rising, not falling.
For more information, view the R-CALF news release online.
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