News Update

October 25, 2017

Value of Bull to Commercial Herd Exceeds ‘Relative’ Value

The value of bulls in commercial herds goes beyond the “relative” value typically ascribed to them in market pricing, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert.

Joe Paschal, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension livestock specialist, said a good bull is likely the “best investment” a cattle producer can make.

“In publications referencing cattle values for commercial producers, as well as reports from beef breed associations, the value of a bull is often given as equivalent to the average value of five weaned calves,” said Paschal. “This has been a long-held comparison for determining the value of a bull, but it really doesn’t take into account all aspects of what bulls provide to the herd.”

Paschal said the value of one bull to five weaned calves resulted from a relative equivalency identified as market prices fluctuated over the past several years.

“At least up until around 2010, producers paid less than 50% of the value of those five calves on a bull,” Paschal explained. “Then from 2011 until 2015 producers began to pay more, including up to 100% of the value of five calves in 2013.

Continue reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.

— Adapted from an article by Paul Schattenberg, Texas AgriLife Extension.

Show Consumers How You Are Raising Beef With Care

No one needs to tell you how much care, work and dedication goes into producing the world’s best beef. You know who does need to hear it — just about everyone else! When we say everyone, we mean those folks who enjoy beef on the dinner table, at a tailgate party or when they go out for a nice meal to celebrate with family and friends. That’s a lot of people, and they are really interested in what you do and how you produce the food they enjoy.

So that’s what your beef checkoff is doing with the #RethinkTheRanch media campaign. Based on consumer research, we know that your consumers want to know more about sustainable farming and ranching, and how you care for your cattle.

Cody Easterday, who operates feedlots in eastern Washington, knows the importance of the beef checkoff when it comes to communicating with his consumers.

“The checkoff is a conduit between us and the consumer,” says Easterday. “It provides the education we need to produce the product that the consumer wants.”

Read this beef checkoff release online.

— Adapted from a release by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board.

Association Perspective

The journey to the Angus Convention began with the inaugural meeting of the Association being hosted in November 1884 in Chicago. That was the second year of existence for the American Aberdeen-Angus Breeders’ Association, as the organization was then known. The meeting was hosted annually in Chicago for the next 90 years. In 1975, the annual meeting was moved to Louisville after the closing of the International Live Stock Exposition in Chicago.

Louisville then became the home of the annual meeting until 2013, when the Association announced plans for its first National Angus Convention & Trade Show to be hosted in conjunction with the annual meeting.

The concept for the Angus Convention had been discussed for a number of years. Key staff members had become convinced that the Association members and their commercial customers deserved an annual convention that allowed them to hear outstanding keynote speakers, participate in forward-looking educational sessions, and have the opportunity to enjoy a bustling trade show that would allow allied industry partners to exhibit their products and/or services to the leading Angus breeders in the world.

Learn more in the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA column online.

— Adapted from a column by Allen Moczygemba, American Angus Association.

Heifer Placements on Feed and 2018 Outlook

In addition to the regular monthly inventory/placement update, the latest USDA Cattle on Feed report also detailed the number of steers and heifers placed on feed in the last three months. USDA provides this information on a quarterly basis and the data serve as an indicator of herd rebuilding or liquidation. Roughly two thirds of U.S. calves are born in the spring and the rest are born in the fall. Following each crop, cow-calf operators need to decide how many female calves they will retain to replace cows with declining productivity and how many will be retained to expand the herd.

When profits are thin and grass supplies limited, producers will send more female calves to the feedlot and thus bolster the beef supply. However, strong profits and conducive weather conditions will tend to divert more heifers into the beef cow herd and fewer will be available for marketing. Because of the natural fluctuation in the calf crop and thus the number of cattle placed on feed, one needs to view the placement of heifers on feed in the context of overall placements.

Read the full report online at www.dailylivestockreport.com.

— Adapted from a release by Len Steiner, Steiner Consulting Group.

Texas Land Trends Report Shows
Changes in Rural Working Lands, Operators

Fragmentation of rural working lands, an increasing population, and changes in landowner age, residency, land-use preferences and other factors are addressed in the new Texas Landowner Changes and Trends report.

“The goal of this report is to describe the state’s growing population and the data relating to rural lands,” said Roel Lopez, director of the Natural Resources Institute, part of the Texas A&M University System. “Using several datasets, we have also evaluated a number of demographics among landowners of privately owned rural working lands.”

The report addressed landowner age, intergenerational land transfer, operator gender, landowner residency and more from 1997 to 2012. It can be found on the Texas Land Trends website, http://txlandtrends.org, an interactive website and database detailing current land use trends within the state. It can also be found on the institute’s website at http://bit.ly/2xb3s3q.

Lopez said the state’s dramatic loss and fragmentation of privately owned farms, ranches and forests, known as working lands, affects the state’s rural economies and can have a serious impact on natural resources and food security.

View this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.