News Update

December 12, 2017

Angus Offers Summer Internships

If you’re a college student interested in working in the Angus business, what better way to spend the summer than learning from the teams at the American Angus Association? Internships are available to college students for summer 2018.

These 10-week, paid internships provide opportunities through the communications group, Angus Journal, events and education group, Angus Foundation and Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI). Students interested in applying should send a résumé, cover letter and references to careers@angus.org by Feb. 1.

The events and education intern will assist in planning and executing youth events hosted by the National Junior Angus Association (NJAA), including preparations, correspondence and communications for junior shows and events. Applicants should be a self-starter, detail-oriented and outgoing with the ability to work well with others. Livestock and event planning experience is a plus but not required. Travel to the 2018 National Junior Angus Show (NJAS), Leaders Engaged in Angus Development (LEAD) Conference, and other events is expected.

From print stories to TV scripts, photography, graphic design and more, the communications intern will truly gain valuable ag communications experience.

Continue reading this Angus news release online.

— Adapted from a release by Sarah Hill, Angus Media.

Apply for Angus Foundation Scholarships

Today’s college costs are astronomical — it’s a known fact. The Angus Foundation seeks to help Angus youth offset some of those steep costs by awarding undergraduate and graduate level scholarships.

“Angus youth are the future of our Association and the industry,” said Milford Jenkins, Angus Foundation president. “We want to help them get a head start in any way that we can, and awarding scholarships is one way to do that.”

Undergraduate and graduate student scholarship applications are available online at www.angusfoundation.com and are due May 1. Applicants must have, at one time, been a National Junior Angus Association member and must currently be an active junior, regular or life member of the American Angus Association. Applicants must be a graduating high school senior or enrolled at a junior college, four-year college/university or other accredited institution and have a minimum 2.0 GPA. Eligibility requirements and application guidelines are included. Applicants will want to strictly adhere to the guidelines and provide the information requested when submitting their application to the Angus Foundation.

Keep reading this Angus news release online.

— Adapted from a release by Sarah Hill, Angus Media.

Contest Gives Cowboy Poets Opportunity
to Win Trip to 2019 Cattle Convention

Cattlemen and women with originality and a flair for poetry have a chance to win a trip to the 2019 Cattle Industry Convention & National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show in New Orleans, La., by participating in a Cowboy Poetry Contest being hosted in conjunction with the 2018 Phoenix event. The contest is being coordinated by the NCBA, and is sponsored by IMI Global.

Poets who compose and submit their own humorous original poems have until Jan. 1, 2018, to be considered.

Five finalists will be selected by NCBA on Jan. 2, 2018, with public voting on submitted videos starting Jan. 3, 2018. Voting will close Jan. 15. The top three winners will be announced Jan. 16, 2018, and will have the chance to perform their work live on stage at the Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix Feb. 2, 2018, or via video if not in attendance.

In addition to performing their poem live, the first place winner will receive a free trip to the 2019 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans, La.

For more information, read the full NCBA news release online.

— Adapted from a release by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

From the Heart of the Vintage Herd

When you use the term “elite,” you’re talking the best of the best. The cream of the crop. The top 1%.

The Angus female featured in the 2018 Angus Foundation Heifer Package can truly be classified as elite and part of the top 1% of the Angus breed. She not only hails from one of the top Angus herds in the United States, but her pedigree demonstrates how special she really is.

“When the opportunity came about for Vintage Angus to donate the heifer for the Angus Foundation heifer package, Jim [Coleman, owner, Vintage Angus] was all for it,” Doug Worthington, Vintage Angus general manager, says. “He wanted to donate a female that was special.”

Vintage Blackbird 7184 (registration number 18745204) has a powerful pedigree behind her. She’s sired by VAR Discovery 2240, the $110,000 top-selling bull of the 2013 Vintage Angus Ranch bull sale. VAR Discovery 2240 is the only proven bull in the breed today to rank in the top 5% or better for all six dollar value indexes ($Values): weaned calf value ($W), feedlot value ($F), grid value ($), quality grade value ($QG), yield grade value ($YG) and beef value ($B).

Read the full Angus Journal article online.

— Adapted from an article by Sarah Hill, American Angus Association.

Larges Put Wheels Under AI

Often credited for increased application of artificial insemination (AI) in beef breeding herds are the various estrous synchronization protocols developed for fixed-time AI (FTAI). The ability to synchronize a group of heifers or cows so that mass breeding can be accomplished at a predetermined time without heat detection can reduce the time and labor requirements for AI. Perhaps nothing has contributed more to industry adoption of FTAI than the Larges Beef Barn.

Willie Altenburg, beef development advisor for Select Sires Inc., shared that opinion during an award ceremony recognizing Marvin Large and his late wife, Arlene, of Imperial, Neb. — the inventors, producers and marketers of the Larges Breeding Barn.

“The Breeding Barn was in place when fixed-time insemination was a theory. It made fixed-time insemination a possibility,” stated Altenburg, presenting the award during the Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle (ARSBC) symposium Aug. 29-30 in Manhattan, Kan.

Created by the Beef Reproductive Leadership Team, the award recognizes outstanding contributions toward reproductive tools, technologies or service that have broadly benefited the beef industry. It will hereafter be known as the Marvin and Arlene Large Pioneer Award, in honor of its first recipients.

Read more of this Angus Journal article online.

— Adapted from an article by Troy Smith for Angus Journal.

— Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Journal.