Capture Value Using Angus Genetics with Mitchell, Yon and Marshall

It’s easy to get stuck in the mindset of, “Well, that’s how we’ve always done it.” Fortunately, change and innovation run aplenty in the cattle business.

In November, the 2023 Angus Convention’s educational program highlighted innovations in the beef cattle industry and gave producers a chance to talk about challenges and opportunities they see in the future.

Today’s host Shauna Hermel sat down with panelists Travis Mitchell of Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service, South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association and Mitchell Farms; Lydia Yon, Yon Family Farms; and panel moderator Troy Marshall, American Angus Association, to learn more about how users of Angus genetics can capitalize on added premiums. 

They discuss: 

• How commercial producers can effectively market their own cattle
• Value of available verification programs through the Association and IMI Global
• Why seedstock producers and buyers of Angus genetics sharing data can be mutually beneficial 
• And more! 

Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.

Transcript

General: 
Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman, brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin. We have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let's get to work, shall we?

Lynsey McAnally: 
It's easy to get stuck in the mindset of, well, that's how we've always done it. Fortunately, change and innovation run a plenty in the cattle business. In November, the 2023 Angus Convention's Educational Program highlighted innovations in the beef cattle industry and gave producers a chance to talk about challenges and opportunities they see in the future. Today's host, Shauna Hermel sat down with panelist Travis Mitchell of Clemson University's Cooperative Extension Service, South Carolina Cattlemen's Association and Mitchell Farms, Lydia Yon of Yon Family Farms and panel moderator Troy Marshall of the American Angus Association to learn more about how users of Angus Genetics can capitalize on added premiums. So let's dive in.

Shauna Hermel:
Hello, and welcome to this edition of the Angus at Work Podcast. I'm Shauna Hermel, editor with Angus Beef Bulletin, and I'm talking today with Troy Marshall. Troy, what's your position there at the association?

Troy Marshall:
I'm the director of commercial industry relations, so I work primarily with AngusLink program.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. We just got back from Angus Convention, and you had a couple of sessions there. I'm talking about the AngusLink program. One was a capturing value panel. Can you explain a little bit about what that program was and who all was on it?

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, we had a really great panel that had a neat background, whether it be from the seed stock side, marketing, the verification side of the business, as well as cattle feeding, so we had a cross-section of panelists. We had Lydia Yon with Yon Family Farms, Tracy Woods with 44 Farms, and then we had Travis Mitchell with Saduca County, if I said that right, there in South Carolina. He's an Extension agent that does a lot of work with local producers and helps them market cattle through a board cell. Then also we had Doug Stanton with IMI Global there as well. So it was a really neat panel to start off with a lot of different opinions on about how to capture value.

Shauna Hermel:
Quite a difference in the size of herds. Some of the participants there with the Extension, with the Saluda County Cattlemen's Association and his program there. We'll talk to him in a little bit-

Troy Marshall:
Oh, okay.

Shauna Hermel:
... on the podcast, and then also, of course, some of the larger operations that are taking use of the video sales and such. So you also presented another session that was a Q&A session for people to learn more. Can you explain a little bit about that?

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, we actually just got together to answer questions about the AngusLink program, give people a general overview of what it is and how they go about enrolling. From a seed stock perspective there at convention, we spent some time talking about how it's a customer service tool for seed stock producers as well.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. Well, I know that you and Doug Stanton joined me for previous podcast, which is a record setter for our listeners. So I think a follow-up is in order and maybe some of the yearly numbers that you are talking up, some records and premiums?

Troy Marshall:
We're really excited, we had the largest premiums ever paid out this year, almost 18 million at 17.8 million last year. So that was tremendous. Then we also break down those premiums, whether or not they were just enrolled in AngusLink or the Angus Verified and had the Genetic Merit Scorecard and those cattle came in with an average of about $12 per 100 weight. So nearly $74 per head is what that equated to.

Shauna Hermel:
Just for verifying that they're Angus sired.

Troy Marshall:
Just for Angus Verified program. That was the best we've ever seen those premiums, and it was exciting 'cause when you look at overall prices were up 30 to 40% and yet the premiums for Angus Verified, we'd never seen them that high.

Shauna Hermel:
That's amazing. Did you expect that to happen this year?

Troy Marshall:
No, we were pleasantly surprised on the premiums with even all the NHTC and all natural programs with the higher prices and higher corn prices, we actually thought maybe those premiums would decline a little bit this year, but really across all classes we saw those premiums widen out. So I think that just tells you about the see change we're seeing in the marketplace where they're really understanding the value of these cattle and these programs and the demand remains strong for those.

Shauna Hermel:
That's excellent. With a little bit of higher prices, maybe that gives people the opportunity to try a program like this, to try some verification programs and with a few more dollars in their pocket.

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, there's no doubt. No, overall programs, so if they were enrolled in NHTC or All Natural or GAP along with Angus Verified, that premium was over $21 per 100 weight. So we've seen really good return on investment for those programs. But when you look at the Angus Verified and Genetic Merit Scorecard, it really is a risk-free endeavor right now. IMI is subsidizing the cost of that for producers, and so really the only cost they have to enroll in AngusLink right now is the cost of that EID tag to do age and source verification. So return on investment's good. For those larger producers that have load lot sizes and can qualify for the other programs, that historically, has been a really good way to capture some premiums as well.

Shauna Hermel:
Sounds like something that you might have to keep a lot of records for. What do you have to do to keep records on your calves to be able to qualify?

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, Angus Verified, it's very, very simple. All you have to do is have the registration numbers of the bulls that you've purchased and had them transferred into your name. So all we need is a list of those registration numbers on your herd bull battery, and that's all we need for the Genetic Merit Scorecard as well.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Troy Marshall:
We also get some historical information if you have that available and the breed composition of your cow herd. The other thing with that, you have to be age and source verified, which is really pretty simple. You just have to have a calving book that has a starting date and any date of your calving season. So it's pretty simple at that level. As you mentioned, though, you get into NHTC and All Natural, then you have to get into some receipts and some additional bookkeeping.

Shauna Hermel:
I bet. Can you take a picture on your cell phone with the date? Would that qualify for your first calf of the season?

Troy Marshall:
Actually, amazingly on the age and source verification, USDA is pretty agreeable to about anything. I've seen a calendar that was hanging on the wall in the barn where they had the first date of calving season and the last date. So that's all we really have to have is some written way of documenting when your calving season started and when it ends.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. What do people need to do if they want to enroll?

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, again, the enrollment process, we started in January, we collaborated with IMI Global, and so they're actually administering the program for us. So they can either contact us directly here at AngusLink or Angus Association or they can call IMI Global, and we'll get the process started. It's actually a very simple two-page enrollment form them to begin with, and then we get the tag set and the enrollment process. We'll just walk producers through that as they go.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. When we did our industry insights, and we're going to be talking about this a lot in the coming year, but when we talked to those feedlots about how they were accepting or looking at calves that they're willing to purchase and buy, we found some nice, I guess you would say, support for doing a Genetic Merit Scorecard, didn't we?

Troy Marshall:
We really did, and I want to salute you for the investment that Angus Media made in working with CattleFax to get that survey because it documented what we hoped was the case, but it showed how much they valued Angus Genetics and how much they valued genetics as a whole, and also that they wanted those genetics verified. I think it was Ronald Reagan that said, "Trust but verify." But I think that's where we're going in the marketplace too, is that if we can... and why I'm excited about the Genetic Merit Scorecard is that it gives us the ability to provide an objective, reliable way to describe the genetic merit and pen and feeder cattle so those feeders can buy with confidence. Not only are they seeing the value of genetics, and that's increased dramatically over the years, but also I think they're seeing genetics as a really good risk management tool as well.

Shauna Hermel:
With input costs the way they are...

Troy Marshall:
When you have a first cost of calf at $1,800 and with cost of gains running well over $1.00, there's a lot of money invested by the time you get them ready to go out the door into the packing plant. So it does make a difference.

Shauna Hermel:
Now, a lot of times we think of some of these value added programs being for the bigger load lots of cattle. One of the interesting panelists to me was Travis was talking about some of what he's doing there with the Saluda County Cattlemen's and putting some of those groups of calves together. How does that work into the AngusLink program?

Troy Marshall:
Yeah, two parts there, I think. One is with AngusLink, it is not really tied to the load lot. You don't have the audit costs that restrict you to those larger size lots. So from a cost standpoint, it's very competitive. The other part of that is, is that by grouping those cattle together where we can get buyers there, they can put together load lots. We really have the opportunity for those smaller producers to capture the value. One of the things I think we've seen, there used to be a stigma out there that the smaller guys weren't doing as good a job, and that's really not the case. We're seeing some of our best scores with some of the smaller producers and they're doing a really good job of managing the cattle, and AngusLink program gives that small to mid-size producer a chance to leverage the value of the genetics and the management that he's put into those calves.

Shauna Hermel:
That might be a producer that wouldn't have the reputation of a larger to get the bidders.

Troy Marshall:
Oh, that's a great point. We've always marketed feeder cattle based on reputation, and it's harder for a smaller producer to develop that reputation. So we're creating reputation cattle with objective measures so it makes it a little easier for the smaller to mid-size producer to create that reputation. Also, with the program, then we can take those and from a marketing standpoint, get those out in front of the right buyer at the right time.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. Well, is there any other key takeaways maybe from the capturing value panel that we ought to cover here this morning?

Troy Marshall:
The one thing I think that's always really important is just it is still a people business. It's still about building relationships. Trust and integrity and passion and commitment become a big part of the marketing equation. I think sometimes we look at marketing as a cool little science that's really difficult and it's not. It really comes down to just executing and building those relationships. I think that was one of the thing that all four panelists really brought out was the importance of bringing that trust and that integrity into the system and how programs like AngusLink can help foster building those relationships.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. Thank you. Hello, and welcome to Angus at Work. We're here at the National Angus Convention and talking to some panelists that have been talking on the capturing value panel for our commercial cattlemen. Can I have you all introduce yourselves?

Travis Mitchell:
My name is Travis Mitchell and I'm from Saluda, South Carolina. I'm a livestock and forages agent with the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service where I cover two counties in Central South Carolina.

Lydia Yon:
I'm Lydia Yon. We have a family operation named Yon Family Farms in Ridge Springs, South Carolina. It's my husband and I, our three adult children and their six little people make up our family, and everybody's involved in the operation in one form or fashion.

Shauna Hermel:
One of the things that we've been talking here about today is how producers can capture value on their calves. Of course, with Angus Genetics, some of our recent research is showing some very nice premiums for Angus Genetics in the marketplace. We've also got some premiums for some vaccination. I know Travis, you talked about a program that you've put together with the Saluda County Cattlemen's that has been an operation for several years and that is helping commercial producers capture value. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Travis Mitchell:
Certainly. Many of our producers in South Carolina are more small-scale producers, so they don't have enough cattle to make up their own loads. So what we've done is partnered producers together to co-mingle load lots of uniform, steers and/or heifers. Those cattle follow a stringent vaccination protocol, and we also make sure that they are of like genetics. So here of recent, we've done a good job of marketing those cattle through these load lot sales.

Shauna Hermel:
How many sales would there be for those cattle? Are you working with fall calving cows or spring calvers or both?

Travis Mitchell:
The majority 80% would be fall calvers, but we do have some spring calvers that we do take care of also.

Shauna Hermel:
When did you begin this program and how did you get some producers interested?

Travis Mitchell:
So when I took over my role in Extension, I followed up by our longtime county agent, Mr. Phil Perry. He already had this program in place. It was in cooperation with Saluda Livestock Market, the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service, and the Saluda County Cattlemen's Association. So the groundwork was already laid for me. I just worked with the Yons through their seed stock program and also with the Commercial Cattlemen's producers to grow this program into what it is today.

Shauna Hermel:
Lydia, I know you've said that a lot of your customers are small-scale producers that are looking for ways to maybe add value. How important is it to you to work with those customers in a program like the Saluda County Cattlemen's to define those combined values?

Lydia Yon:
It's extremely important because a lot of those small producers that Travis referenced are also the producers that are doing everything right and might not have had an opportunity to capitalize on getting the value rewarded. They invest their dollars in good genetics, and they do everything right from a nutrition management herd health standpoint and just didn't have the opportunities from a marketing standpoint until the group started doing this collaborative effort. Hats off to our Extension Service for taking the initiative to start the program like that. Travis's predecessor had begun a replacement heifer sale, for instance, for those same producers years ago, and so the group was already accustomed to working together. I think that might even be the slogan for the County-

Travis Mitchell:
It is.

Lydia Yon:
... Cattlemen's Association is Working Together, and really that's true. We can all achieve so much more if we do that. So as the seed stock producer component of that, we work real closely with our Extension Service and with American Angus to host educational events and to help people become aware of the opportunities to capture more value through programs that they may or may not know how to enroll in.

Shauna Hermel:
So Travis, where are some of those added value options? We talked about load lots. You mentioned some others here on the panel today. Can you go through maybe the steps of where people can start increasing value by corroborating together in a program like this?

Travis Mitchell:
Absolutely. It starts with genetics. A good genetic selection and a good relationship with your seed stock producer is imperative. So building off of those good genetic selections, making sure that you're taking care of your animals, and that's going to come through a good vaccination protocol. If you don't have one, I encourage you to work with your local veterinarian or your local Extension agent to establish one. But then after that, understand where you want your end goal to be as a producer. If you currently don't have a controlled breeding program, let's start working there. If you're not weaning and preconditioning, we've got some value to catch there.
But if you're already doing those things, I encourage you to look at these value-added markets, whether that's in more progressive marketing of your cattle and these verification programs. If you're using Angus Genetics, the groundwork is already laid for you. You can work through AngusLink and IMI, they will populate that Genetic Merit Scorecard for you, and it just gives you more tools in your toolbox, and that's what we want. When we talk about value-added programs or capturing more value, i.e., more dollars, we want as many tools in the toolbox as we can have to get as many bids on those cattle as possible.

Shauna Hermel:
So when a person signs up to participate in a program like this, do they have to sign up for the whole bowl of wax or can they begin with certain things?

Travis Mitchell:
That's a great question. So we know the producers we're working with. So if they are just getting into the program, we can try to pair them up with other producers that may just be at this level of certification. What we've noticed with that is, is once we get them involved, next year, that level of certification goes up and goes up and goes up until they have actually leveled the playing field with the folks ahead of them.

Shauna Hermel:
What kind of premiums can people expect for putting together maybe a load lot that is Angus Verified and has the proper vaccination protocols?

Travis Mitchell:
That's a great question. That premium can vary or range greatly, but the premium is definitely consistent and it's definitely there. I would say this past year we probably saw a 25 to a 40-cent premium on cattle that were in a truckload lot and verified through AngusLink.

Shauna Hermel:
That's nothing to sneeze out when it comes to trying to put together a positive bottom line in the cattle industry with input costs the way they are. That premium stays whether we're at a high dollar value or a low dollar value. Correct?

Travis Mitchell:
Correct.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay. Now, how have the producers that you've been working with, have you continued to grow your organization? Is this not for some producers? What do you find?

Travis Mitchell:
Adding value is for every producer, and with input cost where they are, and if we're going to stay in business in this industry, then any producer needs to do more and find more ways to add value. So yes, this program is for any and every producer. As long as they're doing things right, we want to make sure that we're helping them capture that value.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. Lydia, what do you see as far as some of the response from your customers that have gotten involved in trying to capture some value by being involved with the value-added programs?

Lydia Yon:
Most of them realize it's a process and that they can't expect immediate results necessarily. Like Travis said, it's a growing process, and the progression might not be over a one-year period. It might be over a five-year period that, like he said, they might get their calving season under control then add some more herd health. All that accumulation of progress and the addition of the different bells and whistles they can label their calves as when they sell them opens up their market and opens them up to a greater number of bidders bidding on those calves. So I think that the producers are becoming more aware, and there's people in the county that are slower to adapt to the processes than others, but they see those guys. They might sell their calves at the same sale on the same day, and they can hear the prices that are being announced just the same. So I think people are starting to see the difference and benefits and taking the extra steps to enroll in some of these cool programs that are available to us.

Shauna Hermel:
Now, some of the opportunity in becoming involved in a program like this is working with the next step in the supply chain. You mentioned that you are receiving some buyers that are coming back for those cattle after they have experience with them, and that's opening up some doors. Could you expand on that?

Travis Mitchell:
Certainly. Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, it takes time to develop these relationships, but we as producers want a good relationship with the folks that's buying and finishing our cattle. That's extremely important for us. That's what we're doing it for. So them reaching back out to us, providing data on how our cattle performed is a win-win because A, we know that they're interested in potentially buying our cattle back, but also it gives us the tools that we need to make better genetic selections or to fix things that we may not have been aware of. But it is a growing process, and that process does take some time, but again, as I said, it's a relationship business.

Shauna Hermel:
Where do you anticipate going in the future? How will you maybe advance the group in the future?

Travis Mitchell:
That's a great question. I'll answer that with wherever the consumer wants us to advance.

Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. You have some experience with the consumer, Lydia, with some of your storefront. Can you explain some of that and some of your connection with consumers?

Lydia Yon:
I think it's easy for us in the cattle business to sometimes think that we're just raising cattle, but we're really raising food to go on the plate is what we're ultimately raising. So I think that's essential that we don't forget that that's the ultimate product that we're producing is beef for folks to eat. So we need to be mindful, of course, of consumer demand as far as the quality that they want. We're blessed to have the Certified Angus Beef Program available as Angus producers, quality and then just telling the story of how you produce your product is becoming even more important these days. I think there's a lot of opportunity on social media to spread good news about how we produce food and how we care for our cattle, our employees, our land and our communities. I think that we can't send that message out too often. I think it's a great message, and there's no reason that we shouldn't scream it from the mountaintops, really.

Shauna Hermel:
I think that's a good place to start wrapping up here this afternoon. We do try and end our Angus at Work Podcast on a positive note. So could each of you relate something really positive in your lives right now, whether that's professional or whether it's personal?

Travis Mitchell:
I think from a positive standpoint, there's a lot of excitement about the beef cattle industry right now overall. We're seeing high demand both here locally and globally, and that excites me because this industry is full of such wonderful people, and it's a thrill for me to be able to call this my job. I feel like I work with the greatest people on earth.

Lydia Yon:
I think probably Thanksgiving's right around the corner, and it always this time of year is one of my favorite times of year. It's calving season at our place, so it's one of our best months, October, November, we get to see a lot of baby calves and our kids get excited about the calves being born. Our grandkids love to go out and see the babies, and it's just a new season. So it's always great to welcome a new season and a new calf crop and see what the future might hold. We're just blessed to be part of a family operation, which is what most all of us Angus and cattle producers are. So let's just keep it going to the next generation and do a good job of taking care of our cattle and our land.

General: 
Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin Extra. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org, and we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening. This has been Angus at Work.