FULL OF FINDINGS

2023 CCA FEEDER MEETING OFFERS MARKET OUTLOOKS, RESEARCH UPDATES AND MORE

by Director of Communications Katie Roberit

Each spring, CCA’s Feeder Meeting brings hundreds together for the annual educational event organized and put on by CCA’s Feeder Council. Cattle feeders from the Imperial Valley, Central Valley, Arizona and beyond recently participated in the 2023 event May 24-26 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. In addition to cattle feeders, each year, the meeting also attracts a growing number of animal health professionals, trade companies and other allied industry members looking to connect with feeders and stay current on news, issues and trends related to the feeding sector of the cattle industry. The 2023 event was the same, as registration numbers surpassed the previous year’s attendance and the event continues to grow.

With Feeder Meeting taking place in downtown San Diego for many years now, the Wednesday night welcome party has grown into a gathering many look forward to attending in the city. Attendees spend the evening networking and socializing before a full program of speakers and updates to follow the next day. This year’s Welcome Party was held outdoors at Puesto at the Headquarters, a Mexican restaurant in San Diego’s Seaport Village. Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, the group enjoyed unique ribeye, filet mignon and short rib quesabirria tacos on homemade tortillas along with other appetizers and beverages while connecting with attendees.

The next day, CCA Feeder Council Chair Joe Dan Cameron, Brawley, called the meeting to order at 8 am, and a full day of presentations got underway. To kick off the program, three speakers provided industry outlooks.

“Those first three speakers were really good,” Cameron said.

CattleFax Market Analyst Patrick Linnell started by giving an outlook on the cattle and beef market. Rabo AgriFiance Vice President

Analyst Andrick Payen Diaz Vega then presented “The Mighty (Volatile) US Crop: A Grains & Oilseed Outlook.” Finally, Spencer Prosser, the co-owner of MP Agrilytics, gave a global cattle and beef outlook.

Later in the afternoon, Gregg Doud, Aimpoint Research’s Vice President of Global Situation Awareness and Chief Economist, delivered a global outlook, sharing insights on agricultural trade and exports. Dodd’s presentation was sponsored by the California Cattle Council.

After hearing the presented outlooks, Cameron expects to have a good year as a cattle feeder. Although interest rates make it difficult for feeders right now, he says the roughage situation in the southwest and the San Joaquin Valley is anticipated to improve. Additionally, a decrease in corn prices over the next year is favorable for feeders.

Cameron says it’s clear when looking at what’s going to happen with cow herd numbers over the next couple of years and the cattle cycle, numbers are down, and supplies are not there. As a feedyard manager in Brawley, he sees this daily.

“We don’t get offered the cattle we used to get offered,” Cameron said. “The amount of Holstein calves in California is changing. A lot of those cattle are being bred with Angus now, and those cattle are eligible to be fed in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, where in prior years, those Holstein cattle were kind of just kept down here in the Desert Southwest. Our numbers are going to get shorter.”

The topic of breeding beef cattle with dairy cattle has been popular at CCA Feeder Meetings in recent years as the trend continues to evolve in the industry. The 2023 meeting program once again included multiple speakers on the subject.

Brad Johnson, Ph.D., Gordon W. Davis Regent’s Chair in Meat and Muscle Biology at Texas

Tech University, presented “Understanding the Mechanisms and Impacts of Growth Modifiers –A Focus on Beef x Dairy.” Additionally, Certified Angus Beef’s Senior Executive Vice President of Marketing Tracey Erickson spoke on branded beef marketing and Beef x Dairy. (To hear about this presentation, tune into the recent episode of Sorting Pen: The California Cattleman Podcast, which features Erickson as a guest.)

Beyond industry outlooks and trends, the remainder of the program agenda focused on broader industry updates and research findings. Registered Dietitian Kori Dover showed the California Beef Council’s current outreach efforts on promoting the nutritional value of beef. Elanco’s Chief Animal Welfare Officer, Michelle Calvo-Lorenzo, DVM, later explained how Elanco monitors livestock and animal welfare discussions on social media. She also shared ways to address current issues and tips for preventing and being prepared for threats from animal activists.

One of the presentations that stood out to Cameron featured research results on an animal confinement study funded by the California Cattle Council and presented by Directions Research’s Andy Hogan.

Hogan shared, “The primary objective of this research was to determine the perceptions held by Californians regarding confinement practices implemented on dairy farms, feedlots, and ranches. The project was funded to inform the California Cattle Council on those perceptions and how they shape consumer behavior.”

From a cattle feeder’s perspective, Cameron says it is common to think consumers won’t like the industry’s practices due to a lack of understanding. However, that is not what this research study reflected after 1,000 Californians were surveyed online and multiple focus groups were conducted virtually and in person.

“I don’t think we are that far off from where we need to be when it comes to consumers understanding cattle feeding,” Cameron said.

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“We just need to do more education and more outreach to these people, and I think that they can understand.”

The day’s final presentation was a research update from Rob Atwill, DVM, the director of the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis. At Feeder Meeting a few years ago, CCA’s Feeder Council decided it was time to conduct a study on e. Coli concerning leafy greens and cattle nearby. Although there was a chance the results could bring bad news for cattle feeders, members of the Feeder Council agreed it needed to be studied anyways to create actual data. While this issue comes up in conversations throughout California where cattle are near leafy green fields, the research was funded to look specifically at airborne bacteria levels of feedlots in the Imperial Valley.

Atwill’s presentation at the 2023 Feeder Meeting, “Low Levels of Airborne Bacteria in Proximity to Imperial Valley Feeders,” showed the results of this research.

“With Atwill’s help and this study that was funded through Cattle Council, we were able to actually get some peer-reviewed data to show that what these salad companies are saying [about] all this e. Coli…it’s not coming off feedyards through fugitive dust.”

From a cattle feeder’s perspective, Cameron says it feels like companies are just looking for someone to point the blame at when it comes to this issue.

“Somehow, it always gets blamed on cattle, even if there aren’t cattle around,” Cameron said. “It’s one of those things we are going to have to continue doing work on, but the study that was done by Atwill and his people at the Western Center for Food Safety at UC Davis really helps us as an industry when we’re getting this blame for something that we didn’t do. We can [share] our peer-reviewed data, and [they] don’t have any peerreviewed data.”

With the research results now available, cattle feeders and Atwill met with a group of produce growers in the Imperial Valley to review the findings the day before Feeder Meeting.

“They were happy with the results,” Cameron shared. “Now it is on them to push the salad companies and the packers and shippers because those are the guys setting the precedent on what needs to happen. Like we told them, the beef industry spent billions of dollars after e.Coli issues with Jack in the Box in the 90s to figure out a kill step.”

Following the full day of updates and an evening of socializing over a steak dinner sponsored by Laird Manufacturing, the Feeder Council Business Meeting occurred on Friday morning. Ideas for the 2024 meeting were discussed after standard business items, such as financials, were reviewed. While next year’s event location is still to be determined, it will likely be back in San Diego or nearby and will take place May 22-24. Stay tuned to calcattlemen.org/events for details to be published in the coming months.

To hear the entire conversation with Council Chair Joe Dan Cameron on the event and other issues impacting cattle feeders, including cuts to water allocations in the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River and an update on rail delays, listen to Season 3, Episode 11 of Sorting Pen: The California Cattleman Podcast.