August 2022 - National Cattlemen

N A T I O N A L CATTLEMEN

To be the trusted leader and definitive voice of the U.S. cattle and beef industry.

AUGUST 2022 • Vol. 38, No. 11 • NCBA.org

MARKET SNAPSHOT WEEK OF 7/23/2022

CURRENT VS. LAST YEAR SOUTH CENTRAL 500-600 LB. STEERS

$185.82

$169.94

9.3%

LIVE FED STEERS

$120.77

16.5%

$140.65

CHOICE BOXED BEEF

$196.78

15.6%

$227.51

OMAHA CASH CORN

$6.39

8.2%

$6.91

IN THIS ISSUE

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TOOLS OF GENE EDITING

Gene editing provides producers with a way to change singular genes and traits of cattle.

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REDUCE STRESS,

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CHANGES TO ESA

Learn about technology that reduces stress when handling cattle.

These changes to ESA rules and definitions are likely going to harm cattlemen and women.

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RECESSION RISK

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SAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE

14

CHECKOFF NEWS

15

FEDERATION

Everyone is wondering what the risk of recession is. These experts dive into this topic.

USRSB is helping cattle producers protect their land and herds for future generations.

New technology in restaurant services will make it easier to serve customers.

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NATIONAL CATTLEMEN’S BEEF ASSOCIATION 9110 E. NICHOLS AVENUE, SUITE 300 CENTENNIAL, CO 80112

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Cattlemen and women across the country serve their local communities.

Utah Ranch Honored with National ESAP Award The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) announced in July that JY Ferry & Son, Inc. in Corinne, Utah, is the 2021 Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) national winner. The award, which annually recognizes the outstanding stewardship practices and conservation achievements of cattle producers, was presented to the Ferry family during the cattle industry’s Summer Business Meeting in Reno, Nevada.

“Cattle producers are the original conservationists,” said NCBA President Don Schiefelbein. “JY Ferry & Son, Inc., is the perfect example of how farming and ranching families conserve natural resources for generations to come.”

Sustainability has long been an objective for JY Ferry & Son, with a 100-year history of conservation focusing on agricultural practices that conserve water, energy and other natural resources. The Ferry family recognizes that environmental sustainability goes hand-in-hand with the economic viability of the business. Creation of strategic partnerships with local conservation groups, government entities and regulators help provide business stability. A primary goal of the operation is to increase economic sustainability by improving water efficiencies for the farm through laser leveling, piping of ditches and utilization of soil health principles including cover crops and reduced tillage.

“Sustainability is a process, and whatever happens tomorrow will be affected by what I do today,” said John Ferry. “But if you are wise and listen to the land, it will tell you what it can do.”

Most of the range utilized by JY Ferry & Son, Inc., is comprised of public and private wetlands. Grazing cattle is an environmentally friendly way to control the spread of invasive wetland species such as phragmites. Phragmites is listed as a noxious weed in Utah but is highly palatable and provides excellent feed value to cattle. The Ferry’s targeted grazing approach enables more desirable plant species to become permanently established, and once desired plant populations are established, control of phragmites is sustainable with grazing. Years of strategic and deliberate grazing practices on private wetlands managed by JY Ferry have proven to benefit cattle, wildlife and the ecosystem.

“We believe that the way we manage our cattle and crops improves the air quality, water quality and wildlife habitats, and we base decisions for grazing and crop rotation on water resource availability,” said Joel Ferry. “We also modify grazing rotations to avoid sensitive nesting areas, target invasive vegetation species, and improve water quality in the wetland areas.”

Established in 1991, the ESAP award identifies outstanding land stewards in the cattle industry. Each year, seven families are recognized with regional Environmental Stewardship awards, with one being honored as the national winner.

2021 Regional Winners:

Region I - EZ Acres, LLC, Homer, New York Region II - Vaughn Farms, Forsyth, Georgia

Region III - Robbins Land & Cattle, Scranton, Iowa Region IV - Dry Creek Ranch, San Angelo, Texas Region V - Joe C King & Sons Ranch, Winnett, Montana Region VI - JY Ferry & Son, Inc., Corinne, Utah Region VII - Blair Brothers Angus Ranch, Vale, South Dakota

Past National ESAP honorees:

2020 - Beatty Canyon Ranch, Colorado 2019 - Blackbeard’s Ranch, Florida 2018 - Thunder View Farms, New York 2017 - Jim O’Haco Cattle Company, Arizona 2016 - Black Leg Ranch, North Dakota 2015 - Maggie Creek Ranch, Nevada The Environmental Stewardship Award Program is generously sponsored by companies and federal agencies who share the industry’s commitment to caring for the environment and protecting natural resources. Sponsors including Corteva Agriscience, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, McDonald’s, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partner with NCBA to promote environmental stewardship throughout the beef supply chain.

For more information visit, www.environmentalstewardship.org.

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NATIONAL CATTLEMEN 3

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Moving Forward on Farm Bill Priorities

By Don Schiefelbein, NCBA President importance of disaster relief programs. NCBA will continue advocating for all It was great to see so many of you in Reno just a few these programs that protect cattle producers and their livestock. short weeks ago at NCBA’s Summer Business Meeting.

Washington has spent trillions of dollars in the last few years, making Together, the Summer Business Meeting and our annual Congress hesitant to spend more in the Farm Bill. This means we must fight convention form the bedrock of our grassroots policy harder for the programs that benefit the cattle industry. While NCBA staff work process. In my family operation, just like within NCBA, closely with congressional leaders, members of we have our fair share Congress need to hear from producers as well. of opinions, but at the I encourage you to get involved and share your end of the day we stand perspective to help shape the 2023 Farm Bill. It’s united for our industry. time to take action!

For NCBA, the 2023 Farm Bill presents Leaving Reno, I’m excited to turn our attention The House Agriculture Committee has already to the next big issue for our industry—the 2023 an opportunity to build on our successes held listening sessions in different states with Farm Bill. Authorized every five years, the Farm more to come. I hope you will attend those Bill is the largest piece of legislation impacting in the 2018 Farm Bill by improving sessions to share your perspective on the Farm all of agriculture. For NCBA, the 2023 Farm Bill programs you utilize and how to improve our investments in animal health, Bill presents an opportunity to build on our them. The House Agriculture Committee has also successes in the 2018 Farm Bill by improving livestock risk protection and voluntary opened a portal on their website (agriculture. our investments in animal health, livestock risk house.gov) to send comments straight to the protection and voluntary conservation programs. conservation programs. representatives who serve on the committee.

In the 2018 Farm Bill, NCBA secured programs Take a moment to send in a message—taking a like a national vaccine bank to house the Footfew minutes today is better than living with a bad and-Mouth Disease vaccine, the Environmental Farm Bill for the next five years. If you want to Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) voluntary learn more about any of these programs or have conservation program, and risk management an experience you’d like to share, please get in touch with NCBA. programs that offer producers a way to hedge against disasters, weather and I’m confident that with your help and the NCBA staff, who are in the best in market conditions. Since the 2018 Farm Bill, producers have faced drought, the business, the 2023 Farm Bill will be our best yet. Thank you for placing your wildfire, blizzards, and other extreme conditions that demonstrate the trust in this association and for being a member of NCBA.

The Supreme Court Has Spoken…Again

By Colin Woodall, NCBA CEO website to find that the company they keep is not looking out for the best interests of America’s cattle In 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled producers. Public Justice’s staff come from organizations such as the Humane in the case Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association that the Checkoff was constitutional. Writing for the majority Society of the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund, Earthjustice and other in the 6-3 decision, Justice Antonin Scalia relied on the groups that have a track record of antagonizing agriculture. In one of R-CALF’s filings government speech doctrine by writing “the message set with the U.S. Supreme Court it came to light that they were also doing work for PETA out in the beef promotions is, from beginning to end, the and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. message established by the Federal Government…” In short, Bill Bullard’s friends and attorneys are the same ones representing groups that since the Checkoff was established by Congressional action want to put us out of business. PETA’s mission statement says they oppose a humanand implemented through USDA’s administrative order, the supremacist world view called speciesism, and that they focus their attention on Checkoff is government speech. areas like food animal production in which they believe the largest number of animals In 2016, R-CALF filed a lawsuit against USDA claiming the Montana Beef suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time. They routinely use shock Council, and other State Beef Councils structured tactics and celebrities to draw the media’s attention as private entities, were not being true to the to their efforts in eliminating animal agriculture, government speech doctrine. This is because hunting and animal research. They have been R-CALF did not feel there was adequate behind hidden camera efforts on farms, dairies The Checkoff belongs to you. Yes, there are oversight by USDA. For six years, USDA has been and ranches in which they get animal extremists to working to defend the Checkoff in this case. gain employment under false pretense in order to disagreements about the program, but the last Montana ranchers Watty Taylor, Gene Curry, and secretly film what they believe is cruelty to animals. thing we should tolerate is allowing a group Lee Cornwell showed tremendous leadership and The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), much like fortitude by joining the Montana Beef Council, PETA, supports plant-based diets and has lobbied purporting to represent cattle producers bring Nebraska Beef Council, Texas Beef Council and for moratoriums on CAFOs and large-scale dairies.

Pennsylvania Beef Council to intervene in the They criticize us for greenhouse gas emissions activists into the discussion. case and support USDA’s defense. This opened and pollution. ALDF spends its resources trying to the door for NCBA’s involvement, and one defeat “ag-gag” laws because they interfere with year ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals their targeting of animal agriculture operations via vindicated the Checkoff and dealt another legal undercover videos. defeat to Bill Bullard’s R-CALF. That didn’t stop In watching activist groups work in D.C., I know that part of their strategy is to them, though, and they followed up late last year by petitioning the Supreme Court divide industries in order to get them to fight each other. While these intra-industry to hear their case. In late June, the Supreme Court denied R-CALF’s petition thus fights are going on, attention is diverted from the activist efforts to weaken the ending this case and once again protecting the Checkoff. The Supreme Court found targeted industry. Public Justice does not care about the Checkoff, but given the no reason to re-hash old arguments when it was clear that USDA has appropriate backgrounds of their staff and connections to animal activists, you can bet that doing and adequate oversight to ensure that all Checkoff funds are being spent in whatever it takes to weaken the cattle industry is an opportunity they will not pass compliance with the Beef Promotion and Research Act and the accompanying up. The Checkoff belongs to you. Yes, there are disagreements about the program, USDA administrative order that implements the Checkoff. but the last thing we should tolerate is allowing a group purporting to represent While I wrote about R-CALF’s Supreme Court petition late last year, I felt that cattle producers bring activists into the discussion. As I write this, Public Justice is we needed to talk again about the group that is doing Bill Bullard’s bidding. Public representing R-CALF in yet another lawsuit against USDA trying to dismantle the Justice, which was founded in 1982 as Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, has been Checkoff. I’ll keep you posted. providing R-CALF with the legal work on this case. All you must do is look at their

2022 NCBA Leadership President Don Schiefelbein President-Elect Todd Wilkinson Vice President Mark Eisele Treasurer Joe Guild Federation Division Chair Brad Hastings Federation Division Vice-Chair Clark Price Policy Division Chair Buck Wehrbein Policy Division Vice-Chair Gene Copenhaver Immediate Past President Jerry Bohn Chief Executive Officer Colin Woodall Senior Editors THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF NCBA

Editor Contributing Writers

John Robinson Jill Johnson Sarah Drown Wendy White Hunter Ihrman

Creative Director Graphic Designer

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For ad sales contact Summer Johnson 303-8503346, Shannon Wilson 303-850-3345, Lindsay Clark 303-850-3339, Kate Ramsey 303-850-3321 or Jason Jerome 303-850-3313.

Contact NCBA: 9110 E. Nichols Ave., Suite 300, Centennial, CO 80112 (303-694-0305); Washington D.C.: 1275 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Suite 801, Washington, D.C. 20004 (202-347-0228). National Cattlemen’s Beef Association reserves the right to refuse advertising in any of its publications. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association does not accept political advertising in any of its publications. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association does not accept any advertising promoting third-party lawsuits that have not been

endorsed by the board of directors. ©2022 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. All rights reserved. The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or part, without the prior written consent of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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Gene editing: Where Does it fit into the Cattle Genetic Improvement Toolbox?

By Maci Mueller Maci Mueller is a Ph.D. student at the University of California Davis. Her degree will be in animal breeding and genetics with a goal to become a beef cattle geneticist. She was awarded the 2021 W.D. Farr Scholarship by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation at the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Houston.

As an animal breeder, you have probably heard that selecting for a single trait is not an efficient breeding strategy because it often results in undesirable changes in correlated traits. While this concept is still true, the new tool of gene editing could allow us to achieve the goal of single trait selection (that is, rapid improvement of one key trait), but without the typical consequences.

By precisely targeting changes to an animal’s genome, or DNA, gene editing enables animal breeders to rapidly introduce a specific trait of interest, such as disease resistance or thermotolerance, in just one generation. Because gene editing introduces changes at the DNA level, these changes are permanent and will be passed onto the next generation.

Also, gene editing could be used in an

elite animal or population of animals without altering their original genetic background, so genetic progress of other economically relevant traits would not be slowed.

Gene editing is a potentially revolutionary tool for cattle breeders.

However, for gene editing to be an effective tool for genetic improvement of cattle it can’t be used in isolation. Gene editing must integrate seamlessly into conventional cattle breeding programs where each generation is genetically superior to the previous.

What tools do cattle breeders have for genetic improvement?

The foundation of genetic improvement is a well-structured breeding program with a clear breeding objective to guide selection and mating decisions (Figure 1).

As animal breeders, our goal is to select animals with desirable genetic traits to be parents of the next generation to improve or enhance these traits in future generations. Historically, this selection was based solely on an animal’s phenotype like height, weight, coat color, etc.

Today, the industry standard is to

use statistical prediction methods and genetic information to generate expected progeny differences (EPDs) and selection indexes. EPDs make it possible to objectively rank animals according to their estimated genetic potential, and this objective selection drives genetic improvement.

Traditionally, EPDs have incorporated individual performance, pedigree, and progeny data.

Additionally, a fourth data point of genomic, or DNA, test results can now be incorporated into a genomicallyenhanced EPD to improve selection accuracy, or predictability, of our selection tools. Increasing selection accuracy, which is how well the estimated breeding value (e.g. EPD) represents the true breeding value of selection candidates, is a method to accelerate genetic improvement. Also, genomic information can be used to characterize genetics for traits that are difficult or expensive to measure, such as feed efficiency or carcass traits in breeding stock.

These accurate selection tools can be combined with advanced reproductive techniques (ART), such as

GENOME TARGET

artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET), to increase selection intensity — how extensively the most elite animals are used as parents of the next generation — and decrease the generation interval — the average age of parents when progeny are born.

Both increasing selection intensity and decreasing the generation interval of a breeding population are effective strategies to accelerate genetic improvement (Figure 1).

Gene editing is the most recently developed tool and holds great potential for genetic improvement of cattle.

An important question is, how can gene editing be integrated into our conventional cattle breeding programs to maintain or even accelerate genetic progress?

What is gene editing?

Gene editing is a tool to precisely add, delete or replace letters in the genetic code, which allows animal breeders to influence a specific trait of interest in as little as one generation. Specifically, it works by introducing a double strand break at a targeted location in the genome. The revolutionary part of gene editing is that an animal breeder can tell

TARGETED TRAIT/GOAL

Animal health/welfare Intraspecies substitution of POLLED allele

Prevent horn growth

Knockout of PRLR (prolactin receptor) gene

Heat tolerance: SLICK (short and sleek hair coat)

Knockout of PMEL (premelanosomal protein) gene

Heat Tolerance: Diluted coat color

Knockout of PRNP (prion protein) gene

Disease Resistance (Elimination prion protein)

Knock-in of lysostaphin or lysozyme (antimicrobial) transgenes

Disease Resistance (Mastitis)

Single base pair substitution in CD18 (leukocyte signal peptide)

Disease Resistance (Bovine Respiratory Disease)

Knock-in of Sp110 or NRAMP1 transgenes

Disease Resistance (Tuberculosis)

Single base pair substitution in IARS (isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase) gene

Repair mutation that causes IARS syndrome

Product yield or quality Knockout of MSTN (myostatin) gene

Increased lean muscle yield

Knockout of BLG (beta-lactoglobulin) gene

Elimination of milk allergen

Intraspecies substitution of CALPAIN/CALPASTATIN allele

Improved meat tenderness

Knock-in of omega-3 (Fat-1) transgene

Increased omega-3 fatty acids

Reproduction and novel breeding schemes Intraspecies translocation of SRY (Sex Determining Region Y protein) gene

Increased percentage of male offspring

Knockout of NANOS2 (Nanos C2HC-Type Zinc Finger 2) gene

Eliminate male germ cell production to serve as a host for surrogate sire production

Table 1. Traits that have been or could be future targets for gene editing in cattle breeding programs.

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

These are companies that have teamed with NCBA as corporate members, demonstrating their commitment to the beef industry. Their involvement strengthens our future. NCBA members are urged to support these partners in turn by purchasing their products and services. Those who would like to become corporate members with NCBA (securing premium booth placement at the annual convention and trade show as well as other membership benefits), please call the Corporate Relations team at 303-694-0305.

GOLD LEVEL SPONSORS (Minimum $100,000 Investment)

Animal Health International www.animalhealthinternational.com Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Inc. www.bi-vetmedica.com/species/cattle.html Caterpillar www.cat.com Central Life Sciences www.centrallifesciences.com

ALLIED INDUSTRY COUNCIL Bayer Environmental Sciences CHR HANSEN Farm Credit Council Huvepharma, Inc.

Lallemand Animal Nutrition Nationwide Norbrook, Inc. Rabo AgriFinance RAM Trucks

PRODUCT COUNCIL American Foods Group Cargill Meat Solutions Certified Angus Beef Culver’s Darden Restaurants empirical Fareway Stores, Inc. Five Guys

McDonald’s Corporation National Beef Packing Omaha Steaks Performance Food Group Preferred Beef Group Tyson Fresh Meats

Corteva Agriscience™ www.corteva.com Elanco Animal Health www.elanco.com John Deere www.deere.com Merck Animal Health www.merck-animal-health-usa.com

Micro Technologies www.microtechnologies.com Moly Manufacturing www.molymfg.com New Holland Agriculture www.newholland.com Purina Animal Nutrition LLC www.purinamills.com/cattle

Ritchie Industries Inc. www.ritchiefount.com Roto-Mix www.rotomix.com Zoetis Animal Health www.zoetis.com

ALLIED INDUSTRY PARTNERS Novus International 44 Farms Syngenta CEAT Specialty Tires IMI Global Parker McCrory ADM Animal Nutrition, Inc. CME Group International Stock Food Tarter Farm and Ranch PBS Animal Health Agri-Pro Enterprises of Iowa, Inc. DATAMARS Livestock International Genetic Solutions Equipment Phibro Animal Health AgriWebb Dell Technologies Jorgensen Land and Cattle The Hartford Livestock Insurance Pneu-Dart Alltech, Inc. Diamond V Kent Nutrition Group The Vit-E-Men Co. Inc./Life Priefert Ranch Equipment American National Insurance ENDOVAC Animal Health Krone Products QualiTech, Inc Arrowquip Farmers Business Network Kubota Tractor Corporation Trans Ova Genetics Quality Liquid Feeds A.T. Ferrell Company Inc. Fera Diagnostics & Biologicals Corp Kunafin “The Insectary” Red Angus Assoc. of America Bank of America U.S. Premium Beef Food Safety Net Services Laird Manufacturing R&R Machine Works Barenbrug USA Furst-McNess Company Meat & Livestock Australia, Ltd. Vermeer RFD-TV Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s Gallagher Micronutrients Vitalix Behlen Manufacturing Gravely, an Ariens Company National Corn Growers Association Roper/Stetson/Tin Haul Apparel Vytelle and Footwear Bimeda Greeley Hat Works Neogen Westway Feeds BioZyme Grov Technologies New Generation Supplements South Dakota State University Wild River Stone Manufacturing Bush Hog Inc. Groviv Newport Laboratories, A Y-Tex Vaxxinova Company Superior Livestock Cargill Animal Nutrition Hayden Outdoors Real Estate Noble Research Institute Supreme International Case IH Zinpro Performance Minerals Hyundai Construction Equipment

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Figure 1. Diagram showing the synergistic relationships between the tools of the genetic improvement of cattle toolbox, including genomic selection (GS), assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and gene editing.

The foundation of genetic improvement is a wellstructured breeding program with a clear breeding objective.

Within a structured breeding program, reproductive and molecular biotechnologies, such as ART, GS and gene editing can be applied to further accelerate genetic progress by increasing selection intensity (how extensively the most elite animals are used as parents of the next generation) and selection accuracy (how well the estimated breeding value represents the true breeding value of selection candidates) or decreasing the generation interval (the average age of parents when progeny are born).

the gene editors, or molecular scissors (e.g., CRISPR/Cas9), exactly where in the genome to make the cut. The cell has repair machinery for these breaks and will attempt to repair them.

Sometimes a cell will repair the break incorrectly by adding or subtracting extra base pairs which can lead to a gene being inactivated, otherwise known as a “knockout”. Animal breeders may want to knockout a gene if it has a negative effect like making the animal susceptible to disease.

On the other hand, if we want to “knock-in” a gene or substitute in an allele — a variant of a gene — then we can provide a donor template. The donor template can be designed to have sequence similarity to the target site, so the cell will incorporate the donor template during repair. The donor template can be a copy of DNA from another breed of cattle (intraspecies) or even a different species (interspecies or transgenic).

Using gene editing to substitute in an allele from another breed of cattle enables useful alleles to be introduced into elite germplasm more efficiently than using traditional crossbreeding.

Crossbreeding often brings in a lot of undesired genetic information, known as “linkage drag,” which refers to all the unwanted traits that come along with the desired gene. Breeders then must spend several generations breeding out the unwanted genetics while retaining the desired gene. Alternatively, gene editing enables animal breeders to precisely introduce a single desirable trait without causing any undesirable changes to the animal’s genetic background.

What traits could be introduced or improved in cattle through gene editing?

Gene editing experiments in cattle have primarily focused on three main areas of improvement: 1) animal health and welfare, 2) product yield or quality, and 3) reproduction or novel breeding schemes such as skewing progeny sex ratios (Table 1). Cattle breeders will notice that all three of these areas are on track with our goals for conventional breeding programs.

Where does gene editing fit in the genetic improvement toolbox?

As we can see from Table 1, currently gene editing is best suited for targeting genes that typically affect Mendelian traits. This is because Mendelian traits are controlled by only one or a few genes that each have large effects on the trait.

Most Mendelian traits are qualitative traits, such as horned/polled or coat color.

However, most traits that animal breeders want to improve are quantitative (e.g., marbling, growth, feed efficiency, etc.). Most quantitative traits are polygenic, meaning they are influenced by the combined effects of many genes.

Currently, gene editing works effectively for targeting single genes, but not multiple genes simultaneously.

This means that for quantitative traits, our standard selection tools of EPDs and selection indexes combined with genomics in order to accurately select the genetically superior animals as parents of the next generation have been, and will continue to be, the major drivers for genetic improvement.

Then, gene editing can be used to complement this selection by efficiently introducing useful genetic variation from a different breed of cattle in the absence of undesired linkage drag, or even beneficial traits from different species (Figure 1).

This combination of using multipletrait selection methods to improve economically relevant quantitative traits and using gene editing to rapidly introduce a beneficial trait from another breed — in the absence of undesired linkage drag — would allow us to achieve the goal of single trait selection — rapid improvement of one key trait — but without the typical consequences.

Overall, gene editing is a promising and powerful tool in a large toolbox.

There are multiple traits that impact profit, so moving forward all these tools (EPD’s, genomics, ART, and gene editing) should be used in combination in a structured breeding program with a clear breeding objective (Figure 1).

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Region lll Report Region III is composed of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri.

Cattlemen’s associations in Region III have had a busy year with policy initiatives, elections and state events.

Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association

The Agriculture Quality Water Bill was signed into law, providing $2 million for a commercial nitrogen optimization grant program, along with up to $50,000 grants to farmers who implement projects. The bill also funded a three-year state hydrogeologist, who will map soil depth to bedrock — key data that they need to know but do not have mapped currently as it relates to nutrient applications. It also included $5 per acre for cover crops.

The Wisconsin Agriculture Export Advisory Council, whose mission is to increase exports of agriculture products from Wisconsin, aims to increase exports 25% by 2026.

Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association (WCA) has a member representative on the council.

WCA continues to have a seat on the DNR Wolf Population Committee, but progress has been very slow. In February, a U.S. District Court restored Endangered Species Protections for the gray wolf, meaning the wolf hunt in Wisconsin is postponed indefinitely and previously issued permits to remove wolves endangering livestock are invalid. We are waiting to see the updated wolf management plan, which will set the course for future hunting in the state, once they are removed from the federal endangered species list.

State legislature funded $250,000 for local meat processor grants in state budget — this was great to see, but not nearly enough to meet the demand (WCA saw 100 applicants requesting more than $4 million). Governor Evers used federal CARES money to provide an additional $10 million in funding. These grants are designed to support improvements that increase slaughter capacity or processing. With the large wait times to get animals into a local locker, they are very happy with this.

WCA also continues to monitor the local township ordinances that were passed in rural northwest Wisconsin. These ordinances are very anti-agriculture — reduce CAFO status to 500 or 700 animal units, daily reporting of livestock numbers and death loss, tractors can only operate Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is extremely unreasonable, and they are partnered with other agriculture groups to figure out next steps.

Iowa Cattlemen’s Association

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association (ICA) membership continues to advocate for opportunities for added price discovery and market transparency via the current ‘Fischer/Grassley’ bill currently under consideration in Washington D.C. Other priorities and engagements connected to cattle marketing opportunities include support of additional shackle space opportunities across the state. As a priority, Iowa’s staff and leadership have been involved with several discussions and support roles connected to enhancing shackle space in two current plants within the state as well as connecting folks to new project investment opportunities within the state like that of the proposed Cattlemen’s Heritage Packing Company in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As they work through and shift away from the current federal policy discussions and influence, the collective interest from their membership continues to be finding a means to pull a higher percentage of the gross value of fed inventory to the producer sector.

Current discussions in their state connected to land use and ownership include several examples of eminent domain challenges with private companies as well as an aggressive push toward solar farms. Recent iterations of proposed bills in the past state session indicated that they will continually need to stay vigilant in regard to whether the state allows utility placement for energy production on acres that would be more optimally used for crop and livestock production. Additionally, the topic of eminent domain is currently being discussed in relation to a proposed, privately-owned CO2 pipeline that will transport and sequester CO2 from entities like ethanol plants as a means of CO2 sequestration.

Traceability has long been a topic of need and interest amongst ICA membership.

They continue to find ways to promote voluntary adoption of the concept. They focus on the operational premise of IDs, and most recently, ICA hosted leaders from

the association, beef council and their leadership program in a tabletop exercise to provide awareness organizationally on the needs to lll continue to advance a system where those involved in a Foreign Animal Disease outbreak would most optimally provide traceback to narrow the outbreak timeline. This exercise was an effective means to provide the serious need for adoption of a better system compared to what is currently used. Additionally, they found through post-activity engagement of participants that there are many opportunities left as it relates to balancing the understanding of what could happen if a Foreign Animal Disease outbreak would occur within or near the state.

Regarding environmental regulation, the EPA is attempting to count smaller inventories from several owned/rented sites of an operation as one. Iowa’s feedlots dot the countryside, and, in many cases, producers utilize separate operations across the geography for fed inventory. They continue to see the EPA attempt to use computer modeling to assess notices of violation in the absence of actual discharge data when select discharges are identified.

Last fall the Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced a rewrite of Iowa Code Chapter 65 - Animal Feeding Operations. Reasons cited were mainly in relation to cleaning up the current code to be better organized and clear from a legal standpoint. ICA has not yet seen a draft of the topic but continues to prepare for this discussion to unfold as they move into the fourth quarter of 2022.

Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association

Summer Tour at the University of Minnesota was July 12-13 and highlighted research, facilities and extension efforts regarding the beef industry in Minnesota.

The Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association (MSCA) is on the Rural Investment to Protect Our Environment (RIPE) Steering Committee and is the first and only association to represent beef and livestock on the committee. This is a coalition of farmers, ranchers and agricultural trade association representatives advancing a national dialogue for bipartisan, comprehensive and common-sense climate policy that integrates fair and forward-looking agricultural solutions. RIPE believes a powerful, rural-urban coalition will form in support of a federal framework that simultaneously supports climate mitigation and invests in rural America by enabling farmers to earn a fair and profitable return from voluntary stewardship practices that deliver tremendous public value to carbon, soil health, water quality and other environmental services.

The RIPE100 Plan is a common-sense policy proposal to compensate growers for voluntary stewardship practices at rates that reflect the values they deliver to society.

Supported by many program precedents and volumes of peer-reviewed research, RIPE100 proposes to pay farmers a minimum $100 per acre, or AU, to implement these stewardship practices. This amount covers the cost of implementation, offsets the increased costs of inputs affected by climate policy, and provides an incentive for participation. It is also equivalent to the public value provided by these practices.

MSCA President Grant Breitkreutz met with the Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture David Marit to discuss beef production and trade relations between Canada and Minnesota. MSCA President-Elect Mark Pankonin met with USDA RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger to discuss topics associated with crop and livestock insurance. Executive Director Allison VanDerWal met with EPA Region 5 Agriculture Advisor Sharmin Syed to discuss issues such as WOTUS and EPCRA.

Illinois Beef Association

The Illinois Beef Association (IBA) hosted their 2022 Summer Conference and Business meeting in June, with more than 250 cattlemen and women from across the state in attendance. They recognized several award winners from their membership, but two notable NCBA members who received accolades include: • Jamie & Larisa Willrett were named the 2022 IBA Farm Family of the Year

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www.NCBA.org • Al Lyman was named 2022 Member of the Year They also recognized beef industry leaders in their Environmental Stewardship award, the Commercial Producer of the Year award, the Seedstock Producer of the Year and their Outstanding Junior Member award. IBA President Paul Walker was re-elected to his second and final term of leadership with IBA and David Duzan was also re-elected to his second term as vice president of the affiliate.

On June 28 the primary election in Illinois was held, and it is a significant year for Illinois politics — especially in their rural counties due to the loss of a congressional district this year. IBA worked diligently with NCBA-PAC leaders in this primary election to unseat a congressman from rural Illinois who has become a noted recipient of animal rights activist funds; you’ll recall at last year’s Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, that NCBA CEO Colin Woodall cited Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis as a risk to the beef industry, as they’d uncovered significant dealings between Davis and Wayne Pacelle (among other animal activists).

IBA endorsed Davis’ opponent in the primary, which was an incumbent as well. Congresswoman Mary Miller, a cow-calf operator and IBA member, sought election this cycle in the same district as Davis. The night’s results showed a huge victory for Congresswoman Miller — as the cattlemen and women and rural voters showed up throughout the rural district to help her win the election by a 15% margin. IBA and NCBA-PAC’s efforts are credited by Miller’s campaign in swinging several key counties to bring the victory. Davis is expected to seek employment in the private sector as he exits Congress.

Congresswoman Miller, already a member of the House Agriculture Committee, is looking forward to continuing her leadership on behalf of cattlemen and women in her new district. This is a large win for IBA.

Missouri Cattlemen’s Association

During the 2022 legislative session, Missouri Cattlemen’s Association (MCA) saw victory on its eminent domain reform efforts. The power grid has been built largely on the backs of farm and ranch families, and we must ensure private property rights are not ignored in the eminent domain process. This issue isn’t going away, and MCA will continue to push for additional eminent domain reform to ensure private, for-profit companies cannot take private land for private gain while providing little to no benefit to the state’s citizens.

MCA also continues to focus on junior programs. They do a tremendous job with “show kids” who are involved in the various programs afforded to them.

When it comes to exhibiting livestock, they wanted to create a way to bring commercial cattle kids who have no interest in the show ring to the arena. They achieved this in 2022 with the first-ever Replacement Heifer Show and Sale for junior members. Heifers were evaluated and then sold to commercial producers.

The event was a success and will be continued.

They continue to partner with USDA NRCS and others to bring on-farm education to producers in every region of the state. The focus is pasture management. Missouri is very dry, and MCA wants to promote planning and resources for members in case of a drought.

MCA is losing their manager of membership Sydney Thummel. She will be missed as she transitions to the executive director of the Missouri Beef Industry Council.

The state affiliates for Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri continue to work with NCBA to promote the beef industry and fight for beneficial, common-sense policy.

NCBA Members Awarded BIF Commercial Producer of the Year The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) presented Rezac Land & Livestock the BIF Commercial Producer of the Year Award June 2 during the group’s annual research symposium in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This national award is presented annually to a producer to recognize their dedication to improving the beef industry at the commercial level.

Rezac Land & Livestock, founded by Don and Barbara Rezac, is a diversified ranch located on the northern edge of the Kansas Pictured left, presenting the award is 2022 Flint Hills. In 1986, their son, Jay, his BIF President Matt Perrier, Eureka, Kansas. wife, Stacy, and Jay’s older brother Accepting the award (l to r) Russell, Tiffany, Lance and wife, Debra, formed a Stacy and Jay Rezac. partnership.

Since that time, the operation operations. Calves are bought from has grown substantially and today includes Missouri to North and South Dakota. The six partners — Jay and Lance; Jay’s sons, majority are sold as feeder cattle, with Russell and Matthew; and Lance’s children, the remaining retained for finishing in the Nicole and Garrett. Jay, Russell and his family’s feedyard. wife, Tiffany, and Matthew and his wife, A clear set of goals and dedication Alexa, manage the cattle and rangeland to the management practices needed to near Onaga, Kansas. Jay’s daughter, Jayme, meet those goals have made Rezac Land and her husband, Corey Lundberg, live on & Livestock a truly progressive commercial the Olsburg, Kansas, division where Corey cow-calf business. Rezac Land & Livestock manages the cow herd and a starting lot. was nominated by the Kansas Livestock The cattle operation consists of 900 Association.

Simmental- and Angus-bred spring-calving The award is presented by BIF and cows. Once the calves are weaned, they sponsored by Drovers. are either sold or shipped to a commercial More than 300 beef producers, feedyard or finished in the family-owned academia and industry representatives feedyard. The cows graze year-round on attended the organization’s 54th Annual native grass, stalks and cover crops. By Research Symposium and Convention in following a strict grazing management Las Cruces, New Mexico. BIF’s mission is plan, the Rezacs can maintain their cows to help improve the industry by promoting with limited supplementation, while also greater acceptance of beef cattle keeping their natural resources in excellent performance evaluation. condition.

For more information about this year’s In addition to their cow herd, they symposium, including additional award purchase about 5,500 calves each year winners and coverage of the meeting and tours, visit BIFSymposium.com. for their stocker and backgrounding

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NATIONAL CATTLEMEN

Reduce Cattle Stress and Improve Productivity

By Rodrigo Bicalho, DVM, Ph.D., FERA Diagnostics & Biologicals A major goal for beef producers is to reduce handling stress when working cattle during regular management procedures. Studies consistently show cattle experiencing stress lose weight, display reduced response to vaccines, and have poor productivity.

Heat stress from high temperatures and humidity also causes animals to lose weight.

Producers can use the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) low-stress handling practices when handling cattle. A stress-reducing product, Ferappease, used by operators in the dairy industry, is now available for beef producers.

All domestic food animals, such as cows, sheep and goats, are prey species. They have evolved to escape predation by sensing the environment for potential threats.

While useful in the wild, the perception of threats is a significant cause of stress in domestic cattle.

Rodrigo Bicalho, C.E.O. of FERA Diagnostics and Biologicals, said stress is a physiological event initiating the body’s production of cortisol and adrenaline. These chemicals travel to the brain’s amygdala and hypothalamus causing changes in the body. Stressed animals are listless, may stop eating, display weight loss, and are more prone to serious diseases such as Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). Certain breeds of cattle with a naturally decreased flight zone may become more aggressive.

Bicalho and his team of scientists and veterinarians have been studying Maternal Bovine Appeasement Substance (MBAS), a combination of fatty acids produced by the skin of lactating mammals. A dam exposes her nursing calf to MBAS pheromones, which interact in a nasal gland. These pheromones travel rapidly to the amygdala and hypothalamus, where the MBAS reduces the perception of a threat. Maternal Bovine Appeasement Substance improves animal health by reducing stress in cattle, allowing them to respond better to vaccinations, and improving their health, weight gain and overall productivity.

The application of MBAS is straightforward. When the animal is in the chute, the producer sprays pre-measured amounts of Ferappease on the animal’s nose, just above the muzzle, and on the back of the head. This treatment works immediately to reduce stress and anxiety and is effective for 14 days. Research teams at major universities have tested the product during processing, branding, dehorning, castration and weaning.

“Weaning is a huge stressor in calves,” Bicalho observed. “In one of our university studies, we applied one treatment of MBAS to half of a group of calves on the first day of weaning.”

Bicalho recalled the cowboys and ranchers reported that treated animals spread out in the pasture, quietly grazing. They behaved more like calves weaned for 30 days. The untreated herd bawled for their dams, switched their tails, kicked up dust, bunched up in the corner of the fence, and didn’t graze.

The best way to evaluate stress in cattle is to measure cortisol levels in hair follicles.

University research has demonstrated calves treated with MBAS had lower cortisol levels than the control group that received no treatment.

“If you remove stress with MBAS, animals consequently gain more weight,” Bicalho concluded. “Preconditioned calves have shown weight gains between 20 and 50 pounds in 30 days. That gain is pure profit because it’s efficiency of gain. It doesn’t require more feed. It’s all feed efficiency.”

Don Goodman, D.V.M., has been a practicing veterinarian since 1979 in Navasota, Progressive 10.38 he by is 7.82.pdf 28/06/2022 Texas. Also a cattlecattle producer, excited 1about this new19:53 technology because it utilizes the pheromone mode of action instead of injections. Goodman said it is safe and benefits both producers selling cattle and cattle buyers.

“High-stress, sale barn calves have many stressors,” Goodman explained. “The

biggest one is weaning [on the truck] and coming in with strange animals. Calves display symptoms of shrink and dehydration. All these factors multiply to become chronic stress. The sooner we get calves on feed and water, the better.”

Goodman has seen transported calves treated with MBAS calmly leave the truck and locate water and feed troughs sooner. Their flight zone, the distance a handler must maintain for the animal to feel comfortable, expands some. The calves’ exit velocity from the chute is slower, preventing injuries to animals and people.

Graduating from veterinary school in 1979, Goodman recalls experts considered Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) the biggest killer of beef cattle in North America.

The mortality rate was about 3%. In the last three decades, veterinarians have seen improved antibiotics, vaccinations and advanced diagnostics. However, BRD mortality rates continue to be 3% or more.

“We won’t change market systems, but there’s a way to help the calf’s immune system, so he can adapt,” Goodman reported. “Preconditioning programs, which spread out all the stressors, are catching on well. We know chronic stress has the harmful effects of reducing white blood cells and compromising the immune system. If we can decrease cortisol, then we know we’re helping the calf.”

Cattle producers who have introduced MBAS to their herds have seen health and weight gain benefits, increasing profitability. Goodman said buyers also benefit because calves go to feed and water sooner, whether at a new farm or ranch or a feedyard. Treated calves respond to vaccinations better with higher titers; their antibodies are more elevated, and white blood cell counts are lower. Producers purchase calmer calves with less shrink that are easier to handle. From the animal welfare point of view, treated animals experience less fear when transported, and experience fewer injuries.

“Dr. Bicalho has done an excellent job looking at the scientific basis behind this new treatment,” Goodman concluded. “Look what’s in it for producers. You get a return on investment, decrease shrink, mitigate antibiotic usage, and the buyer benefits too.”

Kirk Stierwalt raises Hereford, Simmental and Charolais outside Leedey, Oklahoma.

He also develops, trains, and sells show calves and travels across the United States to present cattle clinics. Stierwalt has diversified his cattle operation with spring and fall calving herds and AI and Embryo Transfer technology. Marketing cattle year-round, he has several ideas of how he wants to try Ferappease next.

“I plan to use MBAS on replacement heifers when breeding them because everything is so new to them,” Stierwalt explained. “We’ll use MBAS on the recipients and donors in our AI and ET programs, just because they go through the chute a lot. If we gain one more pregnancy, it will be worth the expense. We will apply it before we load cattle on the trailer because it’s an unnatural environment for them, causing stress.

We’re also planning to use it when we co-mingle the bulls. I know we’ll apply it a day or two before a calf show.”

Another benefit of calm cattle is that producers, cowboys and dogs are not as likely to be hurt when working them.

“The product costs $3 per dose per head, and calves can gain as much as 40 pounds during weaning,” Stierwalt said. “It is out-of-the-box thinking, backed by science, technology, data and testing. Technology has done a fantastic thing by advancing these tools for producers. We can get weight gain, reduced stress, and better dispositions, yet it’s cost-effective. That’s a win-win [for the producer and the animals].”

For more information, visit www.feraah.com/ferappease.

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NATIONAL CATTLEMEN 9

Changes to ESA Implementation Signal Trouble for Cattle Producers Since President Biden took office, some of the administration’s top targets for rollback and reform have been the Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations that were finalized under the Trump administration. Recently, a series of final rules, proposed rulemakings and court decisions have all pointed to a strategy of expanding federal control over land management decisions by expanding the federal footprint over species management — while restricting the flexibility that producers know is necessary for durable conservation work.

“Some of the recent actions that the administration has taken to expand their regulatory reach under the ESA were expected. We expected the Biden administration, for example, to attempt to expand the scope of what counts as potential habitat,” said Sigrid Johannes, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) associate director of government affairs and federal lands. “However, some of these changes were unexpected. Actions like the immediate vacatur of three rules, essentially wiping them from the books overnight, create regulatory whiplash that is harmful for cattle producers and harmful to the wildlife they provide habitat for.

Overreach under the ESA burdens producers and landowners, often without added benefit for endangered species.”

In July, a federal judge in the Northern District of California remanded and vacated three ESA rules finalized during the Trump administration. That decision brought the return of the “blanket 4(d)” rule, which extends the same protections against take to both threatened and endangered species. The court decision also removed the requirement for the Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) to consider the economic impact of species listings or critical habitat designations. Finally, the ruling ended alternative consultation methods that had provided a variety of ways for federal agencies to consult with FWS or the National Marine Fisheries Service before taking action that could impact a listed species. The alternative consultation methods also included deadlines to encourage a more efficient process and provide greater certainty for both regulators and impacted producers, landowners and communities.

Earlier in June, the Biden administration repealed the Trump-era definition of “habitat.” This poses a problem for several reasons: the 2019 definition of habitat was formulated to bring FWS into compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. FWS. The court said that to be designated as critical habitat, an area of land must first be habitat for the species — not if conditions were changed, not at some hypothetical point in the future, but right now. By stripping that definition, the Biden administration has opened the door for expansive, illogical designations that are neither scientifically sound nor in the best interests of species.

“The administration’s key justification for changing the habitat definition was that climate change is an extreme circumstance, and it demands drastic steps to protect species. This logic, however, simply doesn’t hold water for species and land management decisions today. In 1,000 years, the state of Florida might be covered in glaciers but that does not mean it is ecologically appropriate to designate it today as polar bear habitat, just in case. Dealing in hypotheticals instead of evaluating current conditions on the ground gives the federal government a troubling degree of leeway

to expand their authority and control more land in the name of preserving habitat that does not exist today,” Johannes said.

Using the same argument that climate change warrants drastic measures for endangered species management, the Biden administration has also proposed a change to the “10(j)” rules that allow FWS to introduce nonessential experimental populations of listed species. The administration wants to alter the regulations to allow these species to be airdropped outside of their “historical range.” The administration’s reasoning is that climate change is drastically modifying endangered species’ habitat and reintroducing those species in their historical range might no longer be feasible.

Once again, this is an attempt to take as broad of an authority for FWS as possible and make decisions that are not in line with science-based conservation efforts.

Amid all these new rules and court decisions, NCBA has been identifying all the avenues in which we can pushback against government overreach and continue to be a steadfast voice for science-based, locally led species management.

“Individually, these are poor decisions in their own right, but when you put them all together, it’s particularly troubling because they represent a multi-pronged push to expand the government’s reach in the name of wildlife species. That is a broader strategy that we are absolutely fighting back against,” Johannes said.

Where possible, NCBA will be submitting comments to the federal agencies. NCBA is also exploring legislative solutions, like the ESA Flexibility Act introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN) and Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR). This NCBA-supported bill would provide flexibility to federal officials when managing species designated as “threatened” and allow them to permit continued human activities in the species’ range — like agriculture — in cases where it’s clear the species is not declining for manmade reasons. A key example of the need for this flexibility is the recent proposed listing of the Northern Long-Eared bat, which is in decline due to a disease called White Nose Syndrome.

“The ESA Flexibility Act would allow land managers to continue doing critical forest management and fire prevention work in areas the bat inhabits, balancing the need to protect the species with the urgent need to ensure the health of broader forest and rangeland ecosystems,” Johannes said.

Each day, NCBA is sharing the story that cattle producers are America’s original conservationists. Good conservation work is what ensures farms and ranches remain profitable and can be passed on to the next generation.

“Cattle producers are at the center of so many success stories in endangered species recovery and sustainability as a whole,” Johannes said. “NCBA members expand and maintain habitat for everything from elk to birds to snakes to bats, and they need to be allowed to continue doing this work on both private and public lands.

NCBA is proud to share these successes with policymakers in Washington as we advocate for commonsense ESA fixes. Our goal is to make sure that producers can focus on their families and operations — not worry about red tape and restrictions putting them out of business.”

Growth Promoting Technologies are More Important Now with High Input Costs

By Paul Beck Oklahoma State University State Extension Beef Nutrition Specialist We have all noticed that input prices have increased substantially over the last year.

Fertilizer, feed, and fuel have given us sticker shock, but in reality, prices for all necessities have increased with herbicides, seed, parts, tires, equipment and trailers all going up.

Based on current Feeder Cattle futures prices in October (currently trading at $180/ cwt), 550-pound steers could be selling right at $200/cwt (based on a $10/cwt slide) this fall. Now is not the time to stop spending money on inputs, but we need to be ready to spend our money on inputs wisely.

Growth promoting technologies provide even more impact on net returns when costs are high. As I stated in a previous article, implants administered when the calves are between two months and four months of age will increase preweaning average daily gain of calves by approximately 0.10 to 0.20 pounds per day. This will result in 20 to 30 pounds heavier weaning weight, worth $40 to $50 per calf.

If an operation is currently using creep feeding to increase weaning weights.

Alternatives should be considered this year. With typical free-choice creep feeding programs, we expect creep intakes of 6 to 7 pounds per day. Free-choice creep feeding normally requires 8 to 10 pounds of creep for each additional pound of gain. Also, if these creep feeds are fed for more than 60 days, calves may be discounted for excessive

fleshiness at market. Limit-fed creep feeding programs targeting creep intake of 1% of bodyweight should be considered. The limited creep supplements should be designed to match forage conditions, we use a moderate protein supplement (20 to 25%) when calves are on bermudagrass pastures with adequate protein but energy deficiencies. On native pastures with inadequate protein and energy we use a high protein supplement (35 to 40%) to match the forage deficiencies. The supplements contain 8 to 10% salt to help limit intake and the targeted amounts can be fed in creep feeders 2 to 3 times per week.

Limited creep supplements will increase gains by around 0.50 pounds per day requiring 4.5 to 5 pounds of supplemental creep per pound of added gain. Including an ionophore such as monensin or lasalocid in creep supplements will improve gains by 0.10 pounds per day on top of the creep feed, further improving supplemental efficiency to 3.5 to 4 pounds of supplemental creep per pound of added weaning weight. Providing a limit-fed creep supplement during the late summer with an ionophore will result in a 50-to-60 pound heavier calf at weaning worth $100 to $120 more per calf. Depending on the cost of the creep supplement, this should boost net returns by $50 to $60 per calf (I used $500 per ton of supplement in this example).

Now is not the time to completely pull back from spending money on inputs for our cow herd, but we do need to carefully consider the costs and impact on net returns for all management decisions.

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This La Niña is One of the Strongest on Record

By Matt Makens, Atmospheric Scientist The dominating influence on our weather and climate for the past couple of years has been the ongoing La Niña, one of the strongest on record.

Before I discuss the historic nature of this pattern and how a third La Niña in a row will be equally notable, let us recall what La Niña is.

La Niña and El Niño have been popular weather topics over the past few decades — we all can recollect how these two patterns impacted us and our operations, both good and bad. These elements Maps by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data provided by NOAA View originate in what is called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) region of the Equatorial Pacific.

Within the ENSO region, sea surface temperatures will deviate from their relative normal. We have an El Niño (map to the right) when the ocean is warmer than average. La Niña is when that ocean area is colder than average (map to the right). With near-normal ocean temperatures, it is a neutral state. That is the basis for detecting what phase ENSO is in; however, the atmosphere is also a critical component of detection.

The state of the ocean temperatures changes how the atmosphere will behave over those warmer or colder waters. Warm water will support storminess and moisture, but colder water decreases humidity and, therefore, storminess.

Because we monitor the global weather and climate impact based on ENSO events, we have multiple methods of measuring the strength of the patterns. We may only look at sea surface conditions for some applications, or other uses will require that we measure the atmosphere’s reaction to the ocean conditions. For the U.S., we have impacts in both cases and rely on multiple measurement methods.

I use the combined approach as ocean temperatures alone will not dictate the atmospheric variability we see across North America. Regardless of the method used to measure, we see a pattern emerge within periods of La Niña versus El Niño.

The ocean temperature within the ENSO region cycles naturally, with periods of warming and cooling over the years. Peaks in La Niña or El Niño occur every two to seven years on average. Yet, as with anything weatherrelated, the average can be hard to come by. Average does not describe this latest La Niña.

2022 has had one of the strongest La Niñas on record, previously discussed in your June National Cattlemen. In that article, I wrote, “Speaking of La Niña, in April, the SOI (Southern Oscillation Index - one of many Image source: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DmData/TimeSeries.aspx measures of La Niña strength) was the second strongest observed since drought, it just typically is not as severe or widespread. El Niño can move the drought 1951.” Using that same method based on the atmosphere’s behavior (SOI), areas farther east, though. there is more to the story than just a historic April.

Considering the weather pattern between La Niña and El Niño is notably different The history-setting pattern continued, May and June were the strongest La Niñas for many of us, let us try to visualize the impact between the two. on record since 1950. If I average the April, May and June period (A-M-J), 2022 is at the Wetter and colder areas are much farther north with La Niña but shift south top of the chart. The second strongest A-M-J La Niña was 1989, followed by 1956, 1975, during El Niño. Meanwhile, drought prevalence can shift eastward with El Niño while 1971, 2011, 2010, 1968, 1974 and 1955. Again, that is using one ENSO measurement tool, improving over the Southwest. but others will yield the same or very similar results.

The difference is that the ENSO region forces the atmosphere above it to react.

Given the historic nature, what happens going forward? La Niña has shown For North America, we see that reaction in changing the strongest jet stream tremendous strength this far into the year and likely hangs on in varying strengths flow. That is the main storm flow and will change dramatically based on the ocean for the rest of 2022. History and computer model projections indicate a reasonable temperatures so far from home, hence the significance of these events and their likelihood that this La Niña can hang on through winter 2022-2023. For December, impact on our operations.

January and February, La Niña’s probability of occurring is 51%, compared to a 43% ENSO is a basic part of any seasonal forecast I provide you, and for the near future, chance of neutral conditions or a 6% probability for El Niño. History is not as firmly we are in La Niña’s control. With that, we continue to see drought across the western pointed at La Niña but isn’t far from those computer probabilities. So, assuming we and central U.S. as a significant issue. enter another La Niña winter, it will be the third such year in a row (the current La Niña developed later in the summer of 2020). That in and of itself is rare.

We have many back-to-back winters in a single phase, but very few are there three winters in a row.

Let us assume that winter 2022-23 is another La Niña, which will be the third occurrence going back to 1950. The most recent La Niña winter three-peat was from 1998/99 to 2001.

History aside, and regardless of season, any La Niña can contribute to drought growth in the U.S. A time series shows how the drought looked to start the summer of 2020 before this La Niña event kicked off, followed by the start of the summer of 2022.

That is a substantial increase in drought coverage and severity for the western and central U.S.; however, in a drought sense, parts of the Midwest and East are seemingly untouched by this Image source: https://www.climate.gov/media/14484 La Niña. This is not to say that El Niño cannot carry

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Blood, Sweat, and Tears — Rising Rates, Inflation Risk Recession

By Jan Lambregts Rabo AgriFinance Central banks say they mean business this time around. They are hiking interest rates to bring aggregate demand back closer to where aggregate supply sits. That’s economist speak for demand destruction, i.e., a downturn. Or being too hot. Or too cold. Or even going hungry. We now forecast recessions in the Eurozone and U.S. for next year accordingly.

Whether central banks will be successful in their mission to bring inflation back under control, and how much pain needs to be inflicted to our economies in the process, largely depends on the war in Ukraine and the meta crisis with Russia. Developments there are not particularly hopeful regarding a swift resolution with many military experts now talking about a war that could last years, bitter fighting on and off, and limited progress being made by either side.

The resulting impact on food and energy security would continue to be tremendous.

It’s now abundantly clear Russia has weaponized both and is holding the better cards in the near-term. This is a “new world order” in which might — physical and economic — is right. A world in which NATO is expanding and rearming, while calling Russia an adversary and China a challenge to its security and values. A world for which Russia, China and the U.S. are prepared to varying degrees — yet Europe currently is not. A world in which the U.S. expects Europe to rapidly step up, as it’s largely focused on curbing China’s ambitions in the Pacific.

The E.U. was created to do away with great power struggles following two world wars. It arguably succeeded, and in the process created a union that thrived in a rulesbased globalized world — but looks naively unprepared for this return to realpolitik.

Europe is rudely waking up and shifting gear, but all that takes lots of money and time — you can’t become a power overnight.

European policymakers are already exploring every possible option to avert having to shut down whole industries during the winter. These are often unpalatable, but more worrisomely the list is also rather limited. Medium-to-long term solutions are trying to accelerate the green transition, but realistically also need to include deals with questionable regimes and commitments

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The Rancher Resilience Grant is designed to support cattle producer attendance at impactful education events. This program awards funds for registration and hotel costs for educational cattle industry events across the country via reimbursement.

To receive funds, you can head to NCBA. org, under the “Producers” tab and click “Rancher Resilience Grant”. There is a short application and some additional steps to complete.

We hope it’s an opportunity you take advantage of!

The grant is made possible by a partnership between the National Cattlemen’s Foundation and Cargill Protein and is administered by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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to fossil fuel investments policymakers want to avoid but may have no choice but to accept. Putin’s banking on Western democracies not having the stomach for all this economic pain, backing down, and then allowing Russia to add Ukraine to its sphere of influence.

That’s the paradigm central banks are now operating in. Having grown long accustomed to easy money, the sudden fight against inflation is clearly taking many in markets by surprise. It is probably unrealistic to assume central banks will simply reverse course and cut rates at the first sign of trouble given where inflation sits.

Yet, it is equally unrealistic to suddenly expect everyone to turn away from their easy money addiction. There are many ambitious and worthy projects to launch, whether that’s the green transition, food security, rearmament, or the fight against inequality.

Moreover, politicians have rediscovered how central banks can be put to work, and their independence is a paper tiger — they can finance all of this, as we have seen — albeit with inflationary consequences if funds flow to the demand side, not supply. That opens the door for many scenarios, with toolkits potentially straight out of China’s playbook.

Again, all of that takes time, and a significant paradigm shift in terms of what’s important and not. Plus, there remains the issue of bringing inflation back to bearable levels. In summary, in the near term, all central banks can offer us is blood, sweat and tears.

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U.S. Quarterly Real Gross Domestic Product

What’s the Recession Risk?

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Meat Demand Was Fantastic: Q1 2022

RETAIL PORK DEMAND INDEX First Quarter, Using CPI 2000=100

By Katelyn McCullock Director of Livestock Marketing Information Center The final estimate for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2022 was announced at the end of June confirming what many of us felt: contraction. The Bureau of Economic Analysis stated that compared to a year ago, GDP fell by 1.6% from the prior year. However, cattle prices and boxed beef both remained elevated despite macroeconomic concerns and falling consumer sentiment.

LMIC estimates U.S. consumer retail of “all fresh beef” demand quarterly using a demand index that looks at the change in prices relative to expectation and removes general price inflation. This index has confirmed how well retail beef has moved since the pandemic, culminating at a record high index value across all quarters in the fourth quarter of 2021 at an index value of 138. LMIC uses a base year of 2000, which equals an index value of 100, numbers above that value indicate stronger beef demand and numbers below indicate weaker demand. On an annual basis, the last two years’ retail beef demand hit the new consecutive highs since 2000. First quarter of 2022 is off to a rapidly higher pace, with a meat demand index value of 134 compared to 120 last year.

LMIC also looks at Choice beef demand separately. First quarter choice beef demand also jumped up 17 index points from last year. The average over the last 20 years has been less than half a point year over year in the index.

Beef demand was not the only success story. The “all fresh pork” index saw a first quarter buoy of 123, up from 113 the prior year. 2021, 2020 and 2019 all set new annual highs for retail pork demand. Those three years showed quarters one, three, and four increasing very sharply, while second quarter index values pulled back rather sharply from a high 2019.

Second quarter retail beef demand index values are expected to be strong as well.

Retail prices also continued to remain elevated. Retail pork prices also increased in the second quarter, implying that second quarter may be another strong pork demand quarter as well. A 2016 study in response to then record-high 2014 prices by Jason L. Lusk and Glynn T. Tonsor1 suggested demand for meat becomes inelastic (consumers less reactive to prices) at higher prices, but that certain meat cuts were more sensitive than others. These indexes use aggregate data, so it does mask some of these subtleties.

The current macro environment has consumers feeling pessimistic and may be a bit different than it was in 2014. Consumer sentiment is at the lowest reading since 1978. One negative GDP quarter does not meet the definition of a recession, but it is very likely the U.S. will be in one by the end of 2022. How severe? We do not yet know.

RETAIL ALL FRESH BEEF DEMAND INDEX First Quarter, Using CPI 2000=100

Index Value

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112 107105104 100 99 100 99 103102

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Data Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDA-ERS, Compiled & Analysis by LMIC Livestock Marketing Information Center

Teasing out those implications for meat demand may be difficult to forecast, but as inflation continues and disposable income falls, consumers have less money in their pocket. They change behaviors in a variety of ways in response to financial stress.

Financial stress can cause different mixes of eating at home versus restaurants, an aspect not directly captured in the meat demand index calculation. Consumers also may shift to different cuts of beef, less beef overall (to other animal proteins or alternative choices), or beef is the thing they keep on the menu as they forego many of the other major luxuries (vacations, etc.). This summer, pent up demand for travel appears to continue; however, airline prices in many cases are making gas look cheap.

If inflation continues, which I think it will, the reckoning in consumer finance will very likely hit when summer vacation bills come due this fall. Items to watch are consumer household debt, savings rates and consumer sentiment. Not a one of them looks optimistic now.

1 Lusk, J. L., & Tonsor, G. T. (2016). How Meat Demand Elasticities Vary with Price, Income, and Product Category. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 38(4), 673–711. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44788255

DOMESTIC U.S. CONSUMER SENTIMENT Monthly, Index year 1966 = 100

Index 125 115 105 95 85

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20 0

70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 Quarterly Source: BLS

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previous recession.

The equity markets have largely erased all the gains made since early 2021, and many commodity markets have pulled back to levels not seen since the Russia-Ukraine conflict started. Recession concerns have been largely sourced for these pullbacks.

Bottom Line: Beef demand will pullback if a recession hits, but significantly tighter supplies are coming in the years ahead. That could still lead to steady-to-higher prices going forward, even as demand corrects lower. The U.S. economy is not in a recession yet, and even a second quarter GDP correction might not lead to a recession if employment, incomes and spending stay strong.

Annualized Quarterly Return Rate

By Lance Zimmerman Manager – Research, Analysis and Data, CattleFax Uncertainty is surrounding the U.S. economy. Rising costs, stagnating incomes, equity market devaluations, and most recently, commodity market corrections all point to a possible recession. Let’s dissect some of these indicators and look ahead to what this means for the beef industry.

The simplest definition for a recession is a sustained period of exceptionally weak or negative real gross domestic product accompanied with declining real income, employment, industry production, and wholesale and retail sales.

In other words, many areas of the economy need to point firmly lower for several months.

GDP is reported on a quarterly basis and even then, the first quarter 2022 number was just released as an estimate in late April. By the time two, consecutive quarters of poor economic output are reported, many monthly economic indicators can already suggest whether a recession has arrived.

The first quarter GDP estimate implied an annualized rate of -1.6%, but even with that downturn, analyst estimates for the second quarter are anywhere from -2 to +4%.

Many economists are focused on the labor market. Employment numbers have not turned negative. Another 372,000 jobs were added in June, and unemployment held steady at 3.6%. That tied for the third-lowest level since the 1960s.

A larger concern remains to be consumer incomes and spending. For the first time in 15 months, real personal income — minus government payments — declined compared to the previous year. With inflation more than 8% over the last three months, income growth has now failed to keep pace with more expensive goods and services.

The risk is this shift alters consumer behavior and spending habits.

Around 68% of the U.S. GDP is driven by consumer spending. Pent-up demand for travel and leisure remains coming out of the pandemic, but higher food and energy prices may weigh on consumers more as summer ends.

The question remains the path going forward. Government payments are cushioning the stress of inflation for low-to-middle income Americans, and the personal savings rate of consumers remains nearly double what existed before the

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Data Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDA-ERS, Compiled & Analysis by LMIC

Data Source: University of Michigan

Livestock Marketing Information Center

Livestock Marketing Information Center

06/10/22

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Ensuring a Future for the Next Generation of Cattle Producers Sustainability is not a new concept for the cattle industry. United States beef cattle producers have been committed to sustainability for decades, exemplified by increased efficiencies, improved genetics, application of new technologies and ever-better resource use. No one understands the complexities of their land better than the cattle producer themselves, and no one wants to see it thrive more.

Sustainability is all-encompassing. It is the ability for the cattle industry to carry on for the next generation and the generation after that. The last several years are a perfect example of why profitability — key to economic sustainability — is so essential. Cattle producers have to be economically viable to remain in business.

Taking care of the individuals that make up the industry and their families — essential to social sustainability — is core to ensuring the next generation can succeed as cattle producers. For beef producers across the United States, sustainability is environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable beef.

The U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB) was founded to help the cattle industry take credit for what it is already doing and to advance and support improvements for the future. This is why the USRSB set goals for beef sustainability — to create a better future for animals, people, the planet and profit. Part of that work involves collecting data on current efforts to provide benchmarks for future success. It also involves supporting and encouraging new means of success without undermining the practices that currently work. The USRSB understands that this is no simple task, because no two operations are alike and what works for one might not work for another. These voluntary goals were set by the industry for the industry with the most updated science and practicality in mind.

Uniquely, the USRSB goals are for the entire beef supply chain, from farm to fork, with specific targets for each sector. While cattle producers contribute their efforts on the live cattle side of the supply chain, packer, processor, retail and food service organizations must also contribute for the goals to be met.

Grazing Management Plans

For the cow-calf sector, one actionable item is to increase the number of U.S. acres under written grazing management plans (GMP). A major way that cattle producers can boost their bottom line is through a written GMP. GMPs are meant to be flexible, and a thorough plan accounts for potential changes that require adaptation, such as drought conditions, wildfires or flooding events. With a written GMP in place, producers can plan for potential roadblocks or changes in a normal year and can ensure the ranch has what it needs to sustain those changes. There will always be unexpected changes, but with a written grazing management plan, ranchers have the potential to increase forage production, soil water holding capacity, feed conversion rates and more. GMPs are also an essential tool in succession planning, setting the next generation up for success.

Beef Quality Assurance

Another actionable item with a relatively low barrier to entry and proven benefits to a cow-calf operation is participation in Beef Quality Assurance (BQA). The national BQA program provides educational resources to improve beef safety and quality while improving cattle well-being. Through the National Beef Quality Audit, which is completed every five years, it has been shown that proper training in BQA or equivalent principles can improve beef quality outcomes. For example, the frequency of rounds with an injection-site lesion has decreased by more than 75% since 1998, reducing the volume of waste through carcass defects. Beyond this, BQA training in safe animal handling and transportation has also led to nearly perfect mobility scores

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for animals arriving at processing facilities. Improved animal health and mobility directly relates to increased profitability on the ranch. The BQA program also contributes to consumer confidence in beef by showcasing an industry commitment to high-quality animal care and increasing beef quality over time.

Resources for cattle producers

The USRSB offers a variety of free resources for cattle producers, including modules and a self-assessment guide. The modules use real-world terms with practical tools for easy implementation on the farm or ranch. For cattle producers, they cover topics such as grazing management plans, resource use, animal and employee safety, succession planning and financial health. The USRSB also offers a selfassessment tool for all sectors, which is helpful in identifying areas of success and potential improvement. All of these resources and more are available at USRSB.org/Resources or by scanning the QR code.

The U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is a multi-stakeholder initiative developed to advance, support and communicate continuous improvement in sustainability of the U.S. beef value chain. The USRSB achieves this through leadership, innovation, multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration. USRSB membership is made up of cattle producers, packers and processors, retail and foodservice organizations, allied industry and civil society.

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NEWS Sharing Beef’s Story From Pasture to Plate Before consumers pick up a pack of steaks at the grocery store, a lot of questions run through their minds, such as how will they taste and are they easy to prepare? For many families, these are the primary decision-making points when shopping. There are, however, consumers who are also concerned about how their food is raised and grown, and that information helps them decide what to buy.

For those consumers who are interested in learning where their food comes from, what information do they really want to know? Based on consumer insights, beef buyers want to hear about the positive environmental and economic impacts of cattle production, how cattle grazing preserves the environment and helps prevent wildfires, and understand how cattle play a role in the carbon cycle.1 From animal care and greenhouse gas emissions to upcycling and resource conservation, consumers want to know how cattle are cared for and their impact on the environment.

To increase awareness of how beef is raised safely, humanely and sustainably, NCBA, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, implemented the Raised and Grown Campaign in spring 2022.

The campaign utilized a multi-faceted approach to reach targeted consumers through video, audio, native advertising, social media as well as public relations efforts. The campaign featured Environmental Stewardship Award Program and Beef Quality Assurance award-winning producers across the country to give consumers the opportunity to connect personally with the people producing their food.

Throughout the campaign, the popular interactive map on the Beef Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. website featured producers in every state and guided consumers on their beef sustainability journey. To kick off raised and grown efforts, agriculture influencers celebrated National Ag Day on March 22 by sharing what the day meant to them and

highlighting sustainability practices on their own farms and ranches. These social posts alone reached nearly 2 million people.

Earth Day on April 22 brought the next big touch point with consumers and the “Beef and The Earth” video series was launched. Five short videos featuring ESAP regional winners celebrated the people behind the beef and shared beef’s sustainability story through websites and social media channels. In addition, Chef’s Roll, a peer-to-peer network of chefs and foodservice professionals, shared a video showing how producers utilize spent brewers’ grains as cattle feed. View the video by scanning the QR code.

To engage kids in the sustainability conservation, NCBA partnered with kid-focused media outlets, such as The Week Jr. and ScoutLife. Through these partnerships, kids and parents were directed to the newly created Beef Sustainability for Kids page on www.BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. On the page, kids found videos, graphics, games, articles and kid-approved beef recipes to learn more about beef production across the country.

Through sponsored news content, multimedia news releases and content partnerships, media outlets from coast to coast included information about the role cattle play in preserving resources for future generations. Well-known publications such as Texas Monthly, Seattle Pi and Parade shared stories of ranchers across the U.S. who utilize practices that make beef sustainable.

This integrated effort shared beef’s positive sustainability message with consumers across the nation and generated nearly 85 million impressions, including 5.3 million video views and 2.5 million audio ad listens. Learn more at www.BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com.

1 Sustainability Message Testing, January 2022.

Foodservice Trends Drive Beef Demand The next time you are eating out, don’t be surprised if a friendly robot delivers your steak dinner. With labor being the primary challenge facing foodservice operators today, technology is rolling in to combat staff shortages.

Robot servers were one of the top trends highlighted during the annual National Restaurant Association (NRA) Trade Show held in May. Staff from NCBA, a contractor of the Beef Checkoff, attended the show in Chicago to learn about emerging foodservice trends that may impact the beef industry and to connect with restaurant owners, chefs and foodservice executives to make sure beef remains at the center of the plate.

With more than 1,700 exhibitors and attendees from all 50 states and 110 countries, the NRA Show is the largest annual gathering of foodservice professionals in the Western Hemisphere.

It is designed for those seeking new and better ways to operate their restaurant establishments, grow their customer base, broaden their networks, and increase their success.

“Attending this show gives us perspective on how to promote beef to the foodservice industry in the future,” said Mark Johnson, director of supply chain engagement at NCBA. “Understanding restaurant trends and needs also helps us keep beef on menus.”

While robot delivery dogs and mechanical cooks grabbed the attention of show attendees, other hot topics including increasing menu prices, retaining employees, and changing supply chain issues were also discussed during educational sessions. In addition, sustainability continued to be a topic of conversation for restaurants working to reduce their environmental impact.

Restauranteurs are looking at every aspect of their businesses to enhance sustainability efforts including reducing food waste and water consumption, using recyclable to-go containers, and shortening

TRENDING IN FOOD & MEDIA BEEF PRICES & INFLATION With summer grilling season in full swing, consumer concerns about inflation were seen in top-tier media this month.1

their supply chain. Sourcing of ingredients also plays a role in sustainability and the pandemic shined a light on the impact ingredients have on the bottom line.

“During the pandemic, restaurants pared down menus to reduce labor needs and save costs,” said Sarah Clymore, NCBA’s manager of manufacturer engagement. “Menu offerings are slowly returning; however, restaurants are creating diverse menu options by using fewer ingredients in unique ways.”

This need for “making more with less” enforces the importance of educating foodservice operators about the versatility of beef and how cuts can be used in numerous ways for various flavor profiles.

NCBA, on behalf of the Beef Checkoff, has made great strides to incorporate beef on menus from fast food to fine dining, and everything in between.

According to Clymore, it was clear that beef remains a popular protein at restaurants across the country. She noted that never-ending lines for beef samples wrapped around the show floor demonstrating the power of beef’s taste.

Attendees and exhibitors alike were also excited about NCBA’s engagement during the show.

“Show attendees were eager to talk with NCBA to discuss potential partnership opportunities to promote beef,” Clymore said. “It was apparent that NCBA is the trusted leader in the beef industry and is well known and respected among foodservice professionals.”

Major outlets like Yahoo! News and TODAY covered the topic. Some discussed whether consumers would switch to other animal proteins.1

GOOD NEWS FOR BEEF Consumers still found new ways to enjoy beef without breaking the bank, such as buying in bulk and cooking for leftovers.1

COOKING & EATING BEEF Cooking and eating beef was the top beef topic this month, reaching consumers nearly 490 billion times.1 Outlets like TODAY, ABC News and Mashed shared beef recipes for consumers to enjoy.1

GOOD NEWS FOR BEEF Major outlets shared Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner., funded by the Beef Checkoff, recipes.1

PLANT-BASED DIETS & ALTERNATIVES Plant-based diets were included in 33% more stories this month, including several new meat alternative announcements.1 Beyond Meat announced a new whole-cut meat alternative product, and Juicy Marbles teased an upcoming tenderloin plant-based alternative product.1

1.

GOOD NEWS FOR BEEF Despite the new product releases, media reported that some meat alternative sales were lower than predicted.1

# 071122-10 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. (2022). Traditional and social media listening dashboards. Retrieved from Meltwater: www.meltwater.com

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T H E F E D E R AT I O N O F S TAT E B E E F C O U N C I L S Building beef demand by inspiring, unifying and supporting an effective state/national Checkoff partnership.

Caring for Communities Cattle producers care for their families, animals and environment, but they also take immense pride in caring for their communities. Whether it is helping a neighbor, making a donation or volunteering time, producers across the country are committed to caring for others. These state beef councils share that same commitment and actively engage with partners to positively contribute to their communities.

Cattlemen Care Blood Drive

Feeding the Troops In early May, the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association (ACA) had the honor of preparing 1,200 burgers and 1,000 hotdogs for more than 2,000 airmen and women at the annual Maxwell Air Force Base Summer Picnic.

Cattlemen from across the region, including the Elmore and Montgomery County Cattlemen’s Associations and Michael and Kelli Smith of Thousand Hills Cattle Company, fired up their grills to help with this project, sponsored by Sweet Grown Alabama. The event was capped off with an air show for all to enjoy! This was just one small way to give back to those who serve our nation.

For more information, visit www.bamabeef.org.

Beef Month Helps Hungry

With more than 40 participants, the Cattlemen Care Blood Drive, hosted by the Pennsylvania Beef Council (PBC) in Greg Hostetter, Deputy conjunction Secretary of Agriculture, with the along with PBC Staff and American Red Board of Director Members Cross was a pose with American Red resounding Cross Employee for the 2022 success. The Cattlemen Care Blood Drive. blood drive was hosted on May 10, 2022, in the Cameron Street Lobby of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex.

Beef producers, PBC staff members, industry stakeholders and community supporters rolled up their sleeves to give back to their local communities and to showcase their pride in the Pennsylvania beef industry. Enough blood was collected to save 102 lives.

“Every day, the men and women from the beef and dairy communities roll up their sleeves on the farm to keep this industry thriving.

We are proud they also chose to roll up their sleeves for today’s blood drive in support of the local community,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Greg Hostetter.

For more information, visit www.pabeef.org.

The Wisconsin Beef Council (WBC) presented Feeding Wisconsin with a $4,500 donation to purchase beef for families in need. The donation was part of a commitment from the Wisconsin Beef Council and partners Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center to donate proceeds from the 2nd Annual Burgers & Buns Fun Run. Nearly 150 participants competed in-person and virtually to celebrate May Beef Month and salute Wisconsin Beef farmers. The in-person 5K took place at the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center Saturday, May 14.

Feeding Wisconsin is the state association of the six regional Feeding America affiliated food banks that provide food to almost 1,000 local food programs in all 72 Wisconsin counties. Together, Feeding Wisconsin’s network provided 86 million pounds of food to Wisconsinites in 2021, an increase of 75% from 2019. The $4,500 donation will be distributed to regional foodbanks to purchase Wisconsin grown and produced beef.

For more information, visit www.beeftips.com.

Showing Appreciation in Time of Need Beef Helps Communities Rebuild Following Floods The epic flooding in Montana is bringing people together demonstrating the resiliency of communities across the state. The Montana Beef Council (MBC) is taking the lead in organizing beef donations to provide high quality protein to front line workers, volunteers and community members looking to restock freezers following the flood’s devastation. In only five days, 3,271 pounds of meat were donated and delivered to the affected communities. MBC will continue its efforts in the coming months to support families as they recover and rebuild.

For more information, visit www.montanabeefcouncil.org.

With the pandemic still impacting restaurants across the state, the California Beef Council (CBC) showed their thankfulness and appreciation for the foodservice industry in the state. In a partnership with EATYALL, a chef-focused company looking to bridge the gap between farmers, ranchers and chefs, the CBC shipped care packages to 30 premier chefs across California to show appreciation for their efforts in keeping beef as a centerpiece on their menus.

The chefs receiving the beef care packages were encouraged to share the unboxing of their packages on social media, which contained various beef cuts as well as a Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. hat, apron, and educational resources. Many chefs also posted their delicious recipe creations of how they prepared the beef products they received on social media to share with their followers.

Chefs were inspired by the boxes, and felt supported by California’s ranchers and beef farmers, and accompanied their social media posts with hashtags such as #cabeefthankingcachefs, #givethanks, #pasturetoplate, and #beef.

Meaningful partnerships like this between California beef farmers and ranchers and passionate hard-working chefs cultivate positive relationships between those that raise beef, and those that menu and prepare beef for their customers.

For more information, visit www.calbeef.org.

Beef Counts During Tough Economic Times Washington’s beef community launched its summer grilling partnership with Rosauers and Super 1 stores in Eastern Washington in May by distributing beef and other essential food items to more than 300 families. With the cost of living skyrocketing, many people are making ends meet by turning to food assistance programs like Second Harvest in eastern Washington.

All summer long, Rosauers and their beef supplier, St. Helen’s Premium Angus Beef,

will donate 10 cents for every pound of beef purchased (up to $50,000) at Rosauers and Super 1 stores to Second Harvest to buy beef for local families in need. The Washington State Beef Commission promotes the program on KREM television and their digital platforms throughout the summer with advertising featuring the Owens Family, the 2022 Beef Counts spokesfamily of Spokane.

For more information, visit www.wabeef.org.

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