American Shorthorn Association Impact 2015

SHORTHORN BREEDER’S CONFERENCE & ANNUAL MEETING December 3-5 Harrah’s Casino Kansas City, MO

ASA STAFF Montie Soules

Executive Director/CEO

Jake Alden

Fieldman/Member Services Director/ DNA Reports/Shows

Kathleen Aschoff

Customer Service Specialist/ Registrations/DNA Input/Shows

Gwen Crawford

Junior Activities Director

Patrick Wall

Performance Programs Consultant

LeAnna Mann Receptionist

Erin Isenhart

Interim Marketing and Communications Director

Ann Koster

Interim Accountant

MISSION

The American Shorthorn Association provides quality service and support to its members by promoting the value of Shorthorn cattle in all aspects of the beef industry, while maintaining the integrity of the herd book and performance database.

7607 NW Prairie View Rd. Kansas City, MO 64151 816.599.7777 • info@shorthorn.org

www.shorthorn.org

THANK YOU to our

SPONSORS

Farms

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 1:00 - 1:15 Welcome..........................................Montie Soules 1:15 - 2:00 “The Road to the Future: Issues and trends driving change in the beef industry”............Kevin Ochsner 2:00 - 2:15 Interactive polling activity...............Kevin Ochsner 2:15 - 2:30 Break: Sponsored by GeneSeek, Purina Animal Nutrition, Sullivan Farms & Shorthorn Foundation/ John Miller Family 2:30 - 3:15 Understanding the demands of today’s packers and feeders.........................................Darrel Busby 3:15 - 4:00 The wants and needs of today’s commercial cow/calf operators......... Joe Sellers & Bill Goehring 4:00 - 4:30 Panel discussion ................Darrel Busby, Joe Sellers & Bill Goehring 4:30 - 5:00 State of the Breed Address................Montie Soules 5:00 - 5:15 Day 1 wrap-up................................Kevin Ochsner 6:00 - 7:30

Social................................................(Tahoe Room)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 6:45 - 7:45 Registration system training....................Jake Alden & Kat Aschoff 8:00 - 8:15 Day 2 Kickoff..................................Kevin Ochsner 8:15 - 8:35 Factors impacting the successful marketing of commercial bulls......................... Don Schiefelbein 8:35 - 8:55 Factors impacting the successful marketing of A.I. sires..........................................Brian House 8:55 - 9:15 Factors impacting the successful marketing of Seedstock/Show Cattle...................... John Sullivan 9:15 - 9:45 Panel Discussion and Q&A........ Don Schiefelbein, Brian House & John Sullivan 9:45 - 10:00 Break: Sponsored by Shorthorn Foundation/John Miller family, GeneSeek, Purina Animal Nutrition, Beef & Sullivan Farms 10:00 - 10:45 Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the Shorthorn breed (Small Group Exercises)

10:45 - 11:00 Interactive polling activity...............Kevin Ochsner 11:00 - 11:30 Understanding EPDs and indexes...........................

Dr. Bob Weaber 11:30 - 12:00 Understanding the capabilities of multi-breed EPDs......................... Dr. Wade Shafer 12:00 - 12:45 Lunch: Sponsored by GeneSeek & Shorthorn Foundation/John Miller Family 12:45 - 1:00 Update from GeneSeek .................... Ryan Ruppert 1:00 - 1:30 New trends and technologies in genetic selection....

Dr. Matt Spangler 1:30 - 2:00 The role of genomics in improving Shorthorn cattle........................ Dr. Dorian Garrick 2:00 - 2:30 Panel discussion............ Bob Weaber, Wade Shafer, Matt Spangler & Dorian Garrick 2:45 - 3:00 Break: Sponsored by GeneSeek, Shorthorn Foundation/John Miller Family, Purina Animal Nutrition, Sullivan Farms & Beef 3:00 - 3:40 The impact of the show ring on the Shorthorn breed ............ Jeff Stump & Jeff Bedwell 3:40 - 4:20 Can the commercial industry and the show ring co-exist?..................Cassie Johnson & Kevin Jensen 4:20 - 4:45 Panel discussion................ Jeff Stump, Jeff Bedwell, Cassie Johnson & Kevin Jensen 4:45 - 5:00 Interactive polling activity and session wrap-up.......

Kevin Ochsner 5:30

Pre-Banquet Social...........................(Tahoe Room)

6:30

ASA Banquet....................................(Tahoe Room)

7:30

ASA Annual Meeting........................(Tahoe Room)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 8:00 - 8:30 The role of junior organizations in breed growth....

Brian Arnold 8:30 - 9:15 The future of the Shorthorn breed: Young Breeder Panel.....Nate Studer, Ethan Gilman & Jake Alden 9:15 - 9:30 Break: Sponsored by Shorthorn Foundation/John Miller Family, GeneSeek, Purina Animal Nutrition & Sullivan Farms 9:30 - 10:00 The role of a strong breed association.....................

Bryce Schumann 10:00 - 10:20 Exercise—identifying and prioritizing breed improvement targets .......................Kevin Ochsner 10:20 - 10:50 Closing challenge............................Kevin Ochsner 10:50 - 11:00 Send-off............................................Montie Soules 11:00 - 12:00 Training on registration system...............Jake Alden & Kat Aschoff *All events will be held in the Vegas/Reno rooms unless otherwise denoted.

FEATURED SPEAKERS BRIAN ARNOLD Vice President of Member Outreach & Youth Development National Swine Registry Brian Arnold currently serves as Vice President of Member Outreach & Youth Development for the National Swine Registry. He and his wife, Molly, have two sons, Reece and Dawson. Arnold grew up on a grain and livestock farm in Liberty Center, Indiana, where he was active in showing livestock, livestock judging and other 4-H and FFA activities. He attended Black Hawk East College in Kewanee, Illinois, where he competed on the livestock judging team and was active in campus leadership activities.

Arnold transferred to Purdue University where he continued to compete on the livestock judging team while completing a B.S. degree in Animal Agribusiness. Upon graduating from Purdue, he spent six years as an instructor and livestock judging coach at Black Hawk East College before joining the National Swine Registry staff. He has judged youth livestock shows across the country and enjoys working with the youth of the National Junior Swine Association through leadership development activities.

JEFF BEDWELL Bedwell Cattle Co. Jeff and the Bedwell family have been longtime breeders and enthusiasts of Shorthorn cattle in western Oklahoma.

Shorthorns have been continuously owned by the Bedwell family for more than a century, spanning five generations.

In addition to breeding, raising, exhibiting, promoting and judging Shorthorns, Jeff has had a broad-based professional career that has always been framed by agriculture.

Jeff has enjoyed serving as an instructor and assistant livestock judging team coach at NEO A&M College, a Genetic Nucleus breeding barn manager at the Oklahoma division of Pig Improvement Company (PIC), a livestock production specialist for Farmland Industries, in addition to serving as an Ag and 4-H Extension Educator for the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service. Jeff is currently the agronomy specialist for OK Land Run Co-op near Enid, Oklahoma.

Jeff judged his first show at the age of 19 and by now, 34 years later, has had the privilege of evaluating livestock at all levels, in many states and Australia.

Jeff and his wife, Diane, and daughter, Jennifer, reside near Isabella, Oklahoma, where they enjoy re-defining their role and contribution to Shorthorn cattle and the people that are a part of the Shorthorn breed.

DARRELL BUSBY Manager Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity Darrell Busby is a Kansas native with B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science from Kansas State University.

From 1980 to 2010, Darrell worked as the Iowa State University Extension Livestock/Beef Specialist for SW Iowa. From 2010 to present, he has served as manager of Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity which is a service cooperative started in 1982 by Pottawattamie, Cass and Shelby County Cattleman’s Associations to improve profits for beef producers. In the last 14 years, TCSCF has collected growth and carcass data on 97,446 head of retained ownership cattle from 27 states and Manitoba. Cow-calf producers have used the information from TCSCF to produce healthier, faster gaining, calmer,

higher quality cattle that are more profitable. Darrell has assisted livestock producers in evaluating new technologies to improve profitability.

He has conducted applied research and demonstrations such as factors affecting the percent Choice and percent CAB in feedlot cattle, feedlot health, cattle disposition, comparison of cattle finishing facilities, impact of cattle health on beef quality and tenderness, selenium for grazing beef cattle, waxy corn for feedlot cattle, implant strategies for feedlot and stocker cattle, heat stress in feedlot cattle, effect of MGA on performance, sexual behavior, carcass quality and tenderness in mixed-sex pens of cattle, estrus synchronization and fly control for beef cows.

DORIAN GARRICK Lush Chair in Animal Breeding & Genetics Executive Director National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium Department of Animal Science Iowa State University Dorian Garrick graduated from Massey University in New Zealand in 1982 and embarked on his career in animal breeding and genetics. Much of his work has involved national genetic evaluation and its application to cost-effective improvement of livestock populations. Prior to undertaking a Ph.D. at Cornell University, Garrick worked at Massey University on the application of animal models to evaluation and estimation of genetic trends in pig and sheep improvement. He returned to Massey in 1988 and worked on across-breed animal evaluation in dairy cattle. In 1994, he was appointed to the A.L. Rae Chair in animal breeding and genetics at Massey University, a position he has held part-time since 2002 when he relocated to the United States. In 2007, he took up the inaugural appointment to the J.L. Lush endowed chair at Iowa State University, a position named after the father of animal breeding. His current research focus involves the use of genomic information in animal improvement. Garrick has published 150 papers in reference journals, more than 200 conference papers, and 12 book chapters. He has supervised 21 Ph.D. students and presented more than 700 oral presentations at conference and industry meetings.

ETHAN GILMAN Gilman Shorthorns Ethan graduated from Iowa State University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. He is now a part of his family’s 1,300-acre row crop farm and 100head Shorthorn cow-calf operation in Southwest Iowa.

Gilman Shorthorns markets their cattle through a female production sale and an online bull sale.

BILL GOEHRING Keosauqua Sales Co. Inc. Bill Goehring of Keosauqua Iowa, grew up on a small livestock farm in southeast Iowa. He was involved in 4-H, FFA and National and State Junior Hereford Association.

He graduated from Iowa State University with an Animal Science degree in 1986. In August 1986, the Goehring family purchased a local livestock market in Keosauqua, Iowa. Bill met his wife, Becky, who was working in the café at the sale barn; they have four sons that are involved in the operation at Keosauqua.

The first few years the market developed as the area’s leading market for hogs and feeder pigs marketing 1,500-2,000 head weekly. The market has also been and continues to be one of the area’s best sheep and goat markets.

The cattle market has also grown from the late ’80s into a strong area market today moving more than 50,000 head, annually. In 2005, Bill and Becky purchased the remaining interest from Bill’s father.

With the help of his sons, the family also maintains 150 registered Hereford cows, 250 commercial Angus cows and breeds 300 commercial Angus heifers for an annual production sale. They background and graze 2,000 feeders, annually.

In 2013 and 2015, Bill was one of the judges for the National Hereford carload and pen show at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado.

BRIAN HOUSE Vice President, Beef Program and Product Manager Select Sires Inc. House grew up in eastern Indiana on a small Shorthorn farm and worked for numerous Shorthorn, Angus, Hereford and commercial cow-calf programs in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. He holds a B.S. from Purdue University and a M.S. from Penn State University, and has been a part of the Select Sires Beef Team since 1991. He and his family reside in Hilliard, Ohio.

KEVIN JENSEN Jensen Bros. Herefords Kevin Jensen of Courtland, Kansas, and his wife, Sheila, have three children, Brady, Brooke and Ben. They own and operate Jensen Bros. Herefords and host an annual bull sale in the spring and heifer sales in the fall. The operation runs approximately 300 cows with spring and fall calving, and they use cooperator herds to raise embryos calves. They are active in showing at the National Western Stock Show and have taken a carload of bulls and several pens for numerous years. The Hereford Junior National has been in the family for years with Kevin and Sheila both showing and being involved in the organizations to having their children very active in the junior program.

Kevin graduated from Cloud County Community College and was on a successful junior college judging team. He pursued his dream of showing cattle and ranching by starting a custom fitting service when he was first out of college and it developed in to a successful business to help start his cowherd.

Kevin is a past American Hereford Association board member and remains active with the AHA by serving as chairman of the search committee. Kevin is also active on the NCK Free Fair board and local Kansas Livestock Association.

Currently, Kevin’s judging resume includes numerous breed Junior Nationals, National Western Stock Show, Fort Worth and Houston steer and heifer shows, as well several National breed shows. He has judged countless breeds at the American Royal and NAILE, along with Reno Angus Futurity, and past Angus Junior Nationals. Kevin has traveled overseas to Australia twice and New Zealand to judge National Shows, as well as the Canadian Hereford National at Agribition.

CASSIE JOHNSON Solution Genetics Cassie Johnson resides in Cushing, Iowa, with her husband, Ramsey, and two children, Daniel and Hailey.

Cassie received her B.S. degree in Ag Business with a minor in Animal Science at Iowa State University. She was on the 2007 Iowa State livestock judging team.

When she is not busy at home, she enjoys judging shows across the country. Cassie and Ramsey work with her mom, Cheryl Johnson, the owner of Solution Genetics. Cassie’s jobs on the farm consist of marketing, breeding, managing the cows and marketing the grain. They run 250 head of registered Red Angus cows and have three sales a year. They sell yearling and 18-month-old bulls in March.

In April, they have an online female and embryo sale. In fall they have a female production sale on the home place, consisting of heifer calves and bred heifers. Solution Genetics markets their cattle to 45 percent commercial cattlemen and 55 percent to purebred breeders or juniors looking to start their own herd. Cassie prides herself on the fact that the operation is self sufficient.

KEVIN OCHSNER President Agcellerate Kevin Ochsner was raised on an irrigated farm and registered cattle operation in Fort Collins, Colorado. He served as a National FFA Officer and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Agricultural Business. Throughout college he participated in a variety

of agricultural organizations and activities including FFA and Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity and was involved on the CSU livestock judging team.

In 1991, Kevin accepted a position with Agri Business Group, an Indianapolis-based agribusiness consulting firm, became a Partner in the business in 2000 and worked for the organization until 2014 when he left to establish his own consulting practice, Agcellerate. Over the past 24 years, Kevin has provided sales and management training and strategic business consulting services to many of North America’s leading agricultural businesses and organizations.

Kevin, his wife, Julie, and their three children make their home on an irrigated farm and ranch in Kersey, Colorado. He remains personally involved in the registered cattle industry raising registered Limousin and Lim-Flex cattle. Along with his wife, they have built a local branded beef business, Ochsner Tenderlean Beef. Kevin also serves as host of the Cattlemen to Cattlemen TV show broadcast weekly on RFD-TV.

WADE SHAFER, PH.D. Executive Vice President American Simmental Association Wade Shafer grew up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, on Shoestring Ranch, a small seedstock operation.

Shafer completed his bachelor’s degree in Animal Science at North Dakota State University, followed by a master’s and doctorate in Animal Breeding and Genetics from Colorado State University.

While at Colorado State, Shafer did extensive work in the area of bioeconomic simulation modeling. Following his formal education, he expanded Shoestring Ranch to more than 500 cows, with cooperator herds representing another 500+ cows. The ranch sold up to 200 bulls, annually.

After selling his cowherd, Shafer joined the Simmental team as the director of breed improvement for the American Simmental Association (ASA) in 2003; in 2011, he accepted the position of ASA’s chief operations officer.

After Dr. Lipsey’s retirement in 2013, Shafer was named executive vice president of ASA.

DON SCHIEFELBEIN Schiefelbein Farms Don Schiefelbein is owner/partner of his family’s farm in Kimball, Minnesota. Along with his father, and seven brothers, Don coordinates the genetic program as well as the PR and advertising program of the large, diversified farming and livestock operation.

He graduated with a B.S. in Animal Science from Texas A&M University in 1989. Upon graduation, he served as the Meats Assistant and Ultrasound Technician for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service prior to joining the North American Limousin Foundation in 1990. While at NALF, he served as both the Marketing and Membership Service Specialist as well as the Director of Breed Programs.

In 1995, he became the director of Commercial Marketing for the American Gelbvieh Association. In 1998, he assumed the roll of Executive Director for AGA, a position he held until 2002, when he moved back home to the family farm.

Don and his wife, Jennifer, have three daughters, Shelby, Abbey and Bailee.

BRYCE SCHUMANN LS Cattle Bryce and his wife, Gina, own and operate LS Cattle near Lecompton, Kansas. A commercial cattle operation concentrating on sustainable and profitable cow-calf production with a focus on using new and proven technologies to improve productivity of the ranch and the cattle that roam its’ pastures. A lifelong cattlemen, Schumann began his cattle career with the purchase of his first female in 1971. He and his family (Schu-Lar Herefords) have sold performance based seedstock, semen and embryos both domestically and internationally. They have also leased bulls from their program to four major bull studs in the United States.

Schumann has served the beef cattle industry in many capacities over his career, including ag lending and beef promotion. He has extensive experience in the purebred cattle business serving in multiple capacities with the American Angus Association and Certified Angus Beef LLC. During his tenure at AAA he served Chief Executive Officer for the association for seven years. During this time, Schumann helped guide the adoption of new technologies for genetic selection, management of genetic recessives and informatics for data management.

JOE SELLERS Beef Field Specialist Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Joe Sellers has worked for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach since 1987. He has also been a partner in family farming operation in Lucas County since 1976, with a 230-head beef cowherd. He has worked primarily with beef, sheep and forage clients throughout his career.

He works with clients on management decisions including feed rations, bull selection, grazing management and marketing. He has an extensive production background in beef and sheep management systems and is experienced in carcass evaluation and value determination. He has experience in detailed applications of Excel software for ration development, heifer synchronization, budgeting and grazing plans. Sellers has been active in the development of education programs for beef producers, emphasizing grazing systems and cost control.

Sellers is currently on the Iowa Forage and Grasslands Council board of directors and serves on the Perennial Forage Working group of Green Lands Blue Waters. He is the coordinator of the Greenhorn Grazing and Certified Graziers education programs in Iowa.

MATTHEW SPANGLER, PH.D. Associate Professor/Beef Genetics Extension Specialist University of Nebraska Matt Spangler grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm in Kansas. He received degrees from Kansas State University (B.S.; 2001), Iowa State University (M.S.; 2003), and the University of Georgia (Ph.D.; 2006) and is currently an Associate Professor and Extension Beef Genetics Specialist at the University of Nebraska. He works as part of a team with colleagues at UNL and US MARC to improve genetic/genomic selection tools and methods and is currently part of an effort funded by the USDA to develop genomic predictors for feed efficiency in beef cattle.

NATE STRUDER Struder Shorthorns Nate grew up in the cattle industry and is a fifthgeneration Shorthorn breeder. Nate and his father, Dale, own and operate Struder Shorthorns in southwest Iowa, where they run 150-plus head of purebred Shorthorn cows on 800-plus acres of pasture and utilize rotational grazing. Nate focuses on producing cattle that will work for both the purebred and commercial producer.

He uses five major selection priorities including structural correctness, disposition, EPD performance, calving-ease and other maternal strengths.

Nate is not only passionate about the Shorthorn breed, but also corn and soybean grain farming. The females are marketed each fall and the bulls are marketed each spring. Nate has served three terms on the Iowa Shorthorn Association and has held multiple officer roles. Nate graduated from Iowa State in 2003 where he obtained a degree in Ag Studies.

During his time at Iowa State he was actively involved with AGR, Veisha as well as many other activities. In addition to his knowledge of the Shorthorn breed, Nate brings knowledge of the business side of agriculture to the table as he is currently a Retail Account Manager for Dupont. Nate and his wife, Jenny, live outside of Creston, Iowa, with their son Brock.

JEFF STUMP Herdsman Fischer Cattle Co. Jeff Stump has served as herdsman at Fischer Cattle Co. in Great Bend, Kansas, since 2003. FCC is a nationally known seedstock operation that has enjoyed show ring success with Shorthorn and ShorthornPlus cattle. As well, FCC is a cereal, row crop and alfalfa farm. To compliment the Shorthorn program, they also raise commercial cattle and background feeder calves. All of these aspects of the farm are overseen and often implemented by Jeff along with Stacey Fischer.

Jeff was a member of the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M judging team and judges several shows per year, most recently the Keystone International Livestock Expo Shorthorn and ShorthornPlus open shows. He was named 2014 American Shorthorn Association herdsman of the year.

JOHN SULLIVAN Sullivan Farms John Sullivan is the founder/owner of Sullivan Farms, Sullivan Supply and Stock Show University of Dunlap, Iowa. Sullivan Farms is a diversified purebred seedstock operation that raises Shorthorn, Hereford, Angus, Simmental, Charolais and Chi-Maine breeding stock.

They market more than 600 head of registered cattle per year. Sullivan Farms began in 1989 with virtually no capital or land, and today has grown into one of the most successful seedstock programs in North America.

John and his wife, Dede, have two daughters, Sara and Sage, and reside in Dunlap.

BOB WEABER, PH.D. Associate Professor/Cow-Calf Extension Specialist Kansas State University Bob Weaber, Ph.D., Associate Professor, joined the faculty of the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University in August of 2011 as Cow-Calf Extension Specialist and faculty coordinator of the K-State’s Purebred Unit. Previously, Weaber served in the Division of Animal Sciences at the University of Missouri (MU) as Extension Specialist-Beef Genetics and was responsible for educational programming in the area of beef cattle genetics. Dr. Weaber also serves as central regional secretary of the Beef Improvement Federation, is a co-coordinator of the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium education programs and has served as a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Policy Division Board of Directors.

The focus of his extension and research programs have been to broaden the availability, use and understanding of genetic selection tools (Expected Progeny Differences, DNA markers and selection indexes) as well as performance data collection schemes implemented by cattle producers.

Dr. Weaber grew up on a cow-calf operation in southern Colorado and went on to earn a B.S. in Animal Science followed by a M.S. of Agriculture in the Beef Industry Leadership Program at Colorado State University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Animal Breeding and Genetics Group at Cornell University. While there, he served as the Interim Director of Performance Programs for the American Simmental Association for three-and-a-half years. Previously, Weaber was Director of Education and Research at the American Gelbvieh Association.

Bob and his wife, Tami, and their young children, Maddie, Cooper and Wyatt, reside near Wamego, Kansas.

7607 NW Prairie View Rd. Kansas City, MO 64151 816.599.7777 • info@shorthorn.org

www.shorthorn.org