What’s Your Plan?

by IBBA Board President Mike Vorel

I hope everyone had a great summer, and that everyone is n ow enjoying some cooler weather and the start of fall.

First off, I would like to say “thanks” and compliment The Oaks Farms, Joe & Catherine Kassler, and the Southeast Brangus Breeders Association on hosting a very informative and successful Fall Conference. Thanks to our International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) staff for their work and efforts to help make everything work for this successful event. The two days were filled with informative, top-notch speakers sharing their knowledge with Brangus breeders from across the country and area commercial cattlemen and women.

It takes a lot of time and effort to plan and prepare for an event such as this one. The event was well attended, the southern hospitality was great, as always, and I hope everyone makes plans to attend next year’s event. Our membership should be eager to spend time together visiting, sharing ideas and thoughts, and hearing excellent speakers.

One of the highlights for me was the group of fellow Brangus breeders Tom Davis and entrepreneurs Fred Linz and Glenn Davis. Fred and Glenn represent Linz Heritage Angus and Meats by Linz.  They informed attendees about their business model which includes working with producers to packers as they market their product. They are in the purebred business and work with producers using Linz Angus genetics to produce their final product. Fred Linz stated: “The demand for quality meat that consistently hits the mark on consumer expectations is what matters most in our business.” I would hope that matters to all of us because consumer satisfaction is what keeps demand for beef and all of us in business. The Linz family has set goals and strives to produce a high-quality product as their standard. I studied their herd-sire line-up, and you can see they are trying hard to accomplish maintaining a cow herd with built-in productivity and fertility. While they work toward productivity and fertility, they are also striving for high-quality carcass traits – an accomplishment that is hard to maintain. I applaud Tom Davis and the Linz family for their dedication  to successfully operate from conception to harvest and market a high quality product. I found their plan to succeed very interesting and I thank them for sharing their knowledge.

Their plan was what I found intriguing. They found their strengths, set goals, and improved on them. I hear rumbles from members stating that we need to mirror other breeds. My thought is if we attempt to look like someone else’s plan we always come in second or less. I hope we are looked at as leaders in our industry and not followers. We have to have our own plan, identify our strengths, share our story, maintain our plan, and always continue to improve our product.

The extremely high prices we, as cattle producers, experienced recently over past years may eventually be more of a curse than a positive. Hopefully everyone paid off debt with extra funds.

My opinion is most seedstock and commercial producers alike quickly become multipliers instead of improvers. Every animal produced turns into a good one and producers desperately attempt to capitalize on the higher prices, which is fine but usually are just being paid more for a product that has no documentation for added value. In some cases, producers are getting paid more for less. Now, with lower prices, cattlemen are searching for ways to add value and efficiency.

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed the higher prices as much as anyone, but the realist in me tells me there wasn’t as much progress made during that time period. Now is the time to find your strengths, improve them, document, solidify, and promote. Make a plan and improve your product. Opportunity is always just around the corner, possibly even more so in tougher times for those who choose to accept the challenges.

Lastly, a building update. I’ve been very impressed with the contractor your IBBA Board chose for the renovations to our new IBBA office building. It looks like everything will be completed by early-to-mid-October. I’m sure our staff is anxious to move in and spread out a little. Thanks to our staff for enduring the tight spaces during this transition. Hopefully we will have high-speed internet, a working phone system, and a nice, efficient office building. If you are in the area drop by and visit our new IBBA headquarters at 8870 E Highway 87 in San Antonio, Texas.

Until next time – enjoy your family, cattle and fall.