As a cattleman and the father of four daughters, Mark Templeton remembers many remarks over the years about whether he and his wife would “try again for a boy” so they’d have help on the ranch.

Many producers take pride in raising Certified Angus Beef (CAB). Now these producers can take the CAB brand and logo to their freezer beef market with the new direct-to-consumer Ranch to Table program.

Successful beef producers are constantly looking for ways to keep their cattle happy, healthy and well fed, while making sure to not break the bank. One way to ensure long-term profitability is to keep feed costs down.

Unlike in decades past, nailing a hand-painted plywood sign to a fencepost or running a small print ad in the local paper no longer fills out the itinerary of a cattle sale’s marketing campaign.

“Male sexed semen is an opportunity to capture value,” said Kansas State University's Ken Odde, who also helps manage a family cow-calf ranch in South Dakota. “The opportunity’s greater when the price spread between steers and heifers is significant.”

The Beef Improvement Federation recognized 44 Farms of Cameron, Texas, as the BIF Seedstock Producer of the Year during the organization’s annual research symposium in July in Calgary, Alberta. Douglas Lake Cattle Company of Douglas Lake, British Columbia, was presented with the Commercial Producer of the Year Award.

Using new fitness traits like heat tolerance and grazing behavior, Milt Thomas, a department of animal science professor in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is determined to help improve beef cattle systems in South Texas.

With more than 1,000 head of registered Hereford, Angus and commercial Brahman-influenced cattle, the Melancon family has their sights set on making a name for themselves in the Southern seedstock industry. 

As cattle producers – beef or dairy – it is critical to remember that both our industries have the same end product: beef. This concept that all cattle contribute to beef production has never been more closely aligned than with the current growth in the mating of dairy cows to beef semen.

The foundations for beef cattle genomic testing began over a century ago, when forward-thinking breed associations started collecting pedigree and phenotypic data on registered animals. Breeders studied pedigrees, aspiring to create matings that would yield more valuable animals with desirable physical traits.