Few times in history has the cattle industry offered more opportunity for profit to conscientious producers than right now. That was the primary message of CattleFax CEO Randy Blach’s executive summary at CattleFax’s Industry Outlook Seminar on Feb. 2. 

Historically, the relative value of traits to the commercial cow-calf sector has been stated as the “10-to-2-to-1 rule of thumb,” where fertility traits are 10 times more important than carcass traits and five times more important than growth traits.

Everything – soil health, pasture productivity, the symbiotic relationship between grass and cattle – is interrelated. When trying to fit this all together, Riley and Jimmie Kammerer became part of something much bigger. Something good.

In the past 20 years, genetic potential of the cow herd and production costs have steadily increased; however, production outputs (pregnancy rates and weaning weights) have been stagnant or declined.

In America’s cattle regions, a revolutionary change is happening that might transform the feedlot industry. It’s centered around a special kind of probiotic, a tiny hero in the world of biology.

Trust. It’s the glue that holds together the relationship between the bank and the borrower. And just like any other relationship, trust can take years to build through communication, setting expectations and following through.

“Genetic improvement” is a term with far-reaching implications, uniquely and individually defined by those in the beef industry.

“No doubt, we’re going to be strong and growing for the foreseeable future,” says IDA CEO Rick Naerebout “It won’t be at the aggressive pace of the past because of processing capacity and having enough water to grow silage and hay long term.

Except for forage producers using hay analyses for marketing purposes, the real advantage of hay testing is not simply getting the results, but using those results to make meaningful decisions and make the hay feeding period more efficient.