Agricultural News
Certified Angus Beef on Pace for Record Sales
Tue, 20 May 2014 11:53:47 CDT
Certified Angus Beef is known as a gold standard when it comes to branded beef programs. Speaking at the recent Animal Agriculture Alliance John Stika, President of Certified Angus Beef. He says CAB is indeed been the trail blazar when it come to branded beef programs in this country and at the same time folks surrounding CAB are excited about the future.
"We have been very fortunate to have a very fruitful past and it makes us excited about what's in front of us and there is no doubt that in 1978 when this brand was started as the first branded beef program out there, there were a lot of challenges," Stika said. "But the early success and the ability to build a strong foundation built on quality and things consumers value has really been a big part of the momentum that we built as this whole brand beef movement has really caught sail and really is growing rapidly in the industry today".
"Sales are extremely strong, we've got the highest beef prices we've seen and we are on pace right now to be four to five percent up over a year ago and on pace to have our eighth consecutive year of record sales"Stika said.
The record numbers are being made on bigger numbers at a time when the US cowherd is shrinking.
"I think that says a lot about our industry's ability, the beef community's ability, to really tailor to the needs of consumers," Stika said. "Consumer have indicted that they want quality and if they are going to be asked to pay a higher price, they expect more in return of that higher price".
"Producers across the beef community have responded by putting more cattle out there with the genetics and with the management to hit a higher quality endpoint and I think that's what we are seeing with the consumer's ability to pay more money for a higher quality product,"Stika said.
One of the reasons Certified Angus Beef program is out in front is the genetics and the testing and ifnormation that breeders have to select a better quality animal everytime they go through a breeding process.
"In the eyes of consumers sometimes it often goes unnoticed, they just see what is offered in the meatcase or on the menu, but the effort of cattlemen and women to tailor their breeding decisions and their genetic tools to meet those consumer needs is really one of the real sucess stories of our entire industry," Stika said.
"It's no different that what we are always asked to do, to do more with less of all of our resources. And what we have been able to do is take a smaller cowherd and through the use of genetic tools that are available through the Angus Association and in the Angus breed itself, been able to take a higher percentage of a smaller indsutry and continue to grow the supply high quality premium beef such as the Certified Angus Beef brand, to fill the need and desires consumers have," Stika said.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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