By Larry Stalcup | Contributing Editor BE A PRICE MAKER
W hen Andy Holloway and his committee brain- provide ranchers with tools to boost their cattle production, enhance their land and overall environment, as well as improve other aspects of their ranch operation. Boy, did they ever succeed! Held in Canadian, Texas, the conference has evolved into a can’t- miss, prime beef event that regularly draws close to 800 people from two dozen or more states and several other countries. It was the idea of Holloway, Hemphill County Extension agent, and various regional ranchers, agribusiness leaders and lenders, West Texas A&M University and others. stormed the first Hemphill County Beef Conference 11 years ago, they envisioned a forum that would Guest speakers have included Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, former U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, cattle handling guru Temple Grandin and Duck Dynasty’s National Cattlemen’s Beef Associa- tion (NCBA) leadership also puts the Hemphill County conference on their calendars. At this April’s conference, NCBA CEO Colin Woodall discussed NCBA policies to lower taxes, reduce unnecessary regulations, urge national policy against fake meat, and other issues that can benefit pro- duction efficiency. Woodall also stressed the importance of how producers have upgraded their cattle quality. Among other speakers who centered on beef quality was Randall Spare, DVM, Ashland Veterinary Center in Ashland, Kan. Spare emphasized the value of using bull EPDs (expected progeny differences) to identify sires that can improve their commercial herd. Spare stressed that EPDs, measured through technological advances seen in the past two decades or more,“predict how progenies of a particular bull are expected to perform relative to progeny of other animals within the same database.” A producer’s customers, whether they’re other cow-calf, stocker or seedstock operators, or cattle feeders, will likely have an in- terest in an animal’s EPD data. One data point identifies a bull’s “beef dollar,” Spare said. Willie Robertson. While those speak- ers were more motivational in their approach, most headliners have been Extension, USDA and private industry beef cattle specialists, with expertise ranging from production management to market risk management. EPD data provides a dollar index, based on post-weaning mer- its. It shows the dollar difference between a particular progeny
compared to other animals in a contemporary group. One bull in a list may have a $188 beef dollar, while another may have $288 in post-weaning merits. “Feedyard managers will ask,‘What is your average beef dollar on bulls?’” Spare said.“Ultimately, someone will buy our prod- uct. But don’t be a price taker, be a price maker.” He explained that price takers often make few, if any, genetic investments “beyond the ranch gate.”“Price makers,” however, invest in high-quality bulls and/or semen for artificial insemination to help improve their herd quality, Spare said. The tools are available from breed associations that provide reg- istered sire and dam progeny lists. Commercial cattle herds can benefit just as much as seedstock operators in improving their breeding programs.“Make sure the next person to own our cat- tle makes a profit,” Spare said, who is also on the U.S. Premium Beef (USPB) Board of Directors.
USPB has various market grids to help identify quality cattle and usually pays a higher price for them.“Consumers want quality. They are not going to buy Select beef to celebrate [a student’s] graduation,” Spare said. Holloway said Spare’s information “was one of the most practical and important presentations we’ve had at our beef confer- ence.“When I heard Dr. Spare at the Cer- tified Angus Beef Quality Feeding Forum in Dodge City, I knew he was someone with information that is not smoke and mirrors. He buys and sells a lot of these
cattle and shows his customers the value of EPDs.” Spare added that even though the booming cattle market is breaking records, it will likely eventually come down. When the market goes down,“our [higher quality cattle] are going to weather storms.” Spare was one of several dozen speakers at the conference. Cap- ital Farm Credit was the title sponsor. There were more than 125 vendors at the trade show, including nearly 30 corporate sponsors and dozens of Canadian and area volunteers who made the event possible. Other conference presentations included those that involved: cattle marketing, financing, soil and forage health, weather fore- casting, new technologies including artificial intelligence, weed and brush control and other major issues facing cattle producers. In reviewing the conference’s history, Holloway’s emotions got to him, notably after he remembered how the event survived to live on after the 2024 wildfires. The disaster charred more than 1.2 million acres in the northern Texas Panhandle. The inferno
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