At the latest American Angus Convention in Orlando, Florida, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to catch up with Oklahoma Angus Breeder, John Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer has previously served as the leadership chair of the Certified Angus Beef program and also served as the President of the American Angus Association. During the time period when Pfeiffer served on leadership with Certified Angus Beef, CAB hit its first billion-pound mark.
Pfeiffer said this year marks the third-highest year in terms of pounds of CAB sold at close to 1.3 billion.
“I have been pleasantly surprised that we are seeing demand for quality from consumers all the time,” Pfeiffer said. “We knew that consumers like beef. We saw that coming out of the pandemic because our meet shelves were empty. What we are finding more interesting is when they buy at the retail level, they are actually looking for a quality product.”
Because of consumer’s desire to buy the best quality beef and pay extra for it, Pfeiffer said CAB has continued to gain popularity over the years.
“One of the interesting things is that we have had a big demand for Certified Angus Beef Prime,” Pfeiffer said. “Our biggest problem is being able to produce enough of that. Even though we have been able to produce a lot of Certified Angus Beef, we are going to have to do more genetic work and more breeding to be able to get more pounds of that Certified Angus Beef Prime because we have people who are asking for it and saying, ‘We want more.’”
Regarding the state of the cattle industry, Pfeiffer said the attitude of producers is positive.
“Cattle prices are high, cull prices are high, and in most of the places, we are getting out of the drought,” Pfeiffer said. “We are not totally out of it yet, but we are seeing that. If expansion is ever going to occur, it is going to occur in the next year because we are getting to that point.”
Pfeiffer said he is hopeful that producers will make these expansions with quality genetics that will produce a premium product.
“Because of the quality of seed stock bulls that are coming back, I think we are going to see a lot more CAB Prime- Certified Angus Beef Prime- being produced because we are increasing the marbling so much, and that is what tends to limit the Certified Angus Beef Prime,” Pfeiffer said.
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