
At Cattlemen’s Conference Part 2: Blueprint for the Future, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to visit with Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist, Mark Johnson about this year’s conference and discussions that are taking place. The conference is being held at OSU’s Totusek Arena and will run through midday Thursday.
“At OSU, we have a history of significant beef cattle conferences,” Johnson said. “A few years ago, we began the idea of having the first one, and last year we found ourselves addressing a variety of topics from ethics in marketing to late-day morbidity in feedlot cattle, to selection for extremes. By the time we were done after two days, we had a really good event and a good crowd, and we decided that we had some pretty important topics left.”
As Johnson explained, this year’s Cattlemen’s Conference Part 2: Blueprint for the Future covers more topics, including those that were not afforded enough time at the previous conference.
“Our hope is that people will take advantage of what this conference has to offer and leave with more information, the opportunity to dialogue with their peers while they are here the next couple of days, and feel empowered to improve upon what they are doing, and take their beef operation to the next level,” Johnson said.
Over the next few days, Johnson said there will be a great set of speakers discussing topics from selection and mating to regenerative ranching and gene editing.
“The future belongs to those who show up to make the decisions, and we hope everybody makes the most out of this opportunity,” Johnson said.
A highlight of the conference will be a discussion of gene editing in animals with Dr. Alison Van Enennaam from the University of California-Davis. As everyone’s operation is different, Johnson said each person can come out of the convention with something different.
“I think there will be morsels that come from different parts of the program that will pertain to one operation or another,” Johnson said. “It is up to producers to use that to their advantage.”