Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with Kentucky cattle producer Andy Bishop about why he serves the industry as Chairman of the Cattleman’s Beef Promotion Board.
“For me, it is about the people,” Bishop said. “I enjoy getting out and meeting all of the producers across the country who are passionate about promoting our product and telling that story. That is what has driven me to get to where I am today and to share the beef message with everybody across the country that I can.”
Bishop’s own operation is a small cow-calf facility impressively diversified and run by him, his wife, and their four children. He keeps about sixty mama cows and raises Angus bulls, but has recently added Balancer and Lim-Flex bulls to the list.
“That was primarily because my daughter wants to show cattle,” he said. “We bought a Gelbvieh bull and some Limousins, but we sell mostly registered bulls and some freezer beef off of the farm as well.”
Bishop understands that diversifying is important to small operations as is capturing as much added value as possible. “Those calves that we don’t keep for freezer beef, the bulls that don’t make the grade, or even the heifers that we don’t keep for replacements, we background those heifers and try to add value that way through a Certified Pre-Conditioned for Health (CPH-45) program in Kentucky,” Bishop shared. “If you are going to stay in this game as a producer today, you have to be pretty clever with capturing as much value as you can.”
The Beef Checkoff programs that appeal most to Bishop are promotion and education. He especially likes what Farm Bureau, as a Beef Checkoff contractor, is doing with the STEM program to teach science teachers how to add a beef and agricultural emphasis to their curriculums.
He said, “The U.S. Meat Export Federation is probably one of my favorite programs along with the work they do internationally to add value to a carcass. They do an outstanding job of promoting those products overseas.”
He emphasized the value added to the variety-meats that aren’t typically used in the United States such as tongue, tripe, and liver. “Thanks to the work of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, consumers abroad love those products, know how to utilize them in their diets, and are willing to pay a premium for them,” he said.
In Japan, U.S. beef tongue brings $11 – $12 per pound, and tripe is worth $4 – $6 per pound. “I’ve only had tripe one time in my life, and it was when I was in Japan,” he added. “It isn’t something that I’m going to consume in my diet regularly, but they enjoy it there and they are willing to pay for it. I am thankful that the U.S. Meat Export Federation is doing the work there.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
