Mark McCully has served the American Angus Association as Chief Executive Officer since 2019. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with McCully at the recent Beef Improvement Federation meeting to discuss the disappointment some cattle industry members are feeling after the American Angus Association accepted grant money from the Bezos Earth Fund to research methane efficiency in cattle on grass as part of a multi-country research project. Part one of this conversation was posted yesterday; today, the conversation continues.
It’s important to remember that Angus Genetics has already been engaged in “methane research” a couple of years ago in partnership with Kansas State University to identify the female genetics with more efficient methane outputs. It’s not a new area of exploration at all.
“We are seeing quite a bit of work right here at the Beef Improvement Federation on research on methane,” McCully pointed out. “The dairy industry is saying that it isn’t about the climate change narrative; it’s about finding cattle that are more efficient. That is just more money in people’s pockets.”
Dr. Frank Mitloehner is a professor and air quality specialist in cooperative extension in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis and has already been heavily involved in such research. McCully urged all doubters to watch one of Dr. Mitloehner’s presentations. “He’s a fantastic and very credible scientist in this space,” McCully shared. “He is doing great work talking to those who maybe don’t understand the science of this and have grabbed on to this ‘Cows produce methane, therefore…’ somehow we are involved in climate change.”
McCully emphasized that the Angus Association has no intention of joining the climate change debate; rather, the reason for the research is to minimize the biological fact that methane emissions from cattle equate to energy loss.
“If we can find those cows that lose less energy and can convert more of that energy to pounds of calf weaned, that’s what we are trying to do,” he clarified.
The idea of taking care of the land, natural resources, animals, and environment isn’t new in agriculture, and McCully highlighted the work that the Angus Association has done to connect the efforts of beef producers in the U.S. through programs such as Beef Quality Assurance to consumers.
“What we have found consistently is that the folks selling our product, love our product,” McCully said. “Our retailers and food service operators love beef. It’s a really important part of our business, but they’re under some pressures – whether from their investors or consumers – to answer some of these questions, so we have to tell our story.”
He noted the false narrative that cattle producers have fallen under, which points to them as the problem, and how the American Angus has tried to communicate to consumers that producers are part of the solution because environmental stewardship isn’t a new idea for farmers and ranchers.
Turning the conversation to the health of the Angus beef industry at this point in the year, McCully said that demand for beef and registered Angus seedstock has been great. He noted the high prices coinciding with high inflation and reminded producers to be mindful of their margins.
“The market has been outstanding,” he said. “March was the best month in the history of Certified Angus Beef. We continue to see the quality of our cattle, as an industry, improve. We had weeks where Prime was over USDA’s select, so we’re asking consumers to pay a lot for our product, but we are also putting the best product in front of them that we ever have. As an industry, we sure need to be proud of that.”
He touted the efforts that the industry has made to satisfy consumers are paying off dividends in demand. He noted how the summer video sales are a good indication of the state of the market and that cow calf producers are and will remain in the drivers seat for some time going forward, but the highly efficient calves that can gain quickly and efficiently to the heavier weights required by cattle feeders with a high quality carcass will always be in high demand.
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 for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
