Around 1,000 American Angus Association® members and other beef industry professionals convened in Kansas City, October 31- November 2, for the 2025 Angus Convention. The event showcased educational tours and presentations, an Industry Showcase, and Association business and award honors.
“We’re here today having an Angus breed that can check so many marks off that job description: calving ease, problem-free cows, maternal strength, growth, efficiency, carcass merit and carcass weight,” said Mark McCully, CEO of the Association, during his opening presentation. He and other presenters spent time over the weekend talking about the Angus advantages in the genetic arena, market landscape and other areas influencing profitability for members and their commercial customers.
Association business
During the 142nd Annual Convention of Delegates on Sunday, November 2, the Association recognized Jonathan Perry of Fayetteville, Tennessee, for his service as the outgoing president of the Board of Directors. McCully presented his CEO report, and copies of the Association’s 2025 Annual Report were distributed. The annual report is available online at https://bit.ly/AAA_AnnualReport25.
The 287 delegates in attendance re-elected five members to a second term on the Board. They are Rob Adams, Union Springs, Alabama; Art Butler, Bliss, Idaho; Alan Mead, Barnett, Missouri; Henry Smith, Russell Springs, Kentucky; and Roger Wann, Poteau, Oklahoma.
The delegation also elected officers: Jim Brinkley, Milan, Missouri, as president and chairman of the board; Darrell Stevenson, White Sulphur Springs, Montana, as vice president and vice chairman of the board. Smitty Lamb, Tifton, Georgia was selected by the board to serve as treasurer for fiscal year 2026.
Brinkley said in his speech during the Convention of Delegates, “I grew up learning that cattle don’t care what you say; they care about what you do. They measure our intentions and the consistency of our feed and the soundness of our decisions, and the integrity of our records. Our Association is much the same.”
“For more than 142 years, this membership has built something durable by doing the work, day in and day out: recording data, improving genetics, building demand, and standing shoulder to shoulder when markets turn or environments test us,” Brinkley continued. “That ethic is our edge. It’s why the word Angus means something on sale day, on a load of feeder cattle and on a restaurant menu.”
Regional tours
Educational tours and presentations also continue to be a highlight for many attendees.
The 2025 National Angus Tour, organized by the Kansas Angus Association and sponsored by Vytelle, included stops at Downey Ranch, Shamrock Farms, and Fink Beef Genetics. Certified Angus Beef’s (CAB’s) annual Beef Blitz tour featured regional foodservice distributor Sysco Kansas City’s facilities.
As a third tour option, attendees traveled to St. Joseph, Missouri for an open house at the Association’s headquarters. In recent years, the facility has undergone remodels and the addition of an expanded historical display of the Angus breed.
Phil Howell, Howell Angus of Winchester, Indiana, had not visited the Association’s headquarters since his time on the Board of Directors in the 2010s and said he was especially impressed with the artifacts curated by the Association. “It is amazing,” he said, viewing the new history timeline display.
General sessions
Four general sessions served as flagships for the convention’s educational line up.
The first session, Market Advantage, featured Randy Blach, CEO of CattleFax, who presented the latest market analytics. He described economic signals of a slow, initial expansion of the national cow herd and some of the short-term impacts he has been seeing due to recent U.S. policy decisions.
“Policy decisions have a major impact on the market in the short-term,” Blach told the crowd. “Eventually those things will settle out, and we’ll get back to normal. That’s what we’re going through right now.”
Another general session, Advantage for the Future, utilized interactive surveys, so that attendees could help guide the Association’s vision of “what winning looks like,” McCully said. Those in the room provided feedback on a variety of topics: from perceptions in consumer demand trends, barriers to cow inventory growth, genetic selection tools and evaluations, and more. As a panel, McCully, Perry, Brinkley and Stevenson also shared insights from the Association’s 2025 member survey in combination with audience feedback.
Brinkley said that he and the Board recognize the diversity of the Association’s membership and their opinions. “We still have to be progressive and provide the tools for everyone to be successful,” he said on stage.
The Research Advantage general session focused on the forward-looking work being done by the Association’s wholly owned entity, Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI®). Attendees heard a summary of AGI’s current and recent research projects, looking at challenging topics like female and bull fertility, bovine congestive heart failure and methane efficiency research.
During the Genetic Advantage Symposium, sponsored by Neogen, speakers discussed phenotypic data collection and how types of commercial data are needed in larger quantities to better understand complex issues.
“A change in the beef industry is driven by all of these people right here in this room,” said Kelli Retallick-Riley, president of AGI. “As we look towards the future, we want to continue to keep [Association members] in that position.”
Retallick-Riley kicked off the symposium by talking about how the Angus breed has been and continues to be successful in collecting and utilizing large amounts of data, such as the 237,000 seedstock genomic profiles tested during the 2025 fiscal year. However, there are still gaps in commercial data that need to be filled.
Troy Rowan, animal science assistant professor at the University of Tennessee and the speaker following Retallick-Riley during the symposium summarized it this way: “More phenotypes make more accurate tools, and more accurate phenotypes make more accurate tools.”
Rowan was invited to present information as the author of the AGI Imagine Forum White Paper, titled “Exploring Next-Generation Phenotyping that Drives Commercial Profitability.”
Retallick-Riley later facilitated a panel discussion with Rowan; Mike Ellis, animal science professor emeritus with the University of Illinois; and James Bradley, Bradley 3 Ranch of Memphis, Texas.
Some of the key messages from their discussion were that Angus breeders can learn lessons from other species about how to be wise with resources when investigating genetic advancements and that collecting more phenotype data from commercial environments is crucial, because context and genotype-by-environment interactions can impact the effectiveness of genetic tools.
Choose-your-own education
Angus University and Learning Lounge breakout sessions offered attendees even more education.
Association staff offered several highly practical Angus University sessions on how to make the most of a membership with the organization, tips for submitting data to the Association and how members can get the most return out of your data submission efforts. Other Angus University topics ranged from balancing carcass and maternal traits to building relationships between seedstock and commercial customers. As part of Angus University, Angus Media also hosted sale-day focused sessions.
“This year’s Angus Media Marketing Summit was designed to help Angus members learn how to plan ahead for sale day and create a customized, integrated marketing plan for their operation,” said Courtney Bartenslager, digital marketing manager with Angus Media.
The two sessions included a deep dive into the tools and services offered by Angus Media, along with creative strategies to get the most out of a marketing budget.
Kenneth Lowe, Oak Hollow Angus of Smiths Grove, Kentucky, has attended many Angus Conventions and national meetings throughout his years as a breeder and said he found this year’s to be very enjoyable. Reflecting on the educational sessions, Lowe said he was pleased with their quality and the interesting questions he heard asked by participants. “Every one that I attended was well-attended,” he said.
Lowe said he also spent time visiting exhibitors at the Industry Showcase, new at the 2025 convention. “I kind of liked the cozier atmosphere to the trade show segment,” he said. Several of the Industry Showcase sponsors also offered Learning Lounge sessions on topics from fertility to sale management software.
Honors and awards
The largest celebration at Angus Convention was once more the Association’s Awards Dinner on November 1. During it, the Angus Heritage Foundation inducted David Hawkins of Mason, Michigan; Mike McGuire of Waverly, Alabama; Robert Totusek (posthumously) of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Tom and Carolyn Perrier of Eureka, Kansas.
Other winners recognized during the awards dinner and reception are as follows:
Angus Ambassador of the Year – Don Denny, Lubbock, Texas
Young Breeder of the Year – Josh Worthington, Dadeville, Mo.
The Roll of Victory (ROV) Breeder of the Year – Express Ranches, Yukon, Okla.
ROV Show Bull of the Year – Fitzgerald Saint Elmo 1997 owned by Broderic Fitzgerald, Frankfort, Ind.
ROV Show Heifer of the Year – EXAR Princess 3691, owned by Ella Weldon, Piedmont, Okla.
2025 Sire of the Year – Conneally Craftsman (Registration No. 20132505) bred by Conneally Angus, Whitman, Neb. and owned by Select Sires Inc., Plain City, Ohio and STgenetics, Navasota, Texas
AHIR® 2025 Data Driven Herd Recipients
The reception concluded with the crowning of the 2026 Miss American Angus. Claire Murnin of Pompeys Pillar, Montana will serve as a spokesperson for the Angus breed at shows and events across the country in the coming year. She is the first from the “Big Sky Country” state to serve in the role.
Convention extras
Throughout the long weekend Certified Angus Beef ® brand cuts kept attendees satisfied. At the awards dinner, the meal centered around a tender short-rib dish.
The brand also hosted a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) training on October 31, which featured education led by A.J. Tarpoff, Kansas State University beef Extension veterinarian. Over 40 producers earned their BQA certification as part of the brand’s Raised with RespectTM campaign sponsored by Sysco.
Another source of excitement came from drawing the Grand Prize Giveaways. First-time Angus Convention attendee Braden Forker of Nebraska won a S04 Squeeze Chute from Priefert. Doug Velisek of Maryland was drawn for a John Deere Gator 845M Crossover Utility Vehicle; and Dale Jenkins of Texas took home a Trans Ova genetics service voucher, which helps cover one genetic preservation, an IVF cycle, and up to five fresh implants into Trans Ova or client recipients.
More news and information from the 2025 Angus Convention will be shared online at angus.org and in the January 2026 edition of the Angus Journal. A recap video is also available at https://bit.ly/AC25recap.
The 2026 Angus Convention will be held November 13-16, in Louisville, Kentucky in conjunction with the North American International Livestock Exhibition.
