The Missouri Limousin Association hosted a steak cook-out and information session for 50 commercial producers from the Fulton area, which is located in north central Missouri. This event followed the Missouri Junior Field Day on June 25, 2005 and was held at the Callaway County Fairgrounds in Fulton. It was a great opportunity for Missouri seed stock producers to meet with the segment of the beef community that is the life-blood of our industry. Junior cattle as well as open cattle were on exhibit for the commercial producers to evaluate.

A short program followed the dinner in which members of the Missouri senior and junior associations were honored for various accomplishments. Double E Limousin of Smithville was given the Premier Promoter award. Lee and Connie Grant of Columbia were honored as Premier Breeders and Pinegar Limousin of Springfield was awarded Premier Exhibitor. Sarah and Tyler Cunningham of Camdenton were given the Junior Herdsmanship award. Mallory Brunkhorst of Armstrong and Scott Edwards of Corder were introduced as winners of the Robinson Memorial Scholarship. Heartland Executive Secretary Dean Summerbell welcomed the large crowd and challenged the Missouri juniors to have a successful week at the NALJA show in Murfreesboro, TN.

The main portion of the evening was dedicated to telling the Limousin story. Gene Raymond of Garnett, Kansas was the principal speaker of the evening. Raymond served as director on the North American Limousin Foundation Board of Directors for two terms and chaired the Commercial committee. He is a cattle feeder, seed stock producer, and an instructor at the Graham School in Garnett. He challenged all in attendance to look at the real world of cattle production. Raymond stated that seed stock producers should use shows as a means of presenting their cattle to the public. Shows have a place in the beef industry, if they are done professionally and meant to promote the breed in a positive way.

Raymond took a quick survey to find out how many producers in the audience raised calves from birth to finish. Only one producer did. Most commercial and seed stock producers sell at weaning time. A few backgrounded their product before selling to the feedlot for finishing. He urged the audience to take advantage of the free benefit of heterosis. Hybrid vigor will increase profit without any imput costs. Raymond used the figure of 27% increase in a ½ blood cow over straight-bred cows if genetic selection was done properly. He also encouraged commercial men to demand genetic information on the bulls they buy from seed stock producers. They need all the data to be efficient and profitable. Data on birth weight, weaning weight, scrotal measurements and scan data on carcasses are essential. The most powerful tool to a profitable operation is information.

When the national identification system is in place, data accumulated by packers will determine where they will buy. At the present time, the packing segment of the industry has more data than any other unit. Their kill data will determine what cattle are profitable and what cattle are not profitable. Raymond said, “We need to work as an industry to accumulate data, document it, and share it with the commercial cattleman. The most expensive thing commercial producers can do is buy a genetically inferior bull. The biggest mistake you can make is buying a bull on price rather than genetics.”

Raymond reminded the producers that the end product is the most important factor. The value lies in its pleasing taste. If someone could develop a method to test for tenderness at rail speed, they would be a millionaire overnight. He indicated that more change has taken place in the last two years in how cattle are marketed than had taken place in the previous 30 years. Everyone needs to find out how their cattle are producing on the rail. Predictability of how their product will kill is the name of the game.

Between grids, formulas, and special niche markets the ever changing market determines everyone’s bottom line. Efficiency, knowing your product, and providing data to back it up will insure your best possible marketing plan to make you successful and survive in the industry.