MARKETING...
Angus Journal Facebook Fan Favorite Photo Contest is open.
The Fan Favorite Photo Contest is back by popular demand. This is the second year for the new category in the National Junior Angus Association/Angus Journal photo contest via social media. The Fan Favorite category for each age division will be voted on by fans of the Angus Journal Facebook page.
The photo in each age division with the most “likes” will each earn a spot as the Angus Journal Facebook page cover photo, and will also be recognized as a Fan Favorite at the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) in Kansas City, Mo., July 5-11.
The voting deadline is July 3. To keep it fair, all photos must be voted on through the Angus Journal Facebook page (so feel free to share a photo, but direct friends to vote on the AJ page). Only votes by fans of the Angus Journal page will count.
While this may seem an odd article to lead off our “Marketing” page, the pictures of agriculture we instill in our customers’ minds can be among the best marketing efforts we put forth for our industry. NJAA members turned in more than 400 photos that depict days in the life of our junior members. We hope you will enjoy them.
In The Cattle Markets
USDA reports June supply and demand estimates.
USDA released its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) update last week. As usual, most of the market’s focus was on the monthly update of grain supply and use tables, particularly corn. On that point, adjustments were fairly minor.
In response to slow May planting, USDA dropped the projected 2013 corn yield to 156.5 bushels (bu.) per acre — 1.5 bu. below last month’s estimate. With no change in projected acreage, the effect of the reduced yield was to drop production by 135 million bu. to 14.005 billion, still a massive crop by historic standards.
Of course, the question that will continue to circulate in the market during the next couple of weeks is “What will the final planted acreage be?” Read more.
Did You Know … ?
We can hit today’s consumer targets without having to absorb higher COG levels.
When does the cost of gain (COG) exceed the fed-cattle price? Historically, it almost never does unless weather-related feeding conditions ramp up those costs. Until now.
Shawn Walter, head of Oklahoma-based Professional Cattle Consultants (PCC), delved into the dynamics in a recent newsletter and noted COG on a live-cattle basis has persisted in the $135-per-hundredweight (cwt.) area since March, with fed prices hovering around $125. That’s a staggering spread for cattle feeders to absorb — nearly impossible without better cattle that beat the spread and add premiums. Such pressure helped build a new mind-set that looks at grid marketing and carcass gain vs. cash sales and live gain in those last weeks on feed. Read more.
Cattle Outlook
Ag economists offer June 14 outlook.
USDA has raised its forecast of 2013 beef production to 25.437 billion pounds (lb.), up 1.3% from its May forecast, but down 1.8% from the 2012 actual. They are predicting 2014 beef production will be down 5.2% from 2013. The midpoint of their price forecast range for slaughter steers on a liveweight basis is $127.50 per hundredweight (cwt.) for 2013 and $132 per cwt. in 2014.
USDA’s June crop update lowered forecast corn yield by 1.5 bushels (bu.) per acre to 156.5 and raised the expected seasonal average price by 10¢ per bu. The midpoints of their price range are $4.80 for corn and $10.75 for soybeans during the upcoming marketing year. Read more.
The Source
Are you marketing the value of your calves
or just “selling”?
You manage a commercial cow herd. You use only registered-Angus bulls, and the calves are solid black. You have a complete vaccination program, and your calves have never been implanted or given antibiotics. Your neighbor uses several commercial “black” bulls on a put-together cow herd. His vaccination program is nonexistent. As a result, he is constantly treating his calves. Yet, every fall when you wean the calves, load them up and sell them at the local auction market, he walks out with a check that is comparable to yours. Why? Read more.
‘Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner’ Website Relaunched
The checkoff’s consumer-facing BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com has a new look and functionality to continue to help educate consumers on how to purchase, prepare and enjoy beef. With a more contemporary appearance through compelling beef imagery and simplified, interactive navigation and content, the website will engage visitors.
There are four main sections of the site: Recipes, Butcher Counter, Cooking and Health. Read more.
What a Chef Wants
Cooking up retail trust.
Hawaiian chef Keoni Chang wants the peace of mind that comes from knowing his customers — everyone who shops at the 32 Foodland supermarkets across the Islands — will go home and prepare meals that make them happy.
He’s found that level of satisfaction through a relentless quest for the best that is part technical and part rooted in memories of his grandmother’s scratch cinnamon twists and lemon-meringue pies that had no equal.
Those roots saw him through, from a local community college to a professional degree at New York’s Culinary Institute of America. They nourished him during an apprenticeship at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia and jobs from New York to Las Vegas and Honolulu before Chang signed on as Foodland corporate chef in 2004.
“Chefs in supermarkets, at the time, that was a rarity,” he says. Yet it was an opportunity to work with a team to elevate quality in both prepared foods and perishables, including beef. Read more.
Angus Calendar
To view the Angus Calendar, a complete list of Angus sales, click here.