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Miranda Reiman:

Welcome to The Angus Conversation. I'm your host, Miranda Reiman, with my co-host, Mark McCully, in the hot seat. How are you doing, Mark?

Mark McCully:

Oh, it's not that hot. We've had a really good week of board meetings.

Miranda Reiman:

That's exactly right. I was thinking how we always start this podcast and say, "It's been a great week of meetings. How could I say it different?" The first thing that came to mind was there wasn't anything wildly interesting. I thought, "No, I'm going to edit that." It's not wildly interesting, but I do think that a lot of the business of the Association this time felt like regular progression of things we've already talked about. I don't think that there's-

Mark McCully:

Very strategic. I think I would call it very strategic, and compliments to the board. I know there's things we have to take care that are ... the board needs to address. We'll get into, a little later, some details around budgets, things like that. Then also, I think looking down the road and trying to anticipate the changes that are facing the Association and its members. That always requires some time just to, again, look ... I always say, look with a long lens, but being strategic, and we had a lot of that.

Miranda Reiman:

Absolutely. When I look around the table, none of these guests are new to the podcast. I think we can do pretty-

Mark McCully:

Podcast veterans.

Miranda Reiman:

That's right. I think we can do pretty quick introductions here. Of course, our president of the board right now, Chuck Grove.

Chuck Grove:

Glad to be here.

Miranda Reiman:

Excellent. We've got Smitty Lamb joining us from Georgia.

Smitty Lamb:

Good morning. Good to be here.

Miranda Reiman:

Thank you. And Jim Brinkley, just a couple of hours away over here in Missouri.

Jim Brinkley:

Thanks for having me.

Miranda Reiman:

We've got a good group of folks assembled to go through the whole list of things. Even though I say it wasn't wildly interesting, there were a lot of things on the list.

Mark McCully:

I think it was wildly interesting. I'm offended by that, Miranda, to be real honest. No. Again, I think it was really good. I think one of the ... We always work hard for transparency of what the board's talking about. Obviously, this podcast is to cover some of those highlights, but I always point folks out to the letters and the highlights that we put out on the website and in the Journal for more details on some of these.

Maybe one of the big topics, and maybe one of the more exciting topics, Jim, was the progress of AngusLink. Back in January, entered into a partnership with IMI and had some pretty nice success this summer.

Jim Brinkley:

Extremely good success. Very fortunate to enter into that partnership and bring Angus awareness throughout the country. The success was, it's just astronomical. The program's grown over two and a half times in a short six months or seven. Enrollment's a record, right at 135,000 as of the first of the month, so it's been awesome.

Miranda Reiman:

Of course, that enthusiasm feels even more as you've just come off a lot of those video sales and hearing some of the updates. Troy Marshall had put together some numbers that were pretty exciting, and premiums, and things like that.

Jim Brinkley:

Right. Yeah, and some of those ... Good point, Miranda. Some of those premiums, some of those cattle sell for 14, $15 a hundred more, on an average-

Mark McCully:

On top of some pretty good prices. My goodness.

Jim Brinkley:

Yeah. On top of record high prices. It's just been phenomenal. The uptake, the feedback from the feeders to the producers, everybody's getting on board with this, and it's becoming what we believed it would be.

Chuck Grove:

I think as you watch those video sales and you saw AngusVerified, AngusVerified lot after lot, as a registered Angus breeder, that's got to be exciting to you, and to see those cattle bring a premium. It's just fantastic, and so the program's doing what it was designed to do, the pull through demand for registered Angus bulls, and so it's really, really exciting.

Mark McCully:

I think one of the things too, as you watch those videos and see those Genetic Merit Scores on the screen, I mean that, you talk about an evolution in the business and a paradigm shift, I think having ... It's one thing when there's one or two lots, but when there's 10, or 15, or 20% of the program cattle or the total offering with Genetic Merit Scores on them and AngusVerified designation on them, it starts getting people's attention.

I know, from an interest standpoint, cattle feeders are seeing that and they're asking questions. They want to know more about them, and they have confidence in the Angus Association and the data that's behind those estimations. It's sure generating a lot of interest and questions, so we're again, pretty optimistic about what's to come.

Jim Brinkley:

Along Chuck's line, the enrollments was up over 300% for the video sales, and over 150 lots carrying the AngusLink logo was represented, so it's getting some big traction.

Mark McCully:

It's fantastic.

Jim Brinkley:

It is.

Chuck Grove:

The future just continues to look brighter. I think as people saw those premiums being paid, the questions are coming, "Well, how do I get enrolled in this? What do I need to do?" Again, I can't stress enough how it's starting to really work, the pull-through effect, and the demand for registered Angus bulls.

Mark McCully:

Jim, you chair the Commercial Programs Committee where the AngusLink program sits, but also, there's another program in there that we manage. It's called the Tag Store. Talk a little about that and some news there.

Jim Brinkley:

Yeah, Mark. It's kind of funny you bring that up. The first of the month, I actually ordered 300-and-some tags for our ranch. Normally, there's such a huge turnaround. I mean, well, we got to where we couldn't get them in COVID, but now the turnaround time is two to four weeks. Everything is back to normal there. I would highly encourage the people that if they need sale tags, if they need ID tags, eIDs, TSU snips ... A great, great, opportunity to take advantage of the Tag Store.

Mark McCully:

Yeah. I think it's one of those things, as you said, we've got some of those supply chain kinks worked out that were back from COVID era, and the turnaround times back to where they need to be, and so yeah, encourage members. That's really set up to be a member service and a cost-effective way of getting that custom cattle tags for our members, and so encourage, if you got a sale coming up, like you said, or need of tags, go check it out.

Miranda Reiman:

Before we leave the topic of AngusLink, I did want to talk a little bit about future things. We've talked a lot about the steer side of it, or feeder calf side of it, however, we do know that there are people wanting to describe the genetic merit on their replacement heifers, so we talked a little bit about that too.

Mark McCully:

Yeah, I'm glad we didn't skip over that because that was a big deal. I think, as the direction of the board, here over the last, really, several years, there's been discussion of, when can we evolve to also put a maternal component of the Genetic Merit Scorecard? I think with herd rebuilding, really, in our future here over the next few years, the board asked us to look into adding a maternal index to the Genetic Merit Scorecard. We're able to give some updates and timelines on that, Jim, in your committee specifically.

Jim Brinkley:

Right. Early spring, we should be able to offer a maternal index score. It'll help our producers with selection, female selection. We get a lot of requests for that, and have had. I'm excited that we're finally going to bring it to the table.

Mark McCully:

As the other indexes work off the dollar value indexes, this will work off dollar maternal weaned calf value or $M, as folks refer to it, and so there, again, making that connection for that commercial producer using registered Angus bulls, and hopefully helping them create more value in the marketplace for those potential replacement heifers.

Jim Brinkley:

Exactly. On some of those video sales that some of these ... the ranchers are wanting to build their herd, but they'll have a tool to use for replacement selection, replacements. Female selection, excuse me.

Mark McCully:

Yeah. On that note, Smitty, maybe move to AGI. As chairman of the AGI board, one of the ... Also, in line with that continued discussion of, how do we bring value to our commercial customers and at the same time, increase the value of registered Angus bulls, we've been talking about GeneMax Advantage for some time. For those maybe that haven't looked at that product or aware of that product, actually, it was first launched back in 2012. We've been offering a genomic test for commercial producers for quite a while. It's evolved over the years, and as it exists today as GeneMax Advantage.

One of the things we've continued to hear is a little bit of maybe a disconnect or a misunderstanding around that, and helping our commercial producers make sense of that and ultimately, make decisions. You made some decisions in the AGI board relative to evolving that product.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah. As you mentioned, helping, setting our commercial customers up for success is one of our long-range goals. Quite frankly, I think we, as you mentioned, that GeneMax score has been around for over a decade now, but we may have created a little bit of confusion among our commercial guys. When they look at those scores and then they come to one of those Angus breeders looking to buy a registered Angus bull, they want to know how those scores compare to our EPDs and dollar values, so we've decided to ... We've been talking about common currency here on this board for how long?

Mark McCully:

A long time.

Smitty Lamb:

Long time. We made the decision this week at this board meeting to move those GeneMax scores to our language, so the Angus language. We're going to express those indexes, $M, $B, $F, $G, and $C are going to be expressed in dollar values, in the same units that we use to describe our registered cattle.

Miranda Reiman:

Let me tell you that everyone who has to do communications and marketing around this thanks you for that.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah. It'll make that conversation with our customers so much easier, I think. I think it'll truly give them a way to benchmark their cow herd with the bulls that they're buying from us.

Mark McCully:

We've seen it out in the marketplace. We know the need is there because we're seeing it being done in some other places, some folks testing the registered Angus bulls with a different product for their commercial producers to give them the same value or an index that they're selecting their commercial heifers on.

We look at that, and we said, well, they should be looking at the numbers and the data provided on a registered Angus bull. And so taking those indexes over onto, in addition to the data that we're currently providing or the metrics we're currently providing on GeneMax Advantage and add those to that seems like a pretty logical step.

Smitty Lamb:

It does. Hopefully, we'll see some uptake in the GeneMax space. That would be great.

Chuck Grove:

Yeah. I think, again, our task for registered Angus breeders to be successful, our customers, our commercial cattlemen have to be successful, so we're going to supply them with the tools so they can make better selections, and the purebred breeder will be able to help them make their selections because they're going to be, again, speaking the same language, using the same currency, so it's a win-win for both our customers and for registered Angus breeders.

Miranda Reiman:

That's a great point. It'll make the breeder probably feel more empowered to be able to have those conversations-

Mark McCully:

Sure.

Miranda Reiman:

... and not have to be an expert in several different measures.

Jim Brinkley:

Along those lines, in 2014 and '15, I had a commercial female sale, bred heifer sale that all the heifers was GeneMax. With the tools we had then, we could highlight where those heifers needed help and where they was sufficient. With this new currency coming on, it just takes it that much further. They'll be, the breeder, the producers will have more tools to use to make a better steer or heifer down the road. When they're selecting the bulls, they can select for where that heifer's weak at now, because they'll have all the tools that we have.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah.

Mark McCully:

I just applaud the Board. I think right in the center of our long-range objectives, the one is the middle, as I say, and I always think it, I always say it should probably be the center of the target, is increase the success and the profitability of our commercial cattle producer, and those using registered Angus genetics. I think this is most definitely in line with that, and at the same time, driving value for registered Angus seedstock.

Miranda Reiman:

I think in the AGI meeting, the more tools, better tools was an overarching theme, as you might expect in that. Another thing that we probably just want to give a quick update on, because we've talked about it a lot on this podcast, would be the Functional Longevity piece. Where are we at with that, Smitty?

Smitty Lamb:

Right. Well, looks like this fall, the Functional Longevity EPD will be released in a research format. I'm pretty sure it's only available to those members of, those guys that are participating in Whole Herd Reporting & MaternalPlus. It's just another measure on the cow side, on the maternal function of a cow. I'm really excited that this EPD, Kelli and her team have been working really hard on this for a long time, and we're really getting close to launching it.

Miranda Reiman:

I think maybe one thing to note is, sometimes ... I can't remember what this started out with a working title, but it has now been named Functional Longevity. Sometimes, I think people are still like, "Yeah, but when are you going to get that stayability?" Or, "When are you going to get that-"

Mark McCully:

Sustained fertility. We called it a lot of things for a while, yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

Exactly. That's all one and the same. That is what that is.

Mark McCully:

Functional Longevity. Other breeds may call it stayability and things like ... but it's Functional Longevity. I think it's a smart way to look at that. Ultimately, obviously, trying to identify genetics. The bulls that are going to sire daughters that are going to stay longer in our commercial customers' herds. That's ultimately what we're getting at.

I know we've put a lot of information out on that. We've been saying for a while, "It's coming." As Kelli says, it has not been an easy lift for her and her team to get that one. Trying to use all the data that we have. Not just some of the missing records and things that are in our full database. We want to use all of that data. We thought that was important.

Smitty Lamb:

I want to applaud the membership because those data submissions on those traits that we needed have really ramped up. Thank you, guys, for doing that because you've allowed us to provide this tool.

Miranda Reiman:

When we think about more data being what we need to keep providing better, more accurate tools, et cetera, that probably leads into the discussion, as we talk a little bit about the World Angus Evaluation.

Mark McCully:

Yeah. We've been, again, talking about this for a while. Actually, the perfect example is what we did several years ago with foot scores. In working with, in collaboration with the Australian Angus Association, of course, they've been collecting foot scores longer than we had in the U.S. We have an awful lot of linkage, a lot of U.S. genetics that are in Australia. As we continue to look at that as a way to ... We all know the value of phenotypic data and how important that phenotypic data is into our evaluation, just continuing to move that forward.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah. That influx of data, really good, high-quality data is just going to strengthen our predictions, strengthen our accuracies, really improve the robustness of our evaluation.

Chuck Grove:

I think it's important the membership realizes the data is coming to us. We're not giving away our data. It's being incorporated into our database, but we still are maintaining the security of the database for the American Angus Association and all the, for years, and years, and years, all the data that's been turned in. It's still as secure as it ever was. I don't want the membership to think, "Oh, they gave away the data." That did not happen.

Mark McCully:

Right. It's just adding data to the database, which again, we all know is so vital. And thinking about it, genetics used in some different environments. I think what this does allow is for us, for our breeders to potentially see how some genetics perform in some other regions of the country, of the world in this case, and we think, again, that just enhances the tools overall.

Miranda Reiman:

Absolutely.

Mark McCully:

I know there's a podcast coming on that, where I know we're going to do a little bit deeper dive into that particular topic.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah, that's right. We got some partners from across the sea, I guess, to be on that podcast, so looking forward to that here in a few weeks probably.

Mark McCully:

Yeah, yeah. One other topic back on the research side, I know it gets a lot of headlines, is bovine congestive heart failure. A little bit of an update. We got an update there on the research, the ongoing research. Every once in a while, get a breeder call, "You guys need to do something about this congestive heart failure," and we have been. It's been on the radar. It's been a priority of this Board and this organization for quite some time, but going at it in a really, I think, methodical and appropriate way.

Some nice advancement on that front is what we call our Heart Health Initiative of what is the genetic contribution to heart remodeling, and ultimately, what differences can we find in our gene pool there around these cattle that might be more resilient from a heart standpoint? Smitty, I guess, again, and that was both in combination of Breed Improvement Committee and in AGI, but we got some updates on that research.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah, some really valuable data, and it's data that we haven't really had before. I think we've got over 800 genotypes and over 500 heart scores already collected, so it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out as Kelli and her team take a look at congestive heart failure, and is there a genetic component, what that component may be.

Mark McCully:

Excellent.

Chuck Grove:

I think it's important for the membership to understand we're doing this as fast as we can, but we really want to make sure, when there is a feedyard death or a heart failure, was it truly from heart failure or was there some other factor out there? I know the membership wants this information. They want a tool to work with. We're getting there as fast we can. Gathering this data and working through our partners, it's taking a little time, but we're going to get there.

Mark McCully:

Yeah, and again, I'd encourage, if listeners want more information on that, there again, we've done podcasts. We've done a lot of articles. I'd point you to our angus.org website. That'll direct you to a whole lot more information on this topic. It is important, and it's a priority, and it's been a priority for a while. It was great to see the progress of what we have collected and what's in store to be collected here in the really short term.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah. That early work that we did with Kansas State University that was funded by the Angus Foundation, et cetera, we've talked about that before. I think that uncovered that we needed more answers, or we needed to ask more questions. I think maybe if you're not in the boardroom or not seeing that there's progress made, you might wonder, "Well, did they just ask a bunch of questions and then that was, they figured out they don't know enough yet?" There is a lot of work going on, and I think that's the cool part, to learn all about that.

Mark McCully:

Yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

Speaking of continued learning, that would be another area. It seems like we're focusing maybe disproportionately on the genetics space and all of that. I would say that maybe that's something that this board feels is moving the quickest. Is that true?

Chuck Grove:

Yes. I would absolutely agree with that. The world is changing around us very quickly. No question.

Miranda Reiman:

So we-

Mark McCully:

I think just, we talk about really, literally, in the last several weeks, some of the headlines, some of the mergers that have gone on within the AI and genetics space, some of the acquisitions that have been made. The genetic landscape is different than it was three to five years ago. We anticipate it's going to be continually changing, and so staying in front of that ... Talk about relevancy. That word continues to come up, as it should, in the boardroom of how do we continue to stay relevant as an organization to maintain relevance for our members and our breeders that this organization is built to do.

Miranda Reiman:

I think I heard somebody say, "Well, this conversation would be a lot different than the one we had in Stillwater," and we had to kind of laugh because that was in May, when you guys met as an AGI board separately, so that's how quickly things change.

Chuck Grove:

These things change. Yeah, yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah, things change in this space. In an effort to keep up with that, we had a couple of, I guess, special presentations. Is that what you guys would call them?

Chuck Grove:

Yeah.

Mark McCully:

Yeah. One was on gene editing. Of course, that's always ... That's been a topic on the board agenda for a while. There was no edits for approval, but this was more in the theme of continued learning. We did work a little bit more on the refining a little of the language and the policy there to continue as has been done here in the past.

We invited some presenters, some experts from FDA, actually, to come and share with us information on the approval process and how they, as an organization, are looking at gene edits, how they are assessing risk. Because I know that's been a question that's come up through this process with our board members, and membership has shared, "What's the unintended consequences? How's FDA treating all this?" This was the first time we really invited FDA to come give us a presentation. They were very quick to do that, and we were very appreciative.

Smitty Lamb:

They were very forthcoming. Enjoyed the presentation. It was pretty much an open book. We still have a lot to learn though, and I think they even admitted they do as well, so it's moving very fast. It was interesting and we've got to ... I think you mentioned earlier in the podcast that this meeting was very strategic, and this was a very strategic portion of our meeting, trying to prepare ourselves for the future as this landscape is changing very quickly.

Chuck Grove:

They talked to us about patents. They talked to us about gene editing. No action is being taken by your board, but before any action is taken, again, we want to have as much knowledge as possible about what's going on. Again, the approval process, patenting of genetics, and where Angus would fit in that, if and when a decision was ever made. Again, to restress, there were no edits brought to us. We're just trying to learn and this board have has much knowledge as possible so they can make the right decision, whatever that decision Is in the future.

Mark McCully:

We learned about labeling. Obviously, that becomes the jurisdiction of FDA around, how are these things going to be labeled? What's going to be required to be labeled? How does this impact international commerce, both of cattle and of products? It was lots of things to continue to learn about.

Miranda Reiman:

Even when you bring up the labeling, I think that reinforces what one of my main takeaways from was, it's complicated. Because FDA regulates some parts of that. USDA regulates other parts because it involves the sale of meat. The whole-

Mark McCully:

It'll make your head hurt just a little bit. CAB did work a little with USDA and FDA on some labeling. This gets way, way, way more complicated than that. We've said it many times. This science continues to evolve. The technology continues to evolve, and I think how they're seeing these things and how ... It's somewhat of a work in progress.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah. They even admitted they're making the best decisions they can with current science, and that's nothing. Six months from now, it'll be different.

Chuck Grove:

Compliments to them. They old saying, "I'm from the government. I'm here to help you," well, they really were.

Mark McCully:

They were.

Chuck Grove:

Informing, and they were here to help us, and they answered as many questions as we had. Again, it was a great learning experience for us and exposure to us, as a board.

Jim Brinkley:

One of the big takeaways that I got from them was, a slick edit, was just the tip of the iceberg. They've got a lot of stuff they're working on. It's coming faster than I really realized, and it's going to come in waves, I think.

Mark McCully:

Yeah. Of course, they couldn't disclose any, but we did-

Miranda Reiman:

We asked.

Mark McCully:

We did ask, "What else is coming? What else you looking at? What else has been applied for?" I think the word, a lot, was used, so again, it's not ... I know this is one of those topics we've talked a lot about, but it was definitely an insightful look at another piece of the puzzle, I guess, in this whole topic.

Chuck Grove:

We also had our legal counsel explain to us about patenting genetics, and where that is today, and all the legalities of patents. Again, that was pretty eye-opening for me. I didn't realize all the steps that people go through to get a patent and that it is possible to patent a live animal. That's going on today, and I had no concept of that. That's just started recently, so again, the world is changing.

Mark McCully:

I think some may have some exposure of a few years ago with some dairy animals that were patented, and that made some headlines. Ultimately, that patent, as we understand, has not been upheld. It's actually been withdrawn, but when you get into this gene editing space, the ability for those animals to be patented is different because they're not naturally occurring or found in nature. Just again, and I know for some listeners, I'm sure they're probably, hair on the back of their neck standing up hearing about some of this as probably a lot in the boardroom too.

I think it goes back, I talk a lot about access, and for our memberships, and for our members to continue to operate independently, I think access to genetics is such a key part. I think that's where this board engages on this topic just to try to understand more, try to learn more. Not that, necessarily, patents are bad or good, but they're ... Need to understand what the potential looks like down the road, and how that's going to impact our membership, and how do we maybe position effectively to keep our independent producers independent and give them the access to genetics that they need.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah, I think that's the goal of everyone on this board.

Miranda Reiman:

Did you guys come to any conclusions after hearing any of that, or did you just think?

Chuck Grove:

I think my comment was it was all clear as mud. Again, it was educational. It's our job to, as a board or the board's job to be as educated as they possibly can on what's happening around us. Do you have actual knowledge and not speculation of, "You can do this," or, "You can't do that," or, "What's the gene edit?" or whatever. Again, we're not hung up on gene editing. It was purely an educational forum for the board and staff. I would hope that's what the membership wants from us, is to be thoroughly educated on any subject before any decision is ever made.

Mark McCully:

Well said. I think one of the other, we come into this board meeting, it's always coming into the end of the fiscal year and getting ready to, of course, plan for the next fiscal year. Under the wildly exciting topic, Miranda, was budgets, forecasts and budgets. In all seriousness, I think that's a really, really important thing that this ... Again, just for exposure for our listeners, that starts in a committee, in a finance and planning committee, where that committee really goes and does a deeper dive into the year-end forecast and the presented budgets for the Association and each of its entities.

Then it gets revisited again when those budgets are presented to the board, and going through the line items of revenue and income, and making sure that, again, the resources are being directed where this board wants those resources to go. Important work, as you guys approve budgets for the coming year. One topic I know was one that we've talked about some time is our credit card fees and those transaction fees that the Association and its entities get when our members, our customers use a credit card. Over $600,000 was what this year, that's going to look like.

Jim Brinkley:

Mark, it's funny you mention that. I'm in my fifth year on the board. Whenever I come on the board, that fee was just a little bit over 400,000 and I thought that was astronomical then, which it is. We're going to have to address that sometime coming up in the future.

Chuck Grove:

Sure. To our bottom line, it's adding a $600,000 expense that really, we don't see much return for that $600,000. I want the membership to be aware that we're looking into that, and in the future, it's going to have to be addressed because anybody that's using a credit card today, they know when they go to lots of gas stations, it costs more to use the credit card. Same way in restaurants, or wherever, and so we're trying to manage your funds, and we just have to address this kind of cost. It's going to continue to increase, so we want to manage that and try to solve that.

Miranda Reiman:

I think the discussion wasn't just about that amount of money, but making it as easy as possible for the members to pay and for the members to do business with the Association in a way that's not just watching money disappear into thin air. It wasn't just about that dollar amount. It's, how do we make it easier to do business?

Smitty Lamb:

Those options are being explored.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah.

Smitty Lamb:

Yeah.

Mark McCully:

Looking at ACH payment. We've been working on that for a while to get that set up where that could be an option, an easier option, potentially, with a little lower cost to the Association, potentially, for those transactions. Trying to put some things in place that could, again, make it easy for the member, and potentially, reduce some cost.

Miranda Reiman:

As we start to jot down notes, we're about to the end of our list here, but Mark, we have talked a lot on the AGI board, but we didn't mention that also all the other entities, of course, meet at the same time, so we had, starting out with Angus Foundation that had a great year.

Mark McCully:

Great year. Yeah, highlights of a lot of the fundraising that went on. I say it all the time. I'm always just blown away by the generosity of the Angus family to support our events, large and small. Yeah, that continues to grow and be able to impact the core pillars of research, education, and youth.

Chuck Grove:

Yeah. We didn't just raise money. We spent a lot of money. We gave a lot of scholarships, where it's helping underwrite our Heart Health Initiative, and so yeah, we're not just sitting on this pile of money. We're trying to return it back and utilize it more efficiently, as efficiently as we possibly can. I think it was like 85 scholarships were given at the National Junior Show, so yeah, we appreciate all the support of the membership. Know your money's being used and we're not just making a big pile of money here to look at.

Miranda Reiman:

Dr. Pollard's not here to ask this, but last night, we had kind of a one-off conversation where he was really talking about how these kids that are coming out of the Junior program are just some great Americans, and we need to figure out how to replicate that, and things like that. There was example shared that happened during the LEAD Conference in California that was kind of a neat-

Mark McCully:

It was a fun letter. It was a fun story for you listeners that know Caitlyn. Go have her tell you the whole story, but basically, during the LEAD Conference, we had a bus break down in front of some folks' place, and these folks were a couple that they just opened their doors and were just wonderful to our young people.

As a thank you, Caitlyn had sent them a thank you, and I think maybe a box of Certified Angus Beef steaks. She got the nicest letter back, and I think it just couldn't say enough about the young people, that they were so impressed. They said it was the most fun afternoon they've had in a long time, and just couldn't say enough about the young kids that they got to interact with. We all know that. We see them, but it was fun for that affirmation.

Miranda Reiman:

Carry on from Angus Foundation. Then, I guess, the next one would have been the Angus Media board meeting. That one, I would say, was very solidly marching forward. Again, this is the theme. Nothing big and a big change. It was just a lot of forward progress and goals.

Mark McCully:

Right. Clay Zwilling, I say still new. He's still new. He's still pretty new in the role of president of Angus Media, and doing a fantastic job. Updated on the great work that you guys, as I'm looking at you, Miranda, and Megan's down across the table too, doing just such great work. All the great communication tools, and talking about continuing to ... How do we make it simpler there, again, for our members to use the services of Angus Media? What services are available? Making them easier to plug in as they best need them and best fit their business.

Miranda Reiman:

Absolutely. And budgeted growth, and sale books budgeted growth, and digital advertising, so that's exciting to see.

Smitty Lamb:

We celebrated a lot of successes too from Angus Media. We've got the best team in the business. It's really exciting.

Mark McCully:

Bar none.

Chuck Grove:

You'll see this in the Journal, but it's not just us talking about how successful they are. They were recognized at LPC, and they won more awards for their different areas in media, and so they're being recognized by their peers. You should feel confident that you've got the best in the business helping you market your cattle.

Miranda Reiman:

I'm over here blushing just a little bit because it was, at the Livestock Publications Council, we went up quite a few times for awards, and it got to the end where we're like, "Okay, Clay. You go get the ..." Because it was not just the writers. It was writers, design, website, et cetera, et cetera. We kind of, afterwards, we're like, "Oh, that was a little bit embarrassing," and Clay was like, "No, it wasn't." He was ready to shout it from the rooftop.

Mark McCully:

Was talking about the ... I think the instruction he used to get as a judging team coach is you sit in the back of the room at the banquet so you have to walk by everybody multiple times to go get your awards. I like that. A little competitive spirit. Yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

Very good. Then right after that would have been the Certified Angus Beef board meeting that we had. Gosh, we must have went through eight different small presentations on moving projects forward. I think we've covered a lot of them already. We've covered ranch to table on this the last time, and we covered, we're pretty well aware that supply's gong to be the next challenge in the next few years when we look at ... Not because quality is going down.

Mark McCully:

Right. I think that's what John Stika emphasized. The organization's always been focused on sales. Not growth just to get big, but growth to drive the mission, and we think that's been a recipe that's worked for a long time, and anticipate it's going to work for a long time in the future. With reduced cattle numbers, the competition out here for high-quality product has never been so high, and so they're going to have to be very, very intentional at continuing to grow growth at retail, foodservice, and international, but they're optimistic.

Chuck Grove:

I think they put a slide up, if you look over the last five years, the amount of Angus-type cattle to select from has gone up steadily 1% a year, and so I think their slide was 75-

Miranda Reiman:

It's going to hit 75.

Mark McCully:

Get close to 75, yeah.

Chuck Grove:

Yeah, 75%, so again, kudos to our commercial cattlemen that are relying on Angus genetics. Again, I'm going to go back to AngusLink, AngusVerified. I think it's really going to drive and increase that demand for registered Angus bulls.

Miranda Reiman:

I think that that probably wraps up all of the entity board meetings. Did I cover all of them?

Mark McCully:

Yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

Yeah, good.

Mark McCully:

One other big item, as we think about the financial responsibility of this organization, Mr. Jim Brinkley was elected as treasurer, to serve as treasurer for the Association and Board for the coming year. Jim, congratulations and hang onto those purse strings.

Jim Brinkley:

Well, thank you, Mark. It's truly an honor to get to serve the membership in this capacity, and I'm very humbled.

Miranda Reiman:

That signifies the transition. This is, you've got a couple more months yet, Chuck.

Jim Brinkley:

Yep.

Miranda Reiman:

I don't know if we can give you an A+.

Jim Brinkley:

It's easy. I've got a calendar. I'm just marking the day, every day. No.

Chuck Grove:

Fortunately, very fortunately, a brain surgeon is following me as your president, Dr. Barry Pollard. He will continue to lead, and Jonathan Perry was nominated for vice president by the board. I guess, I would leave with this. I think this board, I'm really proud of this board, the initiative, the strategic planning, the thinking out ahead. We're not trying to react. We're trying be prepared for what's coming down the road, and so kudos to the board for their efforts and all they've done this year. Looking forward to bright things in the future.

Miranda Reiman:

We're looking forward to seeing a lot of members at the Angus Convention down there in Orlando, Florida, in November.

Mark McCully:

Early November. You bet.

Miranda Reiman:

Registrations are open. Make sure that you get registered. Get yourself a hotel room, and stop by and see any one of us. Give us some feedback.

Mark McCully:

Got a great agenda. It's going to be a great agenda of things that, again, along the same theme, to stay a theme of innovation and making sure that we're continuing to challenge our thinking around how we do things, and yet we'll have some educational workshops.

Then, of course, as I always say, we're this great blend of heritage and progress, and so we'll celebrate, do a lot of celebration at our banquet, and recognize, and just get together in Angus fellowship. Then, of course, conclude with doing the business of the Association at the Convention of Delegates on Monday. It'll be an action-packed several days in Orlando.

Chuck Grove:

We're going to have some fun. It's not going to be all boring meetings.

Miranda Reiman:

It's going to be wildly exciting.

Chuck Grove:

Yeah.

Miranda Reiman:

It's going to be wildly exciting.

Chuck Grove:

It's going to be exciting. We're going to have some fun.

Mark McCully:

Absolutely.

Jim Brinkley:

Before we close, I'd just like membership to know that we have the greatest staff there is. I mean, they-

Mark McCully:

This is why we invite you, Jim. Keep going.

Miranda Reiman:

We're nodding along.

Jim Brinkley:

Seriously though. I mean, they get the information and get it in front of us, so it helps making good, sound decisions that progresses the breed. Trust me, membership is who we're representing. We just can't thank the staff enough, so thank you.

Miranda Reiman:

Well, it is easy to work for good people, so that feeling goes both ways. I think that you just made my whole day. That'll make my trip back to Nebraska, just I'll smile the whole time.

Jim Brinkley:

I hope it makes it short.

Miranda Reiman:

Thanks, everybody, for being on today. It was fun.

Mark McCully:

Thank you.

Smitty Lamb:

Thank you.

Jim Brinkley:

Thanks.

Miranda Reiman:

Thanks for listening today. For continued updates on any of the subjects we talked about in today's podcast, be sure to subscribe to the Angus Journal at angusjournal.net. This has been The Angus Conversation, an Angus Journal podcast.