I always enjoy watching the Olympic Games — particularly underdog stories of athletes overcoming giant obstacles and incredible odds, or teams of unextraordinary individuals working together to reach extraordinary heights.

While I would never be mistaken for a world-class athlete, I do love competition and can get pretty competitive at times. I like to win, but I also really enjoy the wins of those who work hard and persevere to achieve success. 

Winning at the Olympic Games is easily defined — fastest time, most points or best score. But defining the win is not always that easy in the business of raising cattle. 

For a non-profit breed association, winning is about the success of the breed and its members. For the Angus breed, winning is about delivering genetics to the beef industry to improve the cow herd, feeder cattle and the end product. 

The American Angus Association has been laser-focused for decades on providing information and selection tools for registered breeders to advance the breed on all three fronts. For Association members, winning isn’t always defined in the same way, but I am encouraged to see the levels of success being achieved by breeders in different regions of the country with different markets and customer needs. The diversity of the Angus breed and its breeders is a great strength.

Winning for the commercial cattleman is a little easier to define. Dollars and cents tend to be a pretty common way to keep score. Angus-sired feeder cattle have been topping the market for years and the premium over other breeds continues to grow. Interest and enrollment in the AngusLink^SM program are both growing at a rapid pace. The AngusVerified^SM claim on cattle gives buyers confidence they are buying more than “black hides,” and the Genetic Merit Scorecard^SM (GMS) is becoming must-have information for feeders with National Beef now offering grid premiums for the higher scoring cattle. Producers participating in these programs are winning.

For those selling finished cattle, the grid premiums for Certified Angus Beef® (CAB) and USDA Prime continue to be one of the primary components between cattle making or losing money in the feedlot, and Angus genetics consistently hit those quality targets at a high frequency. Those high-grading Angus cattle aren’t just winning on the grid, they close out with some of the best gain and conversion figures in the yard.  

While it’s great bragging rights at the coffee shop when you “top the market,” dollars remaining after the bills are paid is the real goal. The Angus $Value selection indexes are industry leading as they account for both the revenue and expense columns of production. Profit is paramount to winning in the cattle business and Angus genetics are built with that in mind.  

And let’s not forget about the consumer. The consumer wins when they spend their hard-earned dollars on beef. While prices for the CAB brand at the meat counter and in the restaurant are record high, consumers still win because of the value of a consistently great steak, roast or hamburger.  

Regardless if you are an Olympic athlete or a fourth-generation rancher, a relentless pursuit of winning is probably in your DNA. For the athletes, we have CAB to fuel their training. For the rancher, the Angus breed is committed to helping you reach your goals.