Mike Snider and the Mike Snider String Band entertained the audience during the morning
awards ceremony. Photos by Kasey Miller
Best of Beef Awards
The best in the beef industry are recognized.
by Kasey Miller for Angus Productions Inc.
NASHVILLE. Tenn. (Feb. 2, 2012) — Many facets of the beef industry were honored for excellence Feb. 2 at the Best of Beef Breakfast during the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Nashville. Kyle Bauer, of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters and KFRM Radio in the High Plains region of Kansas, emceed the event, and Mike Snider and the Mike Snider String Band entertained the audience during the morning awards ceremony.
Dee Griffin (left)
Four companies earned Retail Beef Backer awards, funded by the beef checkoff. The independent retailer winner was Broulim’s Fresh Foods of Idaho. The midsize chain retailer was Haggen Food & Pharmacy/TOP Foods & Drugs of Washington state, and the large chain retailer was Harris Teeter Inc., based in North Carolina. Harris Teeter serves 1 million pounds of beef to households on a weekly basis. The Innovator of the Year went to Safeway, which promotes 100% U.S. beef with its Rancher’s Reserve® brand.
The Foodservice Beef Backer awards were also funded by the beef checkoff. Little Apple Brewing Co. of Kansas, which has 50 beef entrée specials, won the independent operator category. Read more about them in the February Angus Beef Bulletin or the March Angus Journal. In the chain operator category, the Beef Backer Award was presented to Zippy’s Restaurants in Hawaii, which purchase enough local beef to keep the cattle industry viable. Named innovator of the year was Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort in Idaho. The resort fabricates its steaks on site and has a tableside service option.
Winning the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Award was Wayne Fahsholtz of Padlock Ranch, Dayton, Wyo. On 500,000 acres, they raise more than 11,000 calves per year. Fahsholtz and his staff place importance on environmental stewardship, community support and hiring/developing excellent people. He uses Best Management Practices (BMPs) throughout his animals’ lives to enhance performance, health, beef quality and profitability. Fahsholtz was nominated by the University of Montana.
The Dairy Beef Quality Assurance Award winner was Logan Bower, Pleasant View Farms, Blain, Pa. He milks 550 cows and produces more than 13 million pounds of milk annually. Bower says he believes that all producers should implement BQA practices. Happy and healthy cows are also productive and profitable.
The BQA Marketer Award winner was Morris Larson, Spencer Livestock Sales, Spencer, Iowa. Larson and his team have a high level of excellence in a facility that provides local producers a place to market their cattle. Livestock numbers have increased every year since 2004.
The BQA Educator of the Year Award winner was Dee Griffin of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Known as the “Father of BQA,” he started with the program in the 1970s as a veterinarian at Hitch Feeders. Griffin worked with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) to design a program to prevent antibiotic residues. He has trained and certified more than 1,000 producers and educated thousands about BQA. He is still an instrumental part of the BQA program.
“If it ain’t right, make it right,” Griffin said. “And for the last 30 years, I’ve been trying to help them make it right.”
Three Excellence in Communications awards were bestowed. Carmen Fenton with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) won the 2011 Excellence in Communications and Public Relations (PR) for a State Affiliate. Angie Stump-Denton, with the American Hereford Association, won the Excellence in Communications and PR for a Breed Affiliate. Pete Crow, with Western Livestock Journal, won the 2011 Excellence in Agricultural Journalism.
The BEEF Trailblazer Award was won by The Diablo Trust, which was formed by two ranches that rely significantly on grazing of public lands — the Bar T Bar Ranch run by Bob and Judy Prosser of Winslow, Ariz., and the Flying M Ranch operated by Jack and Mandy Metzger and Kit Metzger of Flagstaff, Ariz. The Diablo trust involves 26 collaborating groups, and is a venue in which public lands users and managers work together to achieve many shared goals.
The BEEF Stocker Award went to Pete Bonds, Bonds Ranch, Saginaw, Texas. The Bonds Ranch is a diversified operation with interests in the cow-calf, stocker and feeding sections. The operation employs a business-management strategy of return on equity, and each enterprise operates as its own profit-driven entity with the leverage between them offering more flexibility and opportunity.
The Top Hand Club honored its top three membership recruiters for the NCBA. Hugh McCampbell, Sweetwater, Tenn., won first with 50 recruits. NCBA President Bill Donald, Melville, Mont., won second with 30 recruits; and Dale Lueck, Aitkin, Minn., won third with 24 recruits.
Levi Berry, Happy, Texas, won the Max Deets Scholarship. The scholarship, established in honor of former NCBA President Max Deets, is funded by the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) and the NCBA. Berry is the Young Cattlemen’s Conference Chairman (YCC), and was selected by his peers on the basis of outstanding leadership.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) funded 10 scholarships of $1,500, coordinated by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF). The top winner, Malorie Bankhead, also received a trip the convention. The other winners included Megan Webb, Texas A&M University; Meghan Blythe, Kansas State University; Maci Lienemann, Norris High School, Nebraska; Trenton Blythe, White City High School, Kansas; Matthew McQuagge, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Florida; Valene Lickley, Valley High School, Idaho; Katie Ochsner, Casper College, Wyoming; Reagan Kays, Kansas State University; and Cade Sallee, Fowler High School, Colorado.
The 21st Annual Environmental Stewardship Award Program regional winners were honored at the breakfast, with the winner to be announced that night. Regional winners included Masonic Village at Elizabethtown, Elizabethtown, Pa.; Daigle Farms, David Daigle, Ragley, La.; Matador Ranch, Matador Ranch Team, Matador, Texas; M/M Feedlot, Mann family, Parma, Idaho; Della Ranches and the Tanner family of Grouse Creek, Grouse Creek, Utah; and Center of the Nation Cattle Co., Smeenk family, Newell, S.D.
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