Executive Summary
cattle we can to offer to the
commercial cattle industry.
During the April board
meeting, the NALF board
was lucky enough to tour the
Tyson facility at Dakota City,
Nebraska. Listening to these
folks talk about the increase
in demand for cattle in todays
marketplace that grade in
the upper 2/3rds of choice
and higher, I can’t help but
think the Breed Improvement
Committee was on the right
track when they pushed for
suggested Mating Targets to
utilize within our breed last
fall when it was released. It
promotes a well-balanced set
of EPDs with accelerated focus
on marbling improvement. Big
premiums force demand down
the production chain. Once
again, we do not need to press
towards the equivalent of Angus
marbling levels or we give up
all of our desirable production
traits we excel regarding
carcass yield, feed efficiency
and superior maternal traits.
In the competitive marketplace
for selling branded meat
products to the consumer, it
was also apparent at Tyson
that we will continue to see
more natural product lines of
beef offered to the consumer
over the next 10 years. As this
continues to progress you will
see more demand for quality
genetics that excel in terms of
performance in feed efficiency
and it relates to dry matter
conversion rates to rely solely
on great genetics to generate
superior gains and pounds over
14 | JUNE/JULY 2019