Indiana Preview Show

Download Rules & Form:
Indiana Angus Preview Show Rules (PDF)
Indiana Angus Preview Show – ENTRY FORM (PDF)

Indiana Angus – Junior and Open Preview Show Rules – 2013
Boone County Fairgrounds – Lebanon, Indiana
June 7-9, 2013

Consignors Choice award winners at the 2013 SIAA Sale

Consigners Choice Awards
Champion Bull
Lot 84-GHG Primal Marking 219 consigned by GHG Angus, Karl and Glenda Gillette, Reelsville, IN
Champion Cow/Calf Pair- Lot 34- JAF Miss Ever Entense consigned by Jackson Angus Farm, Bill and Janice Jackson, Hope, IN
Champion Open Heifer- Lot 56- SAF Cut Above 9Z consigned by Small Acres Farm, Don Seals, Loogootee
Champion Bred female Lot 24-Double O Barbara X8 consigned by Double O Angus, Mike and Lou Ooley, Bedford, IN

SIAA top sales lots April 6, sale

Great sale-
Top Open Heifer lot 51 consigned by Todd and Craig Angus
Top Bull lot 88X consigned by MMR Angus
Top Spring pair lot 1 consigned by Kiata Farms
Top Fall Pair Lot 34 consigned by Jackson Angus

SIAA Consignors Choice awards

Consigners Choice Awards
Champion Bull
Lot 84-GHG Primal Marking 219 consigned by GHG Angus, Karl and Glenda Gillette, Reelsville, IN
Champion Cow/Calf Pair- Lot 34- JAF Miss Ever Entense consigned by Jackson Angus Farm, Bill and Janice Jackson, Hope, IN
Champion Open Heifer- Lot 56- SAF Cut Above 9Z consigned by Small Acres Farm, Don Seals, Loogootee
Champion Bred female Lot 24-Double O Barbara X8 consigned by Double O Angus, Mike and Lou Ooley, Bedford, IN

Indianapolis to Host 2014 National Junior Angus Show

Indianapolis to Host the 2014 National Junior Angus Show
The Indiana Junior Angus Association begins planning for the annual event.

Indianapolis, Ind., will be welcoming junior Angus members and families from across the nation in 2014 as it hosts the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS). The week-long event is set for July 6 – 12, 2014. Besides cattle shows, the week encompasses a variety of other junior activities.
“We are proud to be hosting the 2014 National Junior Angus Show in Indy,” says Kathy Wilson, NJAS co-chair. “Indiana has a rich heritage in the Angus business, and we look forward to planning an outstanding NJAS for our Angus juniors.”
Sponsored by the Indiana Junior Angus Association, the NJAS is themed “Angus in the Heartland – You gotta love it!” Indiana has hosted the show as recently as 2006 and is excited to make this event a fun-filled and educational week for junior Angus enthusiasts and their families.
More than 1,000 head of cattle are expected to compete in Indianapolis. The classes offered will provide opportunities for juniors to exhibit their owned heifers, bred-and-owned heifers, cow-calf pairs, steers, and bred-and-owned bulls.
Additional events will include the National Showmanship Contest, NJAS Carcass Steer Contest, Cook-off Contests, and educational contests that include: prepared and extemporaneous public speaking, career development, graphic design, writing, photography, livestock judging, and video and poster competitions.
More details on the 2014 NJAS will be released as they become available. This July, the NJAS is being held in Kansas City, Mo. Read more about the upcoming event online. More information regarding the NJAS program can be accessed at http://www.angus.org/njaa.

ANGUS MEANS BUSINESS. The American Angus Association is the nation’s largest beef breed organization, serving more than 25,000 members across the United States, Canada and several other countries. It’s home to an extensive breed registry that grows by nearly 300,000 animals each year. The Association also provides programs and services to farmers, ranchers and others who rely on Angus to produce quality genetics for the beef industry and quality beef for consumers.
For more information about Angus cattle and the American Angus Association, visit http://www.ANGUS.org.

Juniors Indiana Angus Steers PAY!

Juniors Indiana Angus Steers PAY!

SIAA Sale Booklet Available for Download

Click Here to download the sale Booklet

What a top Chef Wants

Bringing joy to the plate

By Morgan Slaven

 

Chef Govind Armstrong likes to keep it fun, and he seems to be having his way from menus to restaurant businesses.

“I’ve always been passionate about growing food and working in the gardens as a family and whatnot, ever since I was a child,” he says. Whatever other kids might be doing, Armstrong was creating recipes, tasting and taking pictures of the finished dishes that wowed guests at family and neighborhood gatherings in his native Los Angeles.

“I had this connection with food, from raw product to actually cooking and preparing it,” he says. “Serving people was something that brought me a lot of joy, so becoming a chef was just something I knew I wanted to do.”

Armstrong first acted on his calling at the age of 13, when he became an apprentice at the world-famous Chef Wolfgang Puck’s trendy Spago Beverly Hills. This summer school and after-hours educational work rounded out his high school years. He followed that with business courses in college and then built his own reputation for showcasing food, flavor and local products—profitably.

“It’s not only understanding and knowing the creative side, but really being able to work with the numbers,” Armstrong explains. “We have pretty small margins in the restaurant business, so the better you are at that side, the more sustainable your business can be.”

While he has traveled the world in pursuit of his passion, Armstrong still calls Los Angeles home. There he owns the acclaimed Post & Beam restaurant along with business partner Brad Johnson. His 8 Oz. Burger Bars chain has six locations around the country, and he is involved in numerous other ventures and openings.

Wherever work takes him, the chef aims to present others with high-quality dining opportunities. Post & Beam features a California seasonal-style eating experience, complete with the West Coast customary wood-burning ovens and open-hearth grills. Armstrong makes it his mission to source the best available produce by shopping at local farmers markets and even managing an on-site garden that provides the restaurant with herbs and lettuce.

“Our food is very ingredient-driven, so it’s simply prepared,” he says. “We let each product speak for itself.”

As for high quality, it’s simply smart business. “People expect it nowadays,” Armstrong says. “They’re more cautious in spending money, so no matter what it is they’re ordering, they want quality and they want consistency. That’s we’re able to provide on a nightly basis at the restaurant.”

When it came to finding a source for red meat products, this self proclaimed “die-hard carnivore” invests in the best beef. “I feel very confident and I want my customers to feel very confident, so I put the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand name on the menu,” he says.

That helps differentiate from other restaurants, too, but mostly Armstrong says he stays with the brand for its consistency.

Those feelings were solidified last year when the chef visited Bradley 3 Ranch near Childress, Texas, as part of a CAB-organized tour. The Bradleys were pioneers in helping start the brand’s Natural extension a decade ago, and have been producing purebred Angus cattle for more than 50 years.

“That was just another thing that brought me a lot of joy,” he says. “Seeing how the cattle are raised and nurtured, meeting the people and putting a face to the brand name was really important for me.

Armstrong’s vision for the future is to open more restaurants with localized menus that let the quality of local raw products shine. He’ll stay with “consistent, flavorful beef to make my customers happy,” but no two restaurant menus will be the same because they must reflect the local communities and cultures.

“Everything is on that plate for a reason,” he says. “That just really keeps things interesting for me as well. Creating new menus, testing all those ingredients and tasting the final product is something that is really fun.”

As the chef continues to spread his culinary and business influence, more and more diners can expect to share in the joy.

Value-based cattle marketing dominates

Value-based cattle marketing dominates

By Miranda Reiman
Selling fed cattle on a live basis is no longer standard practice, and some day it could end up as no more than historical reference.
“The old selling-them-live method has given way to formula sales,” says Mark McCully, assistant vice president for Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB).
Data from Cattle-Fax and the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows a sharp decline in cash sales in the past seven years, from 52.1% in 2005 to just 26% in 2012. The inverse of that is the steep gain in negotiated sales, like grid marketing and other arrangements, which moved up from less than half of sales to more than three-quarters during those years.
“This is a clear signal the industry is moving away from pricing on averages, and instead pricing cattle on their individual merits,” McCully says.
However, there are some regional variations to this trend.
Amy Radunz is an animal scientist at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where informal surveys show nearly two-thirds of the state’s farmer-feeders still market finished cattle through the salebarn.
“Buyers are sitting there in the auction barn essentially putting those cattle on a grid,” she says. “As they are determining price on those cattle, they are trying to determine things like dressing percent, how the cattle will likely grade and how much risk they’re willing to assume.”
Packer buyers try to gather as much information as they can to reduce the “unknowns” on a set of cattle.
“Quality grade gets more challenging,” Radunz says. “They’re either going by reputation, breed composition or fat thickness to assess that.”
McCully says that’s proof even those who don’t use grid marketing are impacted by this recent, dramatic trend.
“It forces feeders to look more carefully at source,” he says. “That marketing philosophy eventually trickles down to the cow-calf level.”
The spread in value difference between superior calves and the inferior ones will likely continue to grow, he predicts.
Radunz says the premiums paid for black-hided feeder calves is one example, and it was documented last fall by CAB data showing a 14-year record high $5.30-per-hundredweight Angus premium over non-Angus 500-weight calves.
“It has value on the feeder-calf end because it has value on the fed-cattle end, even if they’re sold live,” she says. “They want to have the opportunity to qualify for branded premiums.”
Feeders will pay more for cattle with good performance and health reputations, too, she says.
As more cattle are sold on grid arrangements each year, McCully says the signal clarifies that weight is no longer the only pricing determinant.
Cow-calf producers should take note.
“The genetic decisions they are making today will be impacted by this trend,” he says. “The bulls purchased now will be producing calves and replacements sold into a market that is increasingly concerned with quality.”
The bottom line: “Everybody at least needs to understand grid marketing, no matter how you’re selling,” Radunz says. “That’s the way the cattle are being valued anyway.”

Ayres Stardom Eline 401 won reserve junior champion heifer at the 2013 Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show’s Roll of Victory (ROV) Angus Show

Reserve Junior Champion HeiferAyres Stardom Eline 401 won reserve junior champion heifer at the 2013 Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show’s Roll of Victory (ROV) Angus Show, Feb. 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. Catherine Knebel, Winamac, Ind., owns the winning heifer. Photo by Shelia Stannard, American Angus Association.