CAB Strengthens Relevance

As one of the premier branded beef programs, the Certified Angus Beef program continues to grow. It is the world's largest branded beef program and reports its ninth year of record sales for CAB among its licensee partners. As CAB President John Stika explains

Sitka: "This fiscal year of 2015 might go down as the best year in Certified Angus Beef history. Not necessarily because it marks the 11th consecutive growth and the 9th record year in a row that we've had but primarily when you look in the fashion in which it was done. This year was loaded with challenges. We saw the fourth year in a row of decline in the number of Angus cattle that are out there — primarily because of herd liquidations and are still feeling the ramifications of that."

Despite those challenges, it was a banner year for the program as Sitka continues

Sitka: "The producer base and the packers brought the third largest supply of certified Angus carcasses ever in our history — about 67,000 carcasses a week we still saw this year. And that equated to sales in excess of 896 million pounds of product which is absolutely phenomenal."

That milestone reflects growing demand for registered Angus genetics, with a record-high 27.5 percent acceptance rate — compared to 14 percent a decade ago.