Coordinated Value in Cattle Supply Chains

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Cattle ranchers have an opportunity to unlock real insights by keeping their genetic data proprietary instead of housing it with a breed association. Lee Leachman of Leachman Cattle Co., says since doing that at their operation, they’ve been able to build their breeding program to optimize the entire supply chain.

Leachman… “We want to build systems that capture value for dairy farmers and beef cattle ranchers that bring more money back to the farm and to do that we've got to optimize these animals from conception to consumption and we've got to have enough structure to pass the value back. In the beef cattle industry, there's a lot of people that are afraid that we're going to integrate like pigs and chickens. And I’m like that's never going to happen, okay. There's no such thing as a company anywhere that said I want to own 3 million cows on 60 million acres spread out across the United States. Nobody's ever said that; nobody's built a business plan for that; that's not going to happen. So the real question is, do you want to work as an independent rancher raising what you think is right hoping that the market pays you enough to be profitable or do you want to work in a system that gives you really clear direction on how to build the best cow, how to build the best feeder animal, how to build the best carcass, and then brings the highest possible percentage of those dollars back to the farm.”

Leachman says these transitions must begin at the farm level for full value to be achieved.