K-State Beef Conference

“Critical Thinking”

August 12, 2010Greg Henderson

“Critical Thinking”“Critical thinking is the identification

and evaluation of evidence to guide decision making. A critical thinker uses

broad in-depth analysis of evidence to make decisions and communicate

his/her beliefs clearly and accurately.” - The Critical Thinking Co.

FOR SALE: 1995 Ford F-250, 4-door, long-bed, 7.3 liter turbo diesel pickup. 169,000 miles. “She’ll pull anything you put behind her!”

Know your customer

The Chicago Daily Drovers Journal

Since January 11, 1873 America's oldest livestock periodical

Harvey Goodall launched the Chicago Daily Drovers Journal in 1873, just ten years after the Chicago Stockyards opened for business. Mr. Goodall gathered prices on the cattle trading in the yards and published them in the daily newspapers that were mailed throughout the Midwest. Other market newspapers sprang up in river market cities such as St. Louis, St. Joseph, Peoria and Kansas City. The Neff family acquired the paper in 1917 and merged it with their Kansas City Drovers Telegram.

Today’s average Drovers reader has:

381 beef cows 431 stocker cattle 1,188 fed cattle marketed

7,230 acres owned/leased

Education level of Drovers’ readers:

68 percent have at least some college25 percent have a college degree 9 percent have a graduate degree

“I saw great businesses become but a ghost of a name because someone

thought they could be managed just as they were always managed, and though the management may have been most

excellent in its day, its excellence consisted in its alertness to its day, and

not its slavish following of its yesterdays.”

Source: My Life and Work (Henry Ford)

Change

Daily Google searches

2000 2010100 million 2 billion

Text messages

2000 2010400,000 4.5 billion

Books Published2000 2010282,242 1,052,803

Daily newspapers

2000 20101,480 1,302

CD sales revenue

2000 2010$943 million $428 million

iTunes downloads

2000 20100 10 billion

Broadcast Media Has Changed

America’s most trusted newscaster: July 16, 1979

America’s most trusted newscaster: July 22, 2009

Source: TIME magazine, 07-22-09

Changes in agriculture

Average corn yield per acre

1950 39 bu/acre1980 153 bu/acre

Beef production

1980 2009111,242,000 million cattle 94,521,000 -15%21.469 billion pounds 25.951

+21%449 lbs./beef per cow 632

+41%$40.7 billion retail value $80.6

+98%

Consumers Have MisconceptionsConsumers often have misguided perceptions about foods.

Source, The Onion

Your New Customer is:Better educatedPushed for timeConscious of food industry trends and issuesFar removed from production agricultureCommutes an average of 25 minutes one-

way79.8 percent live in metropolitan areas

Prepare for change

Conduct a

SWOT analysis

SWOT Analysis

Annual analysis of your business

• Strengths• Weaknesses• Opportunities• Threats

StrengthsEmployees/familyGeneticsFacilitiesForage availablity / pasturesMarketing

WeaknessesAge of cow herdFacilitiesMarketing strategiesEquipmentOrganization

OpportunitiesWhat opportunities are available to you?• Genetic improvements• Pasture improvements/acquisitions• New employees• New ventures – recreation, hunting, fishing• Strategic partnerships – feedyards, other

cow-calf producers

ThreatsWhat current and future threats does your

operation face?• Age/retirement of manager CEO• Financial• Loss of resources – rented land/pastures• Declining demand for product• Marketing issues / local, regional, national

Meet your challengesAnimal welfareMarketing issuesDiet/healthEnvironmental

Diet/healthMeatless Mondays

The Meatless Monday campaign is backed by some public health advocates, chefs and suburban moms in an effort to reduce consumption of too much saturated fat.

Sid Lerner

50-year advertising career on Madison Avenue.Creator of “Squeeze the Charmin” campaign,

where grocery shoppers can’t keep their hands off the “irresistibly soft” Charmin toilet paper.

Consumer questionsWhere does my meat come from?How was it raised?What is the impact on the environment?

Beef’s water footprint“One of the biggest advantages of cutting back

on meat consumption is the reduction in the water demand,” says environmentalist Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute.

“It takes 140,000 bathtubs full of water to produce 1 ton of beef.”

Outrageous claims“A pound of beef takes anywhere from 2,500 to

6,000 gallons of water to produce.”

- Stanford professors Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich

Newsweek once reported that the water required to produce a 1,000-pound steer “would float a destroyer.”

RealityA pound of beef requires 441 gallons of waterA pound of rice requires 403 gallons of waterA pound of chocolate requires 2,847 gallons

of water

Jim Oltjen, department of animal science, University of California, Davis

Meet the challengesFocus on your businessEvaluate new technology – DNA, etc.Evaluate your business practices

(animal welfare, animal handling)• Think critically