Angus Stakes
Building a pathway to success.
January 6, 2026
Full disclosure: I grew up in the Angus business. There is no doubt I am biased. I believe in this breed and what it offers the folks trying to make a living with it. You’ve probably picked up on that if you’ve read the Angus Beef Bulletin for long.
There are good reasons for my bias. Randy Blach, CEO of CattleFax, verified a few at Angus Convention in Kansas City, Mo., this fall (see “No Apologies” ): The cattle. Visionary leadership. Members who have developed cattle that, as Blach said, people throughout the supply chain can build businesses on. That’s quite a compliment.
When the greater industry was declaring a war on fat and chasing lean, Angus focused on the consumer eating experience, producing — and differentiating with the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand — a product for which consumers were willing to pay more. Those consumer dollars have increased profitability in the beef business.
With popularity of any brand, there will be what I’ll call off-label copycats that try to garner the premiums without the commitment. Unfortunately, they can tarnish a brand’s reputation.
At one time, having a black hide pretty much guaranteed Angus influence. Today, that influence may be several generations removed. Cattlemen — and consumers — paying top dollar for Angus genetics, want to make sure they are buying the real deal. Once bitten by an imitator that falls short, customers are less likely to pay a premium — and that’s if they are willing to buy at all.
Commercial pathway
The Association and its entities — Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI), CAB, Angus Media and the Angus Foundation — have put a good deal of time and effort into creating programs and services that accurately characterize the Angus genetics used at the seedstock and commercial levels so buyers can have confidence in their purchases.
The Association has outlined a road map — dubbed the Commercial Angus Pathway to Success — for using those Angus programs and services to help you produce and distinguish the cattle you build your business on and that bring in the consumer dollars to finance it. This year we will highlight that pathway in a series spotlighting each segment.
It begins with buying a registered Angus bull, and progresses to using tools through AGI to describe your cow herd. Building upon those management tools allows you to utilize tools through Commercial Programs to accurately describe the genetic merit of your calf crop and to market calves to their full advantage. Finally, using tools to increase the percentage of your calves capable of qualifying for CAB and Prime garners those premiums that add profitability to the whole industry.
We’ll take a closer look at each of those segments throughout the year. Lynsey McAnally kicks us off with an overview of the Commercial Angus Pathways Angus University session at the 2025 Angus Convention (see “Finding the Path to Marketing Success”).
Enjoy the journey.
Welcome, Chelsea
This month we welcome Chelsea Good, founder and CEO of Good & Associates, to our writing team. Way back when, Chelsea was actually an intern for the Angus Journal® and Angus Beef Bulletin. We knew then she was going to make quite an impression on the world and the beef industry.
You can read her whole bio on her website at https://www.goodandassoc.com/, but in short: After getting a law degree from Washburn University, she served the Kansas Department of Agriculture as communications director and then staff attorney. Most recently she spent more than a decade as vice president of government and industry affairs and legal at the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA).
We’ve asked Chelsea to share some of her expertise in legal and policy matters that affect the cattle industry and your bottom line — subjects like risk management tools, labor issues and some of the bills on Capitol Hill. She kicks off the “Policy Matters” series with a look at beef prices (see “Beefing Over Beef Prices”).
Topics: News , Feeder-Calf Marketing Guide , Genetics , Management
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
Issue: January 2026
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