Julie Mais (00:04):
Decades of diligence from previous leadership is what has set up today's American Angus Association to be in strong financial standing. That's according to Darrell Stevenson, who just wrapped up his year as treasurer of the Association. I'm Julie Mais with the Angus Journal, and I sat down with the recently elected vice president to recap the recent fiscal year and future board priorities. So Darrell, you just wrapped up your year as treasurer of the American Angus Association and recently just gave a treasurer's report on the fiscal year end. Could you just give us some highlights of that report?

Darrell Stevenson (00:38):
Yeah, sure. Glad to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. I am very pleased with the year end report as treasurer to let everybody know that we ended in a very healthy situation. Actually, the mother company of American Angus Association plus the four entities, worked well within our budget and we showed profits in each entity. And just to touch on that a little bit, we did see considerable growth this year with our investment portfolio. Boy, there was some tough times, if you would've asked me this April 1st versus say July 1st, there would've been a big swing downward and it recovered considerably to have a year end margin closer to 10%, which made a big difference actually on a per entity basis. I mean, if you go down, we'll start with Certified Angus Beef. I mean getting paid by those commissions. It helps when we've gotten into our 10th year of a billion pounds of product sales.

(01:38):
That's just extraordinary to me. In API, we've seen genuine growth, new leadership with Benjie Lemon there. And to me, one of the most amazing statistics is that they reported that there was 113 million touch points. Well, I think you can go directly back to that, how that helps drive Angus Media's bottom line. Within AGI, I'm just so pleased and proud to report there's been just a tremendous acceptance and confidence rate with genomic testing, with a continuation of increase in genomic testing, which has been above and beyond all projections the last couple of years. So that confidence has led us to a rate of about 75% of all these calves being registered, being genomically tested. As a side note, I'm incredibly pleased to actually report as well that year in for specifically AngusLink has seen incredible leaps and bounds in the growth of that program. This year we are on the verge of enrolling our millionth animal to go through that program and over the time frame, the lifespan of AngusLink, we can actually calculate through the premium and the metrics, we will surpass over a hundred million dollars worth of premiums back to those cattle that have been enrolled in the program. And to me, that is creating true value for the commercial men that are utilizing not only the program, but it's creating value for those that are confident and using registered Angus bulls.

Julie Mais (03:11):
The Association finished the year with another strong bottom line, all entities were in positive. Why is it important for the Association to have a strong bottom line and what are some of the things that the Board is doing to lead that effort?

Darrell Stevenson (03:26):
First of all, to answer that question, actually I'd like to go back in time and give respect where it's deserved. I mean, the pattern that we work under was established by previous leadership, and I mean not just a couple of years, but decades of diligence to make sure that we are financially stable. A large percentage of our consolidated assets are actually in an investment portfolio and that's just sound business moving forward for opportunities that come available. It could be improvements in IT, building structure, expanded services because as we all know in life, economies and businesses can go up and down, and it keeps us just in a very financially healthy position.

Julie Mais (04:09):
In September, the Board approved, you review the budget and approved a budget moving forward for this next fiscal year, what were some of the considerations that you guys take to that approach of the budgeting process?

Darrell Stevenson (04:21):
Yeah, I would like the membership to actually realize how much effort is actually put into managing these finances and overseeing these budgets on a weekly, monthly basis. This isn't just something that we visit once a year. We've got extraordinary talent and help with Kenny Miller and Tara Adwell overseeing this for us daily. And I think they've been incredibly responsible at establishing, assisting us establish a budget and actually keeping us within those budgets. And this isn't an easy thing to do when you're talking about an entity of this size with quite a few entities to oversee.

Julie Mais (04:59):
As you step into this the next year as vice president, what are some of the key priorities you think you'll focus on over the next year?

Darrell Stevenson (05:06):
Well, me personally, I'm a big fan. I mentioned earlier AngusLink. I think it's got a lot of opportunity to grow. From the research side, I'm passionate about a lot of things, AGI, I've got a genuine interest in the heart health initiative, bovine congestive heart failure, the beginning steps of the red meat yield task force that we're probably going to start participating in. So I've got real genuine interest on that side. For me. I think there might be a little bit of a reset or reestablishment of connecting back with the membership because there was true value. There was a lot of information that we got back in a membership survey that we sent out. We spent a lot of time in the last couple days talking about it, had a general session this morning, and there were some realizations in there that were actually quite interesting from a situation that we have a very young and emerging membership that needs better outreach, communication, understanding.

(06:09):
The statistic that we went through today, not from the survey, but from what we've pulled ourselves from the membership, is that 59% of our membership, 59% of 21,000 people, members, have been members less than 15 years. And to put that into perspective, AGI as an entity was established in 2007 and it's the fledgling, everybody else was older than that. So quite frankly, a percentage of that membership knows nothing but selling a billion pounds, 10 years in a row of CAB. I think it's important for us to step back and connect and be able to convey why the challenges and complications of how and why we got there on AGI, why the establishment of that entity was there. Its intent, its purpose. And regardless that feedback from the membership is what needs to drive us daily, weekly anyway on setting forth those strategic plans. And so I am genuinely excited. I am just grateful for the opportunity to be able to contribute on some of these decisions.

Julie Mais (07:17):
Is there anything else you'd like the membership to know or you'd like to share with them?

Darrell Stevenson (07:21):
I guess at this point, I would really like to emphasize how grateful I am for your participation on engaging in coming to actually the annual meeting and convention. There was a huge crowd. There was a lot of opinions, a lot of engagement. It was across the board. If there was anything that really came out of this was an appreciation for the true strength of our breed and that is diversity. Diversity in cattle, diversity in opinions. And I thought this was a well timed, well placed set meeting for us to all get back on the same page and move forward as a team. So I'm very grateful for everybody's healthy participation.

Julie Mais (08:04):
Thank you for your time. Thank you for your leadership. You can find full coverage of the Angus Convention online or in print with the January issue of your Angus Journal. Visit angusjournal.net to learn more.