Numbers run the world of business, and the Ag industry is no exception to that rule. This week, we look at five more speakers who will expand on “It’s All About the Numbers,” the theme for this year’s Capital Farm Credit Hemphill County Texas A&M AgriLife Beef Conference. The event is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, April 25-26.
AgriLife Extension Agent Andy Holloway said in an interview with Record editor Laurie Ezzell Brown that the beef conference’s reputation has spread all over the country. He tells the story about David and Kay Parnell of Canadian who had traveled to Las Vegas in December. As they were waiting for their connecting flight, David struck up a conversation with a man who asked where he was from. When David told him, “Canadian,” the man remarked, “Oh, that’s where they have the beef conference.”
Holloway says that reputation has made it easy to have a sold-out trade show during the event. It helps in funding discounted tickets for college students in the Ag industry, as well as providing free tickets for 4-H and FFA students chosen by their teachers.
“And the thing that just is so impressive about this community is that every part, whether they’re associated with the cattle business or not, is interested in the beef conference,” said Holloway, adding that the community’s ownership of the event is exciting.
The first morning of the conference, Daniel Basse will speak at 10:30 am on the theme, “It’s All About the Numbers.” He is the president of AgResource Company, a domestic and international agricultural research firm located in Chicago. He is an economist who has been in the commodity business since 1979.
Raised on a dairy/grain farm in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Basse has a keen sense of production agriculture. He has worked with Professional Farmers of America,
Brock Associates, and the Ag research division of GNP Commodities in Chicago. In 1987, he founded AgResource Company to serve the market research needs of the world agricultural community. Basse holds global conferences on agriculture in Switzerland and Brazil, and he is vice chairman of U.S. Farm Foundation.
“I’ve never heard an Ag economist who can talk about complex numbers … and put them in words that the average producer can understand and then go use it,” said Holloway. “His message is going to be about where we are in the beef cattle market, the geopolitical situation as it affects the economics of agriculture, and how that gets us to what our Ag or our beef cattle producers can expect the next three to five years.”
Apropos to the ongoing theme, this question—“What Are the Numbers Saying?”—is one that Troy Applehans with CattleFax will address in his segment at 9 am on Tuesday. He is the CattleFax cow/calf and stocker market analyst specialist responsible for feeder cattle and cow/calf regions of the Southern Plains, as well as the southeastern states of the U.S. He also covers feed yards in the Midwest, Colorado, and Western Nebraska regions.
Applehans is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a degree in animal science and a strong cow/calf and seed stock cattle background. CattleFax is a member-owned organization whose objective is to help member cattlemen make more profitable marketing and management decisions. CattleFax supplies its members with timely market information, analyses, and educational programs to assist them in making better bottom-line decisions. The information, including data provided by members is developed by CattleFax’s staff of market analysts and researchers. CattleFax information is available to members through a weekly printed report, in conversations with analysts on toll-free lines, and on video screens and personal computers.
