THE rise of the Angus breed to its position as one of the most prominent British breeds in the world is a familiar story to most cattle producers.
But once you’re on top, how do you stay there?
For the Canadian Angus Association (CAA), a focus on youth, social media and verified Angus beef programs is proving a popular marketing recipe.
Part of this is the association’s Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed program.
All cattle in Canada are required to be tagged with a radio-frequency identification tag.
The CAA created the Angus tag program for cattle with at least one purebred Angus parent.
To qualify for the Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed program, the cattle used must bear the Angus tag which identifies them as Canadian Angus cattle.
“The Rancher Endorsed program verifies that Angus branded beef programs are actually using Angus cattle in their programs,” said CAA assistant general manager Michael Latimer.
“They only get an Angus tag if they have at least 50 per cent Angus genetics, which means that they have to have one registered parent in our herd book.
“If it’s a sire, we issue 50 tags per bull per year.”
Apart from being an Angus tag, these are also part of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) tag.
As part of the national identification strategy, the tags need to be compliant with CCIA rules too.
“The back of the tag is different with the Angus logo, and the front has the code,” Mr Latimer said.
Codes start with 124 as the country code for Canada, followed by an 01 designating animals as Angus.
Other breeds have their own individual codes.For example, Hereford is 02.
“There are audit processes in place to make sure the right tags are going in the right animals,” Mr Latimer said.
“It does get abused a little bit, but very little; it’s easy to tell if an animal isn’t Angus.”
Mr Latimer said there were some Angus beef programs separate to Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed, which generally identified Angus by being 51pc black hided.
“We also register Red Angus and both reds and blacks get these (Rancher Endorsed) tags, so producers can use both red and black in their Angus beef programs, which hasn’t traditionally been the case,” he said.
“Usually it’s just been black Angus which qualify for these programs, which doesn’t make sense to me.”
Both red and black Angus cattle are registered in one herd book in Canada.
“The CAA was incorporated in 1905, but reds weren’t allowed in the herd book until 1968,” Mr Latimer said.
“Because of our size, it makes sense to have the two together.
“In terms of numbers of registrations in Canada, if we were to separate the two breeds, we’d still be number one and two in the country.”
More than 50pc of all purebred cattle registrations in Canada are now Angus (red and black).
“It’s good in one way, not so good in another; it would be nice to have a stronger purebred market across the board.
“I imagine other countries around the world are facing a similar thing.”
Mr Latimer said a lot of effort had gone into the Angus tag program and Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed.
“We’ve seen the power these Angus beef programs have; if you look at Certified Angus Beef (CAB) in the US, and track their pounds of beef sold each year alongside their registrations, they almost mirror each other.
“They’re on the same growth curve; there’s a little delay of about two years, but the growth curve is the same.”
CAB could become Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed if it were to use the Angus tag and not just solely focus on colour, Mr Latimer said.
Launched in 2008, Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed was officially released to the public at the World Angus Forum hosted in Calgary in 2009.
“It’s a relatively new program, but we find a lot of value in it, knowing the power of an Angus branded program,” Mr Latimer said.
“We want to make sure people use Angus in their programs; there’s a lot of breeds which have now developed programs around being black hided, like Simmentals for example.
“Our (Canadian) Simmentals look like a heavier boned Angus; they don’t fit in our meat grading system but can now fit in with Angus programs.
“We want Angus-based beef programs to have Angus in them.”
With other breeds turning to black, Mr Latimer said that if anything, it had probably helped Angus.
“For those to breed up, they’ve had to use Angus cattle to get there, so it’s actually probably increased bull and semen sales for Angus.
“You could worry that it would come to a point where it would stop and they’d use what is within their breed, but we haven’t seen that yet.”
CAA currently has 17 different programs it works with, ranging from meat packers to burger stands, and Angus branded programs which sell product across the world.
“Then there are some retail outlets, like Hero Burger which has 23 locations in Ontario – they source all of their beef through Heritage Angus beef, which is also part of Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed.
“We’re looking at expanding the Rancher Endorsed program to farms; that’s under development still, but criteria might be things such as on-farm safety and herd management.”
CAA has also developed an outreach program to pair with the Rancher Endorsed program.
“In 2010-11 we did a wine and beef pairing partnership with a winery out of British Columbia,” Mr Latimer said.
“We’ve put the focus on the consumer and educating them in what Angus are.
“A lot don’t know it’s a breed – and it’s not really important that they know – but if we can teach them a little about it, if they go to buy a roast or steak they can choose the right cut and wine.”
To date there has been no push to the restaurant side, and money for the program is generated solely by the CAA.
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