PAC Beef Summit Meetings

Nebraska and Kansas

By: Dr. Kip Lukasiewicz, Production Animal Consultation

Our first Beef Summit meeting in Nebraska was an overall hit. The theme of the meeting was “Sharpening Your Stockmanship and Team Skills.” Our attendance at this meeting was around 180 people with a mix of owners, managers, team leaders and workers. I was delighted to see management attend with their team leaders and workers as this shows a level of empowerment, the value of education and the building of a great team atmosphere.

We had an excellent set of speakers in the morning. Dr. Larry Firkins started the meeting off with a great discussion on implementing change and building teams. Attendees were able to interact with one another during the session, and this interaction certainly created the engaging atmosphere we were looking for at this meeting.

Dr. Dan Thomson then spoke about the research conducted on trailer type and bruising effects. He also discussed the effects of Fatigued Cattle Syndrome.

Our keynote speaker for this event was Trent Loos. Trent knocked his talk out of the park, encouraging us to be more vocal about the good things our industry does. We provide the world a safe, wholesome source of protein, and we accomplish this task with fewer cattle and less land today than 15-20 years ago.

In the afternoon, Dr. Tom Noffsinger gave a brief introduction to our handling session and encouraged everyone to open their minds to the concepts presented. He reminded us that we must have buy-in from the top down in order for this to all work.

Our handling session featured several great clinicians –Ted Howard, Curt Pate and Juan Reyes – who demonstrated the finer techniques of horsemanship and stockmanship. Ted and Curt did a great job of providing tips on horsemanship and instruction on sorting cattle on horseback in a difficult part of the arena.

Juan Reyes led an excellent demonstration on dog handling, showing how a well-trained dog can assist in gathering, sorting and loading cattle. One of the things I grasped from Juan was that his dogs are not pets. They are workers on the ranch and are treated in that manner. He loves his dogs and will provide them with all their needs, but they do not sleep with him and they do not get food treats. Their treat is working.

We greatly appreciate all of our meeting sponsors. In particular, we want to thank Farm Credit Services of America, represented by Jesse Moore of O’Neill, Nebraska, for sponsoring the morning break. Merck Animal Health, rep- resented by Dr. Justin Welsh, Justin Jarecki, and Kyle Key, generously sponsored our lunch. Joe Klute and his team from Nebraska Star Beef prepared an excellent meal and made sure everyone left with a full stomach.

In July, we will host another Beef Summit meeting in Oberlin, Kansas. The theme is “Healthy Start for Healthy Cattle,” and we have another excellent set of speakers lined up.

Dr. Jeff DeFrain will talk about the normal anatomy and mechanics of the bovine foot. Dr. DeFrain spends a majority of his time in dairies and comes with a wealth of experience.

Dr. Dorte Dopfer from University of Wisconsin, Madison will discuss lameness prevention, highlighting the pathogenesis of disease in the foot and talking through prevention, treatment and outcomes for diseases such as foot rot and hairy heel warts.

Dr. Mike Apley from Kansas State University will give an update on Veterinary Feed Directives (VFDs) and antibiotic awareness in our industry.

Dr. Kev Sullivan from Queensland, Australia, will join us again to discuss the latest research on heat load management and the role of proactive monitoring in prevention of major death loss due to heat load.

Garrett Taylor and Lisa Taylor will present the latest tools offered by PAC for data management and how feedyards can build dashboards to summarize the daily activity in their operations.

Nebraska Star Beef will provide lunch, with prayer led by Dr. Doug Ford.

In the afternoon, Dr. Nels Lindberg will talk about leadership development. I am excited for this presentation as it will cover team-building and interpersonal skills for handling our employees in a business setting.

The final speaker of the day will be Dr. Sam Barringer, who is currently serving in the armed forces. His talk on teamsmanship will be an interactive session that will give us some great insight into our management skills and how to empower others.

This is going to be great meeting and I hope to see many of our clients there. This is a perfect environment to build relationships in our industry and to provide education to our employees. Our business is about raising a great protein source for people to consume, but it is also about building a team that will last a lifetime, empowering leaders, and equipping people with the tools, education and freedom to excel in their position.

To register for the meeting, please visit pacdvms.com or contact your PAC veterinarian.