Leadership is a vital component to a thriving cattle industry. Past National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) president Jerry Bohn, a Kansas cattle feeder, and current president, Don Schiefelbein, a registered Angus producer from Minnesota, open up about leadership and facing adversity in the cattle business:^[1]

What motivated you to take the leadership challenge and come up through the cattle industry?

Bohn: The political aspects of our industry and working to help producers become more profitable became a passion of mine. As I went through my career, I became active in the Kansas Livestock Association and served as the president in 1997. It just seemed like a natural extension to become more active at the national level.

Schiefelbein: My dad has always preached, “Where the industry goes, so goes your family business.” You’ve got to have a strong industry that’s making the right decisions positioned well for the future if you want your home place to be successful. For our family, it’s an important investment to make sure this beef industry is successful.

How has the pandemic impacted the cattle industry?

Bohn: The dynamic of backing up more than a million head of fed cattle, and the challenges presented to us getting them through the system. We’re feeling the pains of that because we’re still out of balance with the supply of fed cattle versus the amount of packing plant space. Also, the labor challenge our processors have of getting everybody back to work has multiplied that problem.

Schiefelbein: You never expect black swans to become flocks. And that’s what our industry has faced recently. It’s not one black swan. It’s not two. It’s multiple black swans where our industry has to adjust rapidly for various outcomes. I think it is important for producers to realize that it’s easy to maybe get down on our industry right now, as we see all these little negatives flowing back and forth. Still, it’s very unusual to have this many black swan events happen so closely.

What do you encourage fellow cattle producers to do when faced with adversity?

Bohn: I think they’ve all got to plan in accordance with being prepared for adversity in the back of their mind. For instance, a black swan going on is drought in parts of the country. I think it’s important that as they manage the drought, they control what they can, like carrying over some feed and forages.

Schiefelbein: I’d say what plays into the strength of cow/calf and cattle producers, in general, is their resilience. A lot has been thrown at them over the years. Things have changed. We’ve had dynamics that have flipped this industry upside down at points. Keep the resilience and strength because if you can keep that herd together, the opportunity looks really good moving forward.

What are your thoughts on Purina^® Plus and value-added programs?

Bohn: As a cattle feeder, I salute Purina for adding the nutritional aspect to those starting programs. A lot of these calf programs right now have been focused on the animal health vaccination protocols. Adding that nutrition part to it really enhances the program. It’s been our experience that one of the things lacking was poor nutrition on those calves.

Schiefelbein: That’s where 100% of our efforts go is towards value-add. If you’re going to try and compete in today’s world with an average mentality, your success is not going to be good. If producers are saying, “what can I do to compete in the future?” they better connect with somebody like Purina who’s got the value-add program that makes their calves not average, but better than average and gives the cattle feeder a lot more confidence.

How can a value-added program help smaller cattle producers?

Bohn: One of the options they have is to find a neighbor to partner with and group calves together so they have a load of calves to sell. They can do things cooperatively that will benefit everybody.
 
Schiefelbein: Doing the right things with management doesn’t matter how big you are. When you use best management practices, all of a sudden, the size of the producer doesn’t matter.
 
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