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 feedyards 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 seedstock 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.

Lee Leachman is the CEO of Leachman Cattle of Colorado. Leachman Cattle markets over 2,000 bulls per year and is currently one of the five largest seedstock breeders in the U.S. Leachman graduated from Harvard University with an Honors B.A. in economics in 1988. He also completed graduate-level work in animal breeding at Colorado State University. After college, Leachman joined his father, Jim, and brother, Seth, at Leachman Cattle Company, in Billings, Montana. Together, the family built the company into the largest beef seedstock company in North America. Leachman moved to Colorado in 2003 and formed Leachman Cattle of Colorado. The company immediately began a large-scale collection of feed intake and conversion data. In 2005, Dallas Horton asked Leachman the critical question, “Which of our sale bulls will make the most money in my commercial operation?” This started the company’s pursuit of indexes that predicted profitability.

Leachman Cattle of Colorado now markets Angus, Red Angus, Stabilizer, and Charolais bulls produced from a pool of 12,000 females in over 45 cooperator herds. The company also has a semen marketing division, a custom semen collection division, and a data services department that provides EPD (expected progeny differences) and index calculation to other seedstock and commercial producers. Leachman frequently speaks to cattlemen both in the U.S. and internationally. His segment, “Selection for Profit” will be at 12:45 pm on Tuesday.

Holloway said of Leachman, “He’s as close to being a genius as anybody I’ve ever known in the cattle business … He has applied some new math to the Angus, the Hereford, all these major breed associations, and he’s come up with a new method of creating profit through using data through EPDs that nobody’s ever seen before.”

At 9:45 am on Wednesday, Trevor Caviness will answer the question, “What’s the Future for the Cow Business from the Perspective of the Nation’s Leading Cow Harvesting Company?” Born and raised in Hereford and Amarillo, Caviness received a B.B.A. in finance from Southern Methodist University in 1997 and then completed the Ranch Management Program at Texas Christian University in 1998. He began his full-time career in the family business, Caviness Beef Packers, in 1998 and has been president of the company since 2011.

Caviness Beef’s processing facilities are located in Hereford (harvest/fab/hides/rendering) and Amarillo (ground beef). In conjunction with partner JR Simplot Company, Caviness opened its second beef harvest/processing/ground beef, CS Beef Packers, in Kuna, Idaho, in May of 2017. Caviness/CS Beef Packers are currently ranked No. 6 on the U.S. beef packer list by volume.

Caviness’s primary job functions are overseeing operations, marketing, food safety, and business development. He is active in the protein industry as a board member of the North American Meat Institute. He also stays active in community initiatives and has served on numerous area boards.

“Caviness is the major cow harvester in this area of the United States,” said Holloway. “His talk will be about the effect the number of cattle being processed is going to have on the cow calf industry and the whole beef cattle industry for the next decade.”

Travis Thorne is the market president for Capital Farm Credit’s Plains region and will speak at 8:30 am on Wednesday, addressing, “The Business of Beef: Your Finance Partner.” Thorne was born and raised in New Mexico, and after graduating high school, he attended Texas Tech University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and applied economics and a bachelor’s degree in business administration. While at Texas Tech, Thorne was a member of the 1998 Meats Judging Team and served as the Texas Tech Masked Rider from 1999-2000.

After graduating from Texas Tech in 2002, Thorne began his 20-plus-year career in the Farm Credit System, working for several associations in New Mexico and Texas. During this time, Thorne has served on many different committees and boards supporting agriculture, youth development, and his community. Such involvement includes Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers, State Fair of Texas, Rodeo Austin, Bryson School Board, and Bryson United Methodist Church. Thorne resides in Bryson with his wife, Lori, along with their daughter, Braydee, and son, Bryce.

For more information about the conference, or to register, log on to www.hemphillcotxbeef.com, or call 806.323.9114.