Hook Close to the Load
Mike sees work ahead in the beef industry.

     We’ve enjoyed a tremendous
run in the beef business the last few years in most all segments of the industry. As we watch the rising cost of feed grains and what’s happening to some other sources of protein, we can’t let our guard down.
     The frustrating thing is that often one segment of the beef industry lives off the other. We must be aware that we’re all in this together – Seedstock Producers, Cow-Calf man, Feedlot operator, Packer, Restaurateur, Everybody! If we don’t all continue to improve the quality and consistency of our end product consumer demand declines and we’re all dead in the water.
     It’s up to us to provide a product that’s palatable and consistent enough that whatever venue, Golden Corral or Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, it deserves the price and brings them back. We’ve got to support the R & D people to develop and expand products that are fast, easy, tasty, marketable and within the realm of purchase. It’s a long way from conception to consumer and we all must play our part. Sometimes maybe we need to step back and look through our wide-angle to fully appreciate the challenges ahead. 
     Dave Steen, commercial
marketing director for the Maine-
Anjou Association, has one of the
loneliest jobs in the world. His is not a glamorous position, he’s down in the trenches daily, pounding the pavement, calling on sale barns, feedlots, order buyers, commercial producers, and anybody who will listen to him expound on the merits of Maine-Anjou Cattle. He’s competing with breeds whose advertising budgets dwarf what he has to work with. But he’s making progress,

he’s a persistent cuss and we need to thank and encourage him – his task is monumental! We’ve got to encourage our board to appropriate the funds necessary to continue the mission.
      The least visible but most important part of our business, here at Hartman’s, is the production and marketing of commercial and purebred bulls. We don’t get all heifers here; we get bulls – lots of bulls. We spend a tremendous amount of time and travel to promote and market

our bulls. If we couldn’t sell these bulls we couldn’t exist.
     The response we’ve gotten from the large numbers of Maine- Anjou bulls that we’ve placed in big cow outfits in Western America and Western Canada has been most gratifying. If you follow our program you know we’re constantly searching for the next generation of bulls to advance our program. Our customers demand it! Simple cowboy logic requires live calves and gainability and we constantly work at improving carcass and maternal traits so they’ll feed and be docile and milky enough to make cows when it comes to that. Of course it goes without saying they’ve got to be sound to work in the real world.
     I feel the Maine-Anjou breed is well positioned in the industry but

we must keep the pressure on. We must strive to expand the market in all areas, encourage registrations and membership, support the youth, budget soundly, promote vigorously, and work toward common goals. We have an excellent staff in place at the AMAA and have been well served by many good men and women on our board, and we all must do our part. With that in mind, I will be a candidate from Region II for a seat on the Board of  Director’s of the American Maine-Anjou Association. I will be happy to discuss the Maine- Anjou business with you at anytime. With the election coming up this fall, the ballots will be mailed in the August/September Maine-Anjou Voice Magazine. I would appreciate your support and ask for your vote. If elected I will serve with an open mind and to the best of my ability.

GVC Statesman 4R
A junior herdsire introduced into our program
to compliment some of the HCC stacked pedigrees. He’s really gonna work! Several of the younger calves in our 2007 crop are by him and as they break from the pack this fall and winter they are going to create quite a stir. He’s a bull for the future!