Producers meet with consumers over Memorial Day weekend

USPB Promotes Beef at

Stew Leonard’s Stores

USPB producers from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas spent their Memorial Day weekend promoting beef in Connecticut and New York. This is the second year that USPB producers have promoted beef at the Stew Leonard’s stores. Nearly 125,000 customers shopped at the company’s four stores during the promotion. In total, they sampled and bought 12,000 pounds of Stew’s “Naked” strips (which is USPB’s NatureSource® Natural Angus Beef product) and 45,000 pounds of shortloins in the two day event.

Barb Downey and Joe Carpenter, Wamego, KS, Kirk and Mary Lynch, New Hampton, IA, Perry and Becky Nowak, Scott City, KS, and Bill and Barb Rishel, North Platte, NE, along with USPB’s Tracy Thomas handed out samples of the featured strip steaks to consumers who were eager to taste Stew Leonard’s “Naked” beef.

The family-owned business has been recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for each of the last ten years. Stew Leonard’s has 2,200 employees in its four stores. Over 80 percent of the items sold in these stores are fresh. Customer service is job one with the company being built around two simple rules: “Rule 1. The customer is always right; Rule 2. If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule 1.” Not surprisingly, the family-owned and operated business has a loyal customer base in a heavily populated area that offers consumers a lot of shopping alternatives. More than 1.8 million consumers live within 10 miles of its stores.

“Stew Leonard’s is a great customer for our company,” said Matt McClurg, NatureSource® Natural Angus Beef Account Manager for National Beef, who also accompanied the USPB members during the promotion. “I was extremely pleased with the preparation, knowledge and information provided by the USPB ranchers. They

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USPB Members Named BIF’s

Top Seedstock Producer

USPB member, Mushrush Red Angus, Strong City, KS, was named the Beef Improvement Federation’s (BIF) Seedstock Producer of the Year earlier this month during the BIF’s annual convention in Bozeman, MT.

Mushrush Red Angus is owned and operated by Robert and Oma Lou, Joe and Connie, and Daniel and Christine Mushrush. The family business includes both spring- and fall-calving herds, a stocker operation and a feedyard. They market approximately 150 Red Angus bulls each year. Mushrush Red Angus also has a program to buy calves from its customers and finish those calves before marketing them on a value-based grid. That carcass data is then shared with customers to help them learn how they might improve their cow herds.w

Bill is ready for consideration by full House
House Appropriations
Denies Funding For
Proposed GIPSA Rule

By Tracy Thomas, Vice President, Marketing

On May 31, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that denies funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) plan to implement the proposed livestock and poultry marketing rule introduced last year, which USPB and much of the beef industry has opposed. The bill is the Committee’s recommendation to fund the USDA during fiscal year 2012, which begins October 1. The bill is now ready for consideration by the full House of Representatives.

In May, 147 members of the House sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to withdraw the rule pending USDA’s completion of an economic analysis. In response to the letter, Secretary Vilsack indicated USDA will not withdraw the proposed rule. USPB remains concerned about the potential impacts of the proposed rule and encourages you to continue to communicate with members of Congress and other industry leaders about it. w

USPB Makes

Tax Distribution

USPB’s Board of Directors authorized a cash distribution for the second quarter of tax year 2011. The purpose of the distribution is to assist unitholders who are making quarterly estimated tax payments. The distribution, mailed the second week of June, was equal to $1.96 per Class A unit and $17.14 per Class B unit. This distribution makes the total distribution to USPB’s unitholders for tax year 2011 equal to $35.89 per combined unit. w