If there is one thing Anne Burkholder wants to get across to feedyard visitors, it is to respect and appreciate.

Merck Animal Health has released an educational video about cattle shipping and transportation as part of its CreatingConnections program – designed to help producers better understand cattle behavior and use that knowledge to help reduce stress, improve reproduction and foster stronger immune responses.

Many food labels bombard shoppers with various animal welfare claims in addition to the many labels of non-GMO or pasture-raised.

In the last two years, the U.S. beef industry experienced some of the largest recalls on record as Ranch Feeding Corporation announced a recall for 8.7 million pounds of “unwholesome” beef in 2013, and Wolverine Packing Company withdrew 1.8 million pounds of ground beef for E. coli O157:H7 contamination in 2014.

Are we producing the highest-quality cattle ever in the history of this great industry? Well, “ever” is right up there with words like never or best, often subject to debate …

Record prices for cattle became the norm for 2014, to the point producers almost became inured and found it anticlimactic – sort of like hearing about falling gas prices in late 2014.

The grass-fed producer has to decide whether to finish cattle year-round or just seasonally when grass is best. In many parts of the U.S. the grass isn’t good enough to finish beef except when it is actively green and growing, according to Panner.

When direct marketing to consumers, not all parts of the beef carcass sell at the same pace. “The middle meats (rib, loin and tenderloin) generally move quickly,” says Machen.

A small but growing number of cattle producers are selling cattle through niche markets like natural, organic or grass-fed.

Marbling influences beef’s eating satisfaction and has resulted in development of premium beef products that require a high degree of marbling.