Cooperative Beef Solutions

$\Program Overview$

1. What is Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. Cooperative Beef $olutions is a new program formed to help beef producers increase their profitability through individual animal management strategies. Four companies, Decatur County Feed Yard, Genex Cooperative, Micro Beef Technologies and Midwest MicroSystems each contribute a unique piece to the program. Participants benefit from the proven performance of each company’s individual technologies and services in a single integrated systems approach to beef production.

2. What is the benefit to participating in Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. The underlying mission of Cooperative Beef $olutions is to assist participating producers capture the most NET dollars from your cattle. The strategies of combining superior genetics, the most advanced management systems and marketing a higher quality, more consistent product is how that is accomplished. The integrated, seamless flow of individual animal data from ranch to feeder and back from processor provides the information to drive genetic as well as management changes for capturing more net dollars.

3. How can I get started with Cooperative Beef $olutions, how do I enroll, or where do I enter?
A. A producer can enroll in Cooperative Beef $olutions simply through being or becoming a customer of any of the participating companies. However the ultimate profitability is realized through participating in each segment of the program.

If you currently are a customer of one or more of the Cooperative Beef $olutions partner companies, simply ask them to enroll you in the program and to put you in contact with the other partners.

If you are not currently a customer, contact any of the partner companies to determine what your objectives are and assist you in determining where you should start in the program to accomplish your objectives. The maximum benefit from Cooperative Beef $olutions can only be realized when you employ all the tools of the Cooperative Beef $olutions program. The benefits each segment contributes to the program compounds the effectiveness and efficiencies back to the participating producer. The whole truly is greater than the sum of the parts!

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4. Why feed at Decatur County Feed Yard?
A. The value of the program hinges on the information available by retaining full or partial ownership of cattle at Decatur County Feed Yard. Through Micro Beef’s Accu-Trac® Electronic Cattle Management system, they offer the only way to truly manage individual animal diversity and get the individual feeding performance as well as measured and validated carcass data. The Feed Yard will partner on the cattle and help you with risk management and advanced marketing strategies to assist you in capturing more net dollars.

5. Why use Genex semen or genetics?
A. Using Genex genetics, whether through artificial insemination or Genex-sired bulls will not only give you access to the most progressive genetics available but the knowledge of your local Genex representative. Your Genex representative has the expertise to help you maximize your profits through development of an A I program as well as assist you in the development of your genetic program to suit your operation and maximize your profitability through Cooperative Beef $olutions.

6. Why use Cow Sense herd management software?
A. These easy to use tools provide you the advanced decision aids that link on ranch, in feed lot and on the rail data into meaningful information based on an individual cow or bull’s lifetime production. Coupled with real-time benchmarking and comparative analysis with like herds, Cow Sense enables you to determine how to meet your goals and capture more net dollars per head through fully informed decisions.

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7. Is there enrollment cost for signing up with Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. No, there are no enrollment costs for becoming involved in Cooperative Beef $olutions. Management services and functions provided through Cooperative Beef $olutions and their respective costs are charged by the individual sponsors. For example: costs for the Cow Sense software and services are charged directly to you from Midwest MicroSystems, semen costs from Genex, and feeding costs from Decatur County Feed Yard.

8. How can a seedstock or purebred producer, participate in Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. A seedstock producer can become involved in Cooperative Beef $olutions through providing bulls and females to their customers that are the result of genetics that have been proven to benefit customers entering the Cooperative Beef $olutions system. We envision preferred seedstock suppliers emerging from this system and play a key role in Cooperative Beef $olutions. In addition many seedstock suppliers can provide a valuable service to their customers by assisting them to pool cattle together of like genetics to enter the program.

9. How are cattle marketed through Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. Cattle are marketed based on their individually calculated optimum economic end-point on a proprietary value based grid. Micro Beef’s Accu-Trac® Electronic Cattle Management system manages the diversity of cattle by taking multiple external and internal measurements, multiple times during the feeding period and sorts the individual animals into most profitable marketing groups. These groups are then marketed on Decatur’s value based grid negotiated on a competitive basis among all the major packers. Currently this grid is with Excel Corp, who has proven to be a leader in value based, consumer based marketing.

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10. If I currently sell my feeder cattle, how can I manage the impact upon my cash flow in feeding them and risks associated with retained ownership?
A. There are strategies to employ to help you take advantage of retained ownership. Decatur County Feed Yard is a full service feed yard that offers feeder cattle financing, feed financing, as well as risk management tools and marketing assistance tailored to your needs. Decatur also can purchase a percentage of the cattle, spreading out the cash flow. If you have questions about retaining ownership in your cattle and the unique opportunities of managing and marketing cattle through this system contact Decatur County Feed Yard.

11. What size of cowherd do I need to participate in Cooperative Beef $olutions, is there a minimum size?
A. That is another benefit of Cooperative beef $olutions, in that there is no minimum or maximum size limitations to participants. A producer regardless of the size of their operation can benefit from this program. Although there is a minimum on the feeding side (1 load – 48,000 lbs of 1 sex cattle), this can be easily met by producers that co-mingle smaller groups of cattle to make a lot load. The flow of information and value of it is beneficial regardless of herd size.

12. You mention the power of all this information and data. Who owns this data, and how secure or confidential is my data?
A. The participating producer owns the data and it is confidential to you. Individual production data resides on your home PC or wherever you have it installed – you control it locally. You maintain local control of your data, although we do provide the best of both situations as we enable you to submit data points that are aggregated for comparative analysis and benchmarking. However, a key point is that your individual identity is secure and not accessible to anyone except you!

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13. What makes Cooperative Beef $olutions so unique?
A. Each of the companies that founded Cooperative Beef $olutions have independently proven to be leaders in their respective segments of the beef industry. Now the synergy of combining efforts offers producers an integrated approach to providing accurate and comprehensive individual performance data on their cattle to gauge their genetic improvement programs. Data flows seamlessly through the system and combined with information from previous calf crops so the producer can make sound management decisions. Information is power and Cooperative Beef $olutions delivers a growth path to achieve maximum profit potential to participating producers.

14. Do I have to pre-condition my calves to participate in Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. The goal of Cooperative Beef $olutions is to maximize your ability to capture the very most net dollars from your operation. Accordingly, there are a number of “Best Management Practices” such as pre-conditioning that have been proven to increase profitability. Although not required for your participation, the Cooperative Beef $olutions program does recommend implementation of these practices and will work with you to implement these strategies to fit your operational goals. Like all components of the program to maximize your profitability best management practices are recommended.

15. Are there breeds of cattle that are restricted from participating in Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. No there is no restriction on the breeds of cattle needed to participate in this program. Participating companies would be happy to discuss the individual objectives you have and how best to work with the breeds of cattle, and resources available to you. Cooperative Beef $olutions is value specific, not breed specific!

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16. DNA services are mentioned in your literature, what type of services are provided through Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. Given the importance in many herds of the use of multi-sire pasture matings, or use of clean-up sires in AI situations, there are often times when determining exact parentage of a calf is difficult. In addition DNA testing for certain traits such as carcass quality or coat color has proven to be beneficial. Therefore Cow Sense Genetic Services is providing participating producers in Cooperative Beef $olutions with economical access to DNA Parentage and Trait tests.

17. Who owns Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. Cooperative Beef $olutions is not a company with ownership shares. Rather it is a concept and commitment by the four participating companies. It is an innovative program that has been launched by these companies with the goal of integrating each of their products and services into a single package that would provide a seamless flow of information to participating producers. The power of that information and combined assistance of all companies working toward the mutual goal of capturing the greatest return for our mutual customers is the true value!

18. You speak of “hitting the value target”. What is this target?
A. A key purpose of Cooperative beef $olutions is to assist participating producers define their target, and then implement the tools necessary to hit that target! The value-based grids that cattle are marketed on, reward cattle for a combination of carcass quality attributes. But the program is broader than simply marketing cattle on a value based grid! It is more than selection for carcass traits. CB$ is focused on utilizing all available information, at the ranch, in the feedlot and on the rail to put more profitability into your ranching operation.

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19. What tools do CB$ offer to assist me in complying with Country of Origin Labeling (COOL or COL) and the possible record keeping demands?
A. The mandatory guidelines are yet to be released by USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS), however from what we could learn at the Listening Sessions and from the preliminary guidelines, indicate that some type of source verification will be necessary at the ranch of origin. The participating companies in CB$ have been making source and process verification tools available to their customers independently for years. Now CB$ offers this solution in an integrated approach. When the national guidelines are released we will review our information systems to insure that they meet all requirements, and make any modifications if necessary. Participating producers can rest assured that CB$ will provide them these tools in as efficient manner as possible.

20. There is a lot of talk about a national animal identification program, how does this apply to my involvement in Cooperative Beef $olutions?
A. Although this issue is completely separate from COOL, CB$ offers a similar solution to our participating producers. Because our record keeping solutions are based upon individual animal management, unique identification is required for all animals in our system. This unique identifier (number) can be tracked throughout the entire system. This system is in place now and has been used effectively for thousands of cattle. When the regulations are established for a nation wide system, CB$ will provide an interface with that system. This is an additional benefit from participation in the CB$ program.

For more information about the Cooperative Beef Solutions™ companies and to learn how you can begin capturing the most net dollars from your cattle today, contact one of our Representatives below: