B E E F M A S T E R
B R E E D E R ’ S
U N I T E D
President ’s Retiring Address How Far We’ve Come, How Far We’ll Go
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As I sat reviewing the various articles written over the past two years, my mind began to drift into where we started this Presidential journey together and where we are now. From “Plotting the Course” to “Preparing to Embark” and of course “Pushing Forward Together,” I have tried to create some imagery and open the mind to the possibilities and opportunities that lay before us. Providing some sort of semicomical anecdotal story to lead off the message was my method for trying to make the idea more relatable and meaningful, and hopefully it helped. Now as we close this chapter and I wrap up my term as your BBU President, I felt it more necessary to emphasize the importance of where we’ve been and where we are today. Often, the daily grind gets the best of us and we are more focused on what’s coming next than what just happened. But as the son of a history teacher, I find it critical that we have an accurate knowledge of at least our more recent history if we have any hope at moving forward successfully. All too often, misinformation and hearsay become reality because people either don’t have the facts or don’t care to hear them. The creation of false narratives is becoming all too common in society and one can’t watch the local news without doubting the message. With this in mind, I spent numerous hours and the better part of several days researching and gathering the information about our breed association that I am going to share with you. The goal of this brief history lesson is so that you actually KNOW where we’ve been, so you can better set your sights on where we are going. Currently, BBU and the Beefmaster breed is experiencing some of the most exciting and positive times in decades, but this hasn’t always been the case. Like most registered breeds and especially the new “American” breeds, Beefmasters were on fire from the late 70’s through the 80’s. From investment tax credits to the push for Bos Indicus influence in the American cow herd, it looked like nothing but great times were ahead for BBU. By the early 1990’s Beefmaster Breeders Universal was registering over 45,000 animals a year and membership was over 6,000. When adding in FBA and NBA numbers, the Beefmaster breed was easily in the top 5 or 6 registered breeds in the U.S. Beefmaster Breeders Universal was bringing in millions of dollars, had a giant savings in reserve and an excessive operating budget. Our staff and vendors were highly paid and the advertising budget alone was well over $500,000. Unfortunately, darker days were looming on the horizon. The banking issues of the late 80’s, the end of critical tax advantages, led to an overall exodus in all registered breeds. Then the beef industry turned against any Brahman influenced breed because of quality grade and Certified Angus Beef was gaining steam. In 1996, Beefmaster Breeders Universal and Foundation Beefmaster Association joined together to form Beefmaster Breeders United in an effort to survive falling numbers and hostile market conditions. Beefmaster cattle were still popular in areas and the breed was marketing cattle successfully but the slowdown was evident. By the turn of the millennium, BBU membership had dropped by 1,000 or more, registrations fell by 10,000, and the association was outspending income. Then toward the end of the 2000’s, the breed fell to under 20,000 registrations and had half the members at a little over 3,000, many of which were inactive lifetime members. During some of the last years of Wendell Schronk’s tenure as Executive Vice President, the staff and BBU officers formed “the sunset committee” to figure out how BBU would continue to provide registrations and transfers to its members without an office or staff. The glory days were officially over and the Beefmaster breed association was in dire straits. With BBU losing over $100,000 a year and becoming worse by the day, the board voted to move the registrations, transfers, and herdbook to the Hereford Association and pay them a per diem fee to process the paperwork and genetic evaluations. Financially the breed was nearly broke and only a couple hundred thousand dollars in reserve were left from a once thriving and flush association.
Fortunately, the year 2009 showed that there was still life in the breed, as Lorenzo Lasater became President after a tumultuous election process. Wendell Shronk retired and Tommy Perkins had just been hired as the new EVP of BBU. Perkins with Lasater and the BBU board went into drastic cost cutting mode in an attempt to stay alive. Staff was cut, services dropped, expenses were knocked to nothing, and the BBU budget dropped advertising to under $50,000. By the end of 2009, the finances showed a loss of only $4,559 as compared to the projected $75,000 loss expected. The newly formed Whole Herd Reporting method of registration and inventory was showing to increase revenue and help budget more accurately, leading to the loss minimization. During 2010, membership continued to fall to 2,352 and registrations hoovered around 10,000 and falling. Fortunately, optimism was still present as the idea of a new foundation to be called the Beefmaster Educational Endowment Foundation or B.E.E.F was being proposed by Roger Fuller and Davin Vaughn. In addition, the BBU convention in Las Vegas profited by $10,000 thanks to fundraising efforts by Blair and WSBBA which led to a near breakeven for the association. There was still hope. The year 2011 saw Mike Collier as President and Dr. Tommy Perkins as EVP bring the registry system and herdbook back into the skeleton staffed BBU office. The previous year’s attempt to lower membership and registration fees in order to entice member retention and participation did not work and only added to the loss on the bottom line. Even with all the cost cutting and in-house revenue recreation, the association still posted a small loss in 2011, but it looked like the drop had stopped. Exact numbers cannot be sourced but somewhere around 2011 to 2012, the fall stopped and membership held steady around 2,300 and registrations were around 8,000. Nobody really wanted to count or know the truth anyway. 2012 was the turn. A terrible drought was ending and the cattle market spiked. The newly formed B.E.E.F. foundation raised $114,000 and Perkins, with Collier and the BBU board posted the first profitable year in decades. There was even a 12-person gain in memberships. The years 2013 and 2014 continued to hold in the black and registration numbers had slowly begun to climb. Steve Emmons was now President, Collin Osbourn was the interim EVP upon the leave of Perkins, and the cattle market was setting new industry highs. In late 2014, Bill Pendergrass was hired as the EVP and Collin Osbourn was made CFO of the association. Things were actually looking up for BBU. In 2015 Mackie Bounds served as President and BBU was running a slight surplus budget. With increasing costs and services wanted by the membership, the BBU board bumped up fees and looked for more field staff. Meanwhile, BEEF started its endowment campaign for a lasting fund creation system. Interestingly, the 2015 minutes recorded discussion on the need to clean up the breed’s cow inventory. The registration system showed over 195,000 active cows but only an estimated 20,000 cows had shown any sign of activity in 2-3 years. Problem noted. 2016 marked the year current EVP Lance Bauer was hired on as field staff and current President Trey Scherer was elected to the BBU Board. Under Bounds, Pedergrass, and Osbourn, the BBU board voted to leave the outdated rental offices and purchase an office building in Boerne, Texas. Registrations had come up to about 12,000 and membership to slightly under 3,000. Times were positive but an increase in expenses led to a year end loss of $76,000. The years 2017 and 2018 are marked by Steve Carpenter as President and Collin Osbourn taking over after Pendergrass’s health issues force his resignation. BBU worked closely with the Noble Foundation to research and promote Beefmaster genetics. Osbourn, Carpenter and the board hired the Grant Agency to create a new advertising campaign, and the BEEF endowment campaign went public. Registrations, transfers, and membership were up slightly but expenses still had the association losing $66,000 in 2017 and $12,000 in 2018. Bob Siddons was given the reins as President in 2019 and with his financial expertise, he and Osbourn along with Treasurer Chris Kauffman, cut costs, raised fees, and balanced the budget. With registrations and memberships up again and other small revenue generators, 2019 boasted a year end profit of
$92,000. Then Covid hit in 2020 and shook everything up. Again, Siddons, Kauffman, and Osbourn and the BBU board went to work and through an unforeseen PPP loan and strong N-R Beef dividend, BBU showed a profit in 2020 of $179,000! Despite a world pandemic, BBU and Beefmasters were holding strong and showing signs of a brighter future. In 2021, Larry Meacham became President and Collin Osbourn remained at EVP. Registrations, membership, and finances were all up. The BBU fiscal year was changed to match the calendar year and BBU was well ahead of budget and looking good financially. Meacham, Osbourn, and the BBU Finance committee set up a financial safety net through better wealth management tools and placements. The advertising budget was increased back up to over $100,000 and 3 new EPD’s were created. By 2022, the post covid inflation was hitting BBU hard, and costs were on the rise. Membership was up but the surplus dwindled and BBU posted a net operating loss of $22,000 in 2022. Fortunately, the sale of the Boerne office for a profit of $253,000 and a $76,000 N-R Beef dividend bumped year end net profits to $280,000. These few years of profits built the BBU saving back up into the $800,000 range. 2022 registrations landed around 16,000 and membership at 3,337. With the sale of the BBU office in Boerne, the BBU board voted to move the headquarters to College Station in order to have access to better staff hires, interns, student workers, and a working relationship with Texas A&M University. Because of relocation logistics, EVP Osbourn resigned and Dr. Joe Mask was hired as EVP at the end of 2022. In 2023, Derek Thompson became President and Joe Mask took full control as EVP. The 2023 BBU budget was kept neutral, but the vast inflation in expenses and lingering drought was taking a toll on BBU finances and members. BBU moved the office to Bryan, Texas and rented office space. Newly added staff and higher expenses led to a year end operating loss of $110,000, but a great convention, N-R Beef dividends, and interest income kept net losses to $38,000 for the year. Membership was still up year to date at 3,863 but registrations fell to about 14,000 as expected from years of drought and high inflation costs. The year 2024 hit BBU hard as expenses continued to climb and registrations dropped another 200 to 13,925. Poor leadership at the office staff level began to take its toll on the association structure, finances, and future. President Thompson and BBU Board took action and replaced Mask with Dr. Lance Bauer from within and decided to raise fees for the first time in 6 years. The CPI inflation over that same time period was 24.5%, but no fee adjustments at BBU had been made. BBU marks another small loss and JBBA loses over $50,000 on nationals due to mismanagement and drops their funds on hand to about $40,000, the lowest in a decade. In August of 2024, Trey Scherer took over as President and a new invigorated and aggressive younger BBU Board was called into action. Thanks to the strong actions of previous President Thompson and BBU board, the fee increases start 2025 off on the right track. The BBU board and new EVP Lance Bauer hire Kelsey Crenshaw as Officer Manager to begin a massive internal overhaul and get the association back in good standings both legally and financially. More staff is added to help in the office with member services and to prepare for the retirement of long-time office manager, Donna Henderson. Dr. Bauer continued to build his team in 2025 with the acquisition of Hanna Nixon as Director of Marketing. The JBBA held an extremely successful National show in Mercedes, TX and thanks to the Garza and Flores families and JBBA volunteers, raised over $100,000 bringing JBBA coffers back to nearly $150,000. In addition, Bauer, Crenshaw, and Scherer along with Treasurer Ray Walther work to cut costs, balance the budget and create new revenue streams. By the end of 2025, BBU marked a net operating profit of $65,000. With income of $114,000 from investments and N-R Beef dividends, net year end profit came in at $169,127, a 2050% increase over 2024. With all that history and information proceeding up to 2026, what have we done and where do we currently stand? Well, we started the year with a strategic planning meeting in Reno, Nevada, where we set some ambitious goals and actually went into action to achieve them. We set up plans to restructure BBU and better protect its assets through risk management strategies. We have over $1.2 million in
reserves and need to safeguard them in an investment LLC arm of BBU. In addition, the finance committee is enhancing our investment portfolios to provide greater annual returns on our savings. We set out to find and hire a new Director of Commercial Marketing and are close to accomplishing that. The summer meetings were outstanding and the strong financial position along with funds from B.E.E.F. are going to allow us to increase the advertising and promotion budget to $250,000. This is the most in over 25 years. We have also hired a communications coordinator to better work with staff and members on communications and services. From enhanced newsletters and social media posts to gathering more and better advertising content, the new position will supercharge exposure. Included in marketing and communications efforts is the resurrection of the Beefmaster Payweight publication. This publication will target commercial producers and promote Beefmaster cattle while helping to pay for staff salaries and expenses. Staff production and efficiencies are at an all-time high and we currently have a turnaround time on office work of only a few days. Our DNA department is processing more than 11,000 samples a year, better helping members match parentage, and creating extra revenues for the association, all while dropping cost to $35 per test. A new two-tier registration platform has been redesigned to put more emphasis on WHR initiatives and reward those who are keeping inventories clean, reporting data, and helping the breed be more accurate and accountable with our herdbook. JBBA had another successful Junior National Show in West Monroe under Committee Chair Allison Wells. This led to a profit of approximately $50,000, bringing JBBA funds to an all-time high of $202,000. The B.E.E.F. Foundation continues to grow and pledges are flowing in, bringing the foundation corpus to near $1.7 million. Dividends from this endowment will provide the breed with over $100,000 a year to go toward scholarships, education, research, and promotion. Memberships are up, registrations are up, and our finances are up. Most importantly, the demand for Beefmaster cattle is outstanding and all cattle sales across the nation have been drastically higher year over year. The 2026 fall bull sale season looks to be the largest offering of Beefmaster bulls the industry has seen in decades and forecasts show prices to be outstanding. I know this was a lot to take in but it needed to be recorded and read. As a breed, we’ve seen some amazing times and we’ve seen some extremely dark times. Through great leadership and needed adjustments, we have weathered the storms and celebrated the victories. We now sit in one of the best positions our breed has seen in decades. From a breed structure and financial position to an industry demand condition, we are in the driver’s seat. It is now up to us as Beefmaster breeders and members to continue to push the bar higher and make the breed better. The only way we survive in the future and avoid pitfalls of the past is to push ourselves and the cattle we produce to be better. They must be better than they were before, better than they are today, and better than the competition of the future. This will require relentless genetic advancements, constant association changes, and an incessant challenge of status quo. We are truly on the cusp of greatness and its well within our grasp if we keep pushing ourselves and our cattle as hard as we can. It is my sincere and final wish as your President that our Beefmaster drive and tenacity will win the day for the good of Beefmaster generations to come. Oh, how far we’ve come, and how far we will go is up to you. Long live the Beefmaster breed!
Trey Scherer Board President, 2024-2026 Beefmaster Breeders United