Beef Bash, held August 21 at the Columbus Innovation Center, was built around a simple idea: give Samson customers an opportunity to look beyond their own operations and gain a better understanding of the people, markets, regulations, and decisions that ultimately create value in a third-party verified program. We wanted producers to hear directly from the people buying program cattle, understand the regulatory environment affecting agriculture, sharpen their approach to feeder cattle marketing and risk management, and get a glimpse of the technology helping move the industry forward.
But just as importantly, we wanted to bring people together. There was plenty of formal programming throughout the day, but there were also long breaks for coffee, conversation, and catching up with people across the industry. By the end of some of those breaks, the Columbus Innovation Center had gotten considerably louder than it had been at the beginning of the morning. Producers, packers, legislators, technology providers, and industry professionals who might normally interact through a phone call or email were sitting across tables from one another, swapping stories and comparing notes. Those conversations were an important part of what made the day work.
We began the day by looking back at where the industry—and Samson—came from. Founder and CEO Scott Mueller sat down with COO Rachel McNutt for a wide-ranging conversation about the origins of Samson, the development of the value-added beef market, and Scott's vision for where the company could be another 40 years from now. The conversation touched on everything from the farm crisis of the 1980s to the events that helped shape the modern value-added industry, including the 2003 BSE discovery that became known as the "Cow that Killed Christmas." That event was a significant catalyst for the development of value-added and verified programs, and looking back at those early days offered some useful perspective on just how far the industry has come.
The cattle markets provided another striking illustration of that change. In April 1996, the CME monthly average feeder cattle index closed at $52.83/cwt, while corn was approximately $5.32 per bushel. In June 2026, the feeder cattle index reached a record high of just over $182.53/cwt. Those numbers are interesting on their own, but the larger lesson is in the distance between them. Producers have spent the past four decades navigating enormous swings in cattle prices, input costs, consumer expectations, regulations, and marketing opportunities. The industry that built today's value-added programs looks very different from the one that will exist 40 years from now.
That led naturally into a discussion of risk management and the importance of preparing for that uncertainty rather than trying to predict it. The experienced specialists in the room emphasized the fundamentals: understand the market, understand basis, understand margin requirements, and, above all, develop a strategy that can be executed consistently. Producers who have been successful at managing risk over multiple market cycles tend to have something in common—they aren't necessarily the ones who predict every market move correctly, but they are disciplined about following a plan.
After a short break—and, as would become a recurring theme throughout the day, plenty of conversation—Scott Mueller led a discussion on feeder cattle marketing. While value-added programs can provide an important marketing opportunity, the discussion emphasized that a program is only useful when it fits the producer's operation and creates something a buyer actually values. Genetics, health protocols, management practices, and the ability to clearly describe a set of cattle all contribute to that value.
The current cattle market creates an interesting opportunity to work on those fundamentals. Eventually, the cow herd will rebuild, supplies will increase, and marketing will once again become a much bigger part of the conversation. Producers were encouraged to use this period of strong cattle prices not only to take advantage of today's margins, but also to invest in the things that will differentiate their cattle when the market changes. Refining genetics, strengthening health protocols, improving management systems, and developing a clear marketing plan are all much easier when the balance sheet has some breathing room.
The goal isn't simply to find a program that pays a premium today. It is to build an operation that can consistently produce cattle with a story buyers understand and a value they are willing to pay for—through good markets and difficult ones.
After lunch, Redbook demonstrated how technology can help producers put more of that information to work. Their presentation focused on individual animal traceability and breakeven calculations available through their flagship software, giving producers a practical look at how data can move beyond compliance and become part of day-to-day decision making.
As traceability requirements continue to develop, the ability to capture individual animal information is increasingly important. But the real opportunity is in connecting that information to economics. When producers can see how individual animals perform, understand their costs, and calculate breakevens, traceability becomes more than another recordkeeping requirement. It becomes another tool for making better management and marketing decisions.
The packer panel was one of the most anticipated portions of the day, and the timing made it particularly relevant. Samson customers had the opportunity to ask questions directly to buyers from Greater Omaha Packing, Creekstone, and Meyer Natural Foods—people who are actively involved in determining what program cattle are worth and how those cattle move through the supply chain.
Ryan Meyer of Creekstone opened the discussion by taking the group back to the early days of value-added beef. At that time, producers could face roughly 125 pages of handwritten applications and a $6,000 payment to the federal government for each producer. Against that backdrop, today's third-party verification system looks considerably more practical. As Ryan explained, third-party verification is what helped make these programs feasible at a scale that would have been difficult to achieve under the old system.
From there, the conversation covered just about every major issue currently influencing the beef industry: global beef demand, imports, tariffs, plant closures, geopolitical uncertainty, and regulations reaching into the supply chain from other parts of the world. The timing provided an especially interesting twist, as news broke the morning of Beef Bash that the Trump administration would allow tariff-free beef imports. That development gave the panel plenty to discuss, and the conversation quickly moved beyond the headline itself to the broader question of what those imports actually mean for the U.S. beef industry.
The panel also explored how regulations outside the United States are increasingly influencing the beef supply chain. The European Union's Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, is one example of how requirements originating thousands of miles away can ultimately affect packers, producers, and the information that has to move through the supply chain. For producers participating in value-added programs, those kinds of requirements make accurate records, traceability, and well-designed verification systems increasingly important.
Ben Fritz of Meyer Natural Foods was less concerned about the volume of tariff-free beef—which he characterized as roughly equivalent to the output of one major packing plant in a single day—and more concerned about the administration's broader focus on beef prices and its determination to bring those prices down. Ryan Meyer offered another important perspective, cautioning producers not to confuse high beef prices with high demand. Demand can be strong while end users still struggle to sell beef profitably, and that distinction is important in understanding the plant closures the industry has experienced this year.
The panel also touched on a trend that could create another opportunity for producers: the growing number of cattle moving into direct-to-consumer markets. The exact volume is difficult to quantify, but the movement is significant enough to be worth watching. More cattle moving directly toward consumers can create additional marketing opportunities for producers and another way to capture value outside of the traditional supply chain.
Perhaps the most valuable part of the panel was the opportunity to hear these perspectives directly. For producers, the market doesn't stop at the ranch gate. Consumer demand, packer margins, trade policy, international regulations, and even geopolitical events can eventually affect the price and marketing opportunities available for a set of cattle. Having the people who navigate those issues every day in the room made the discussion considerably more useful than simply reading about them in the news.
The legislative panel brought the discussion back to Nebraska, with Senator Tom Brandt and Senator Teresa Ibach speaking about the practical implications of issues including property taxes and Nebraska's new law protecting agricultural data. These conversations reinforced another theme that ran throughout Beef Bash: the business of raising cattle is increasingly influenced by decisions being made well beyond the ranch.
Regulation is not simply a compliance issue. Property tax policy affects the cost of doing business, while state agricultural data protections influence how producers' information is handled and protected. Understanding those changes early gives producers a better opportunity to respond strategically rather than react when a new requirement has already become a problem.
After a busy day of presentations and discussions—and a cocktail hour that gave everyone another opportunity to catch up and continue the conversations—the group sat down to a steak dinner provided by Greater Omaha Packing. Dr. Tom Field then closed the formal programming with a keynote on succession planning, encouraging producers to start those conversations long before they become urgent.
Agriculture is approaching one of the largest wealth transfers in its history, and Dr. Field described its scale as the modern equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase. Keeping that wealth, and the businesses that created it, in agricultural production will require intentional planning. That means talking about the difficult things: who will take over, when responsibility will change hands, how decisions will be made, and what each generation wants the operation to become.
Those conversations aren't always comfortable, but they are much easier to have when there is time to think, plan, and disagree constructively. Succession planning is ultimately about more than transferring assets. It is about transferring knowledge, responsibility, relationships, and a vision for the future of the operation.
By the time the evening wound down, it was clear that some of the most valuable moments of Beef Bash hadn't been on the agenda at all. The breaks between sessions became their own kind of programming, with producers visiting with packer representatives, speakers continuing conversations from the stage, and customers getting to know one another over coffee, cocktails, and dinner. The room got louder as the day went on—and that was a good thing.
We wanted Beef Bash to be more than an educational event. We wanted it to be a place where the people who produce cattle could connect with the people who buy them, the people writing the regulations that affect them, and the people building the tools and systems that will shape the next generation of the industry.
Seeing those connections happen was one of the most rewarding parts of the day. We are grateful to our partners, speakers, customers, and producers for bringing their expertise, questions, and good humor to the event. The formal presentations provided plenty of valuable information, but we suspect the relationships built over coffee, cocktails, and a lot of lively conversation will be what creates the most lasting value.
Beef Bash was a chance to look at where the industry has been, take stock of where it is today, and think about where it is headed next. Forty years from now, we suspect the cattle industry will look very different again. We hope we can get everyone back together to talk about it.
Here's to another 40 years.