UGA Beef Team

One of Calhoun’s longest running bull consignors was featured in the Angus Journal. Lanny Benson is a great friend and producer in Walker County.

When Lanny Benson started Emilan Angus in 2000, he had a mission. He wanted his registered Angus cattle to catch the eye of fellow Georgia cattlemen, serving as a good option for commercial breeders looking to introduce a new sire to their herd.

He soon found out, however, it wasn’t as simple of a plan as he had originally thought.

“I found that trying to market them as higher-priced and higher-quality cattle was hard to do with a small operation,” Benson admits.

Nine years later, he found a solution.

“I began to see the effects of the sales through the University of Georgia,” Benson says, listing both the Heifer Evaluation and Reproductive Development (HERD) program and the bull test as events he’s participated in. “Over the period of time from 2009 until now, I’ve had a good market and a much better return for my animals than I would have just trying to use the genomics and so forth here on the farm.”

Hubert Hightower is a Florida breeder who made the switch from commercial cattle to registered Angus in 2012, but he faced the same challenges as Benson.

Bull tests at both the University of Florida and Georgia were the perfect form of advertisement for Hightower’s young sires, while simultaneously giving him a direct means of communication with other seedstock operations.

Some, like Michael Rister, have found those same benefits in a different option: a state consignment sale. Rister currently serves as the president of the Louisiana Angus Association, but in 2018 when he started his registered herd, he admits he felt a little lost.

He explains, “When I didn’t have a market for my cattle … [the state consignment sale] gave me the platform to get started and take that first step.”

Oftentimes, that “first step” is all it takes to create a lifetime of success. These seasoned cattlemen offer advice for others looking to sell their livestock through a new platform.

Read more from the : https://www.angus.org/angus-media/angus-journal/2026/06/the-perfect-platform

With the recent identification of a New World Screwworm case in the United States, preparedness is crucial now more than ever for producers.

In response, the USDA has compiled several resources including:
-Current status updates
-U.S. response plan
-Fact sheets
-Field identification guides and more.

To view the resources from the USDA, visit: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animals/animal-health/livestock-and-poultry-disease/stop-screwworm -32826

In the coming weeks, NCBA has plans to share some simplified resources that walk producers through the dense USDA response playbook. We will share those resources as well as they are made available.