American Gelbvieh Association Long

American Gelbvieh Association
Long-Range Strategic Plan
Developed Summer 2012
The American Gelbvieh Association is
dedicated to its mission of “Recording,
promoting and improving Gelbvieh cattle.”
Building on Our Successes
Since Gelbvieh arrived in the United States in 1971, the American Gelbvieh Association and
its membership have strived to meet the demands of the commercial cattleman. Gelbvieh and
Balancer® cattle excel at the two things that drive profitability on the cow-calf side of the beef
business: maternal superiority and crossbreeding. Gelbvieh-influenced females have increased
longevity, more maternal milk, smaller mature cow size, greater fertility, and more pounds
weaned per cow exposed. For the feeder and the packer, Gelbvieh and Balancer genetics offer
feed efficiency, optimum gain and carcass cutability. Additionally, crossbreeding with Gelbvieh
and Balancer is smart and easy.
Mark Goes
The American Gelbvieh Association is proud of our successes. At the close of the 2011-2012
fiscal year, registrations and new members were higher, sale averages were up, and there were
more new buyers of Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle. With an eye on continuing to build these
successes, the Board of Directors saw the need for a long-range strategic plan. We thank the AGA membership for your
input in developing this plan. Whether you participated in the member survey or had individual conversations with a
Board member, your input was essential in outlining the key strategies and goals of this strategic plan. Your participation
will also be important as the AGA works to accomplish these goals.
One common theme surfaced often during this process – how does the Gelbvieh breed continue to have a positive
impact on the beef business? Simply put, Gelbvieh and Balancer breed relevance will be the result of acceptance in four
sectors of the beef business: seedstock, cow-calf, feedlot and packer/retail. Accomplishing the goals of the strategic
plan will allow Gelbvieh and Balancer genetics and the American Gelbvieh Association to continue to impact the beef
business for many generations to come.
- Mark Goes, American Gelbvieh Association President
Impacting the Beef Business
By definition, an association is a group of people with common interests that organize
to accomplish together what they cannot do as individuals. With that in mind, the Board of
Directors felt it was important to develop a strategic plan to guide the American Gelbvieh
Association for the next five years. Developing the plan was a multi-step process that involved a
membership survey, Board and staff S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
analyses for the AGA and the breed, plus reviews of the AGA business and beef industry trends.
Right at 25 percent of the AGA membership responded to the survey, which is excellent
by survey standards. The AGA membership clearly demonstrated their keen interest in the
Jim Gibb
Association’s future by providing tremendous input regarding the importance of current AGA
services and direction for the Association’s future focus.
The plan’s three focus points are breed improvement, breed promotion, and member education. Within each of
those points are relevant, actionable, clearly defined goals. Several of the goals identified in the plan on are on target
for completion by the fall of 2013.
Changing times present new challenges and great opportunities. With a sharp focus on the future, Gelbvieh and
Balancer® are positioned to significantly expand their impact on the beef business.
- Jim Gibb, American Gelbvieh Association Executive Director
Member Survey Results
SWOT Analysis
1. Registration/Pedigree
2. Providing EPDs
3. Customer Service
4. Maintain Herdbook
1. Breed improvement
2. Market development
3. Promote and encourage
crossbreeding
5. Promote to commercial producers
AGA Opportunities
Top Rated Member Services
3-5 Year Priorities
1. Breed promotion - general
2. Promote to commercial producers
3. Complete genomic-enhanced EPDs
4. Provide reliable EPDs
5. Member Education
Breed Opportunities
1. Membership education
2. Leadership development
3. Embrace technology
4. Explore cooperative and alliance
opportunities
5. Become more relevant
Breed Improvement
“Own maternal efficiency and stay between the guardrails for all other traits.”
High-Priority Goals
• Develop reliable tools to monitor traits for
maternal efficiency
• Improve Gelbvieh marbling to 60% Choice
• Implement genomic-enhanced EPDs
• Develop feed efficiency EPD
• Decrease breed average WBSF by .40 pounds, by using
current genomic data to develop EPD
Additional Goals
• Monitor Growth - Communicate the importance of
excelling in weaning and yearling weight and provide tools for benchmarking progress
• Monitor Foot Soundness - Develop and implement
foot scoring system and EPDs
• Monitor Temperament - Develop and implement
temperament EPDs
AGA Action
• Use available data and collaborate with
researchers to develop reliable, industry-accepted
EPDs/$Indexes
• Provide carcass EPDs so Gelbvieh and Balancer®
animals can be compared directly with other
breeds
• Work with national cattle evaluation provider to
provide genomic-enhanced EPDs
Member Action
• Continue to collect and submit udder scores,
breeding dates, cow weights, frame scores and
body condition scores
• Consider marbling while balancing other traits
important to your breeding program
• Consider adding DNA testing to your program
to accelerate rate of genetic improvement
Breed Promotion
“Celebrate our strengths while we improve our weaknesses.”
Goals
• Promote Gelbvieh, Balancer® and crossbreeding merits to the
commercial cow-calf and feedlot sectors by increasing promotion
reach by five percent per year for the next three years
• Promote Gelbvieh and Balancer to potential new seedstock
breeders with the goal of increasing total American Gelbvieh
Association members by two percent annually for the next three years
• Increase transfer rate to 45 percent of the animals registered
The strategic plan is a very
important piece to our breed and to
the industry. It acts as a road map
for our breeders as well as providing
a mechanism to keep our breed in
step with the industry. Thank you
to everyone who provided input,
filled out the surveys and spent time
working on the strategic plan. With
this plan, we can all focus on breeding
better cattle that are industry relevant.
- Rob Arnold, AGA Board Member
Member Education
Member involvement in the strategic plan goals is crucial to the success of the American Gelbvieh
Association and the Gelbvieh breed.
Goals
•
•
•
•
•
Communicate the strategic plan to stakeholders within the AGA membership
Conduct regional meetings and webinars
Post information on Gelbvieh website to allow members continued access to strategic plan goals and progress
Develop member education efforts to help facilitate implementation of goals outlined within the strategic plan
Upgrade AGA online data entry and information system to provide more meaningful herd improvement and
marketing tools
One common theme from the membership and the
Board has been to make sure the Gelbvieh breed remains
relevant in mainstream cattle production. The Board
worked diligently to create goals to make sure the next
generation of Gelbvieh breeders will have the tools and
genetics to make a positive impact on the beef cattle
business. The membership responded well with ideas and
now we must all work together to make sure our individual
cattle and operations add to the continual progress and
improvement of the Gelbvieh breed.
-Brian Dunn, AGA Board Member