The other piece is much more mechanical, he says, in that the industry has never had a way to track cattle in the packing plant and get that information back to producers. “And that's going to have to be accomplished in the next few years. We're going to have to get the structure inside a packinghouse where we can collect a radio-frequency ID tag, attach it to a carcass and get carcass data back.”

Once the industry breaks those two hurdles, the rest of the infrastructure is in place, he says, and the industry will have the widespread ability to make some real genetic progress.

In the meantime, however, there's still room for improvement. “One factor we use here is whether a cow weans in excess of 50% of her body weight. If she doesn't, she doesn't have a home,” James says. “And production and productivity will continue to increase because it still has room to. Standardized Performance Analysis data will tell you that we're still weaning about 82-83% of calves to cow exposed. That's a long way from really being good at what we do.”

Premiums vs. value

And then there's the breeding season. Even in a 60-day breeding season, Minnie Lou says, there's a big difference in dollars. “If you figure about 2 lbs./day from the time that calf's dropped until he's weaned. In a 60-day period, the last calf is going to be at least 120 lbs. lighter. That's close to $180. There's not a premium program out there that will pay that.”

James agrees, but cautions that chasing premiums may be like trying to rope the wind. “I don't think there is such a thing as a premium in this business,” he says. “I think there are differences in value in cattle and those are reflected by different programs. What you get paid for your cattle, is the value that's established for those cattle. And I think the concept of premiums and discounts in this business doesn't tell us where we need to be concentrating. If we look at those as being values, we can decide how much effort we want to put into reaping those rewards.”

James says we're going to see a much broader spectrum of values across the industry. In fact, it's already being seen in the sale-barn cash market, where properly managed cattle with the right genetics that are age- and source-verified are returning more value compared with calves that were weaned in the trailer on their way to the auction.

Indeed, James says, we're at a crossroads in the industry, “probably like we've not ever seen in our lifetime. There are a lot of factors coming together at one time that will decide the future.”

Question is, whose future will it be? That, he says, is up to you.