Written by: Megan Marion

Today started off in the beautiful Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs with a technical session. At 9:00 a.m. Hannah Garrett, a territorial manager for GeneSeek Operations welcomed everyone and started off the technical session. We also heard from Butch Whitman, a consulting nutritionist for MoorMan’s, ADM Alliance Nutrition, and Westfeeds, and Dr. Tonya Amen, a geneticist for NALF. Brett Spader, the CEO for National Center of Beef Excellence was the moderator for the panel discussion. The three panelists were, Kenny Stauffer, director of beef sales for GeneSeek Operations, Brian Bertelsen, V.P. of field operations for U.S. Premium Beef, and Mark Anderson, the executive director for the North American Limousin Foundation. The panel discussed the success of Certified Angus Beef and branded beef products in the U.S. and potential opportunities for Limousin cattle.  After the panel discussion, everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch provided by the hotel, and that afternoon the attendees headed to Spruce Mountain Ranch for dinner.

Spruce Mountain Ranch was an excellent setting for a beautiful dinner. Everyone enjoyed walking around the ranch and admiring the gorgeous scenery. Once the delicious dinner was served and everyone had eaten, we welcomed out first guest speaker, Rick Pfortmiller to start speaking. Rick is a beef genomics territory manager for Neogen Geneseek. We also listened to Twig Marston, a member of the beef technical services team covering Kansas and Nebraska. It was a beautiful evening, and we even sang happy birthday to Mark Anderson to finish off the night! We would like to thank all of the speakers that attended today!