Q&A with Dr. Hough

I almost got held back very early in elementary school because I couldn’t read. I also misspelled so many words and my handwriting was so bad that it was hard to make out my writing. Once I got out of school, I made it a priority to become a better writer. I let everybody and anybody proof my writings, and eventually I would realize patterns of things I was doing wrong. When that was combined with computers, over time I was able to overcome what was my weakness in writing, and I think became pretty good at it.

My love of livestock was instantaneous from the time we got our first cattle. I liked everything about them — feeding them, taking care of them, observing them, and learning about them. However, over time my attitude changed from where I really liked livestock, but it was the people associated with them that I loved even more. Because of livestock, I have friends from coast to coast, some of which I consider family. 

The first half of my career at Red Angus was truly magical. We had a great staff that complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We also had a special relationship with Colorado State University and tremendous leadership from very large ranches run by very bright people. No one was hindered by the foreknowledge of what a breed association could or could not do. We defined our customer as a commercial producer, and the goal of member profitability based on a foundation of bull sales. Breed growth was not a consideration. We decided where best Red Angus fit in a commercial producer’s breeding program – "the maternal common denominator in crossbreeding systems." We then designed the tools to make this happen. We quickly implemented Whole Herd Reporting and developed carcass, Stayability, heifer pregnancy, calving ease, maintenance requirement EPDs, as well as data filters. We had the industry’s first Processed Verified Program, value-based marketing, a supplier the world’s largest food service company’s Angus product line, and various feeder cattle marketing opportunities. Promotion was all geared around bull sales. We got over 30 years of breed association progress done in nine years, and grew faster on a percentage basis than any other breed even though no effort was put on growth. Most importantly, we substantively help put “groceries on our members tables.”

It is hard to tell the story of a system and overall philosophy concerning the industry in an article. That was certainly the case at Red Angus, a breed that has been a trailblazer throughout its first 50 years. They maintained a constant philosophy, but built on it continuously. Always early adopters, it was their nature to swim upstream. I wanted to tell that story, which resulted in my first book, The History of Red Angus. 

The lack of institutional knowledge today is appalling. We make the same mistakes over and over, and forget the great things necessitating they be reinvented along with the mistakes previously made in their implantation. People also too often romanticize the past wanting to go backwards, ignoring the progress made along the way. It is critical we are always looking towards the future. 

When studying history, it is important prioritize three items:

First, what didn’t work and then be sure not to repeat these practices.

Second, identify when groups of polymath geniuses coincide during an era resulting in the beef industry, agriculture, governance, etc. make quantum leaps forward. Then make sure the lessons from this progress are not lost to time.

Third, know what is just noise in our history and ignore these events, particularly as they are the ones too often romanticized.

I am very observant. With that, along the way I have seen tremendously good decision-making processes and very bad ones. Not to oversimplify it, but when I see good methods of decision making, I emulate them, and avoid the bad methods. Next, people support what they help create, so it is important to include others in decision making. Lead the leaders. It is also critical to be self-aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. Surround yourself with people who are really good at what you are not. Lastly, when staffing, have as a goal to hire people better and smarter than yourself. Cumulatively, these things result in the best possible decision making.

Thomas Jefferson – politician, diplomat, architect, writer, religious scholar, founder of University of Virginia, experimental agriculturalist. He even designed his own moldboard plow while serving as President.

Start with a loose outline, but realize the book is going to go where the research takes you. Read at least parts of some old books from people like Alvin H. Sanders before live-action photography was perfected. There is much to be learned from their ability to describe people and cattle that made a camera unnecessary. Mix in fun stories with the serious. Make sure the artwork is the best possible, and have two proof readers. Lastly, only work with a printer you totally trust, and are familiar with their work.

Breed associations will survive, but what form they will take, one can only guess. Some have designed good systems of governance like delegated representation (American Angus Association), while other breeds are pure democracies. As an example, if American Angus was a pure democracy (one membership, one vote), there are five percent of the breeders who register 51 percent of the cattle (over 100 head per herd), establish the breeds value in the commercial industry, generally have long-term businesses, and largely fund the Association and its shows and Junior activities. However, 64 percent of the membership register 1 to 10 head or 9.73 percent of total registration. This group generally cost the association money, own cattle for non-economic reasons, and have short lived operations. However, in a pure democracy, they can easily control an association. When the latter group threatens the former group’s ability to make a living is when the breed association model falls apart, and private associations will spring up.  

Only one breed currently has the critical mass to “go it alone,” and that is Angus. Across-breed genetic predictions by far make the most sense for the majority of breeds particularly if their purpose is to fit into a crossbreeding system. Through breed cooperation, the production of across breed EPDs allow breed association members’ commercial customers to make more informed decisions in designing crossbreeding systems. There will also be private genetic evaluations. This will happen when breed associations do not provide the suite of genetic predictions a seedstock breeder needs to service their customers or for large commercial ranches whose goal is to stabilize breed components in a composite to maximize heterosis instead of making directional genetic change in certain traits. 

To learn something new every day, and to try to be of some service to the industry and its people that have brought me such a great career and life.

The Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery represents our industry’s heroes from the time breeds were being formed. In general, it tells the history of our industry through the people whose portraits hang in the gallery. The Gallery brings this history to life through the people immortalized in a way that is unique and important. That makes stewardship of the gallery critical to our industry.