29 April 2025

3 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

North America

Matt Harris, vice president of the Commercial Division at Bimeda, spoke to The Cattle Site’s Sarah Mikesell in San Antonio, Texas at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association conference meeting, also known as CattleCon 2025.

It's 2025, we've started a new year. What's new at Bimeda and at the trade show?

W're excited to be here; we're here launching a lot of new vaccines, and we're really focusing on that and the protection side of the equation for cattle. We're going through a lot of crazy times here with record highs in cattle prices. The value of cattle is extremely good. So it's an exciting time for our producers and our customers, and it's a great time to get them protected.

We're focusing on our campaign at the show “No suits, just boots.” I got my boots and jeans here. We're excited to visit with our customers and have good, solid conversations on what they can do to help protect that valuable animal that's in the market today.

You've always relied on the value of talking to customers like at shows like CattleCon.

We sure do. I just had a conversation a few minutes ago with a producer who was talking about the weather. We had freezing temperatures, a lot of snow in the Panhandle. This person was also in the Panhandle, and a lot of snow melted and didn't happen here till this weekend when we had warmer temperatures. Now, we're at crazy temperatures like 70°F to 80°F in the Panhandle, and it may be below freezing in the evening. We really need to do all we can health-wise to keep those animals performing and well protected against all the respiratory diseases.

What are the expectations for 2025 for market prices?

We see what everybody else sees and all the analyzation that goes on in the market. The market certainly has been strong. We feel like we've got a good foundation in terms of exports. Now, it seems like the US product is extremely strong and better than ever.

US consumption seems to be strong as well, and the American diet is there. I think there will be plenty of opportunities in the next couple of years to keep these high prices and keep these valuable animals and enterprises. Our goal, as I said before, is to keep US producers sustainable in their operations. That means their family, their business stays intact for the next generation, and that's what our goal is: to keep them profitable and keep them going for hundreds of years.

At this show, I’ve repeatedly heard that “a healthy calf leads to sustainability.” There are so many outcomes that come from a healthy animal?

There is no doubt about it; a healthy animal is going to perform better. They're going to give our consumer a better product. Sick cattle don't put a high-quality product on the plate, so we want to be able to keep our cattle healthy. Plus, it's right for the animal, we're always striving to keep that top of mind. We're focusing on ways to prevent and lower stress, and we help our customers with all the management practices that will hopefully assist in getting the final beef product to be the best it can be.