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This reporter has savored a lot of great steaks in my years covering the beef industry. But the one Art and Merry Brownlee served up in the kitchen of their Ashby, NE, ranch house last summer was among the best - tender, juicy and, oh, so flavorful. I complimented the couple on the quality of their beef. Art's response was: "Well, that's good to hear because that's what we're after here." The Brownlees are working toward that goal in a non-traditional way for commercial cow-calf producers. Their herd consists of an Angus base and Braunvieh, on which they retain ownership of most of the calves. They use a combination of AI and pasture breeding on a total of about 1,400 of their own females annually - both heifers and cows - and they collect blood from the calves at processing. Those smears, identified by the calves' tag numbers, will later be used to determine the parentage of selected animals that perform well or poorly in a number of quality and production traits. These traits include birthweight, replacement performance and carcass acceptability. That data is used to determine future mating and culling decisions in their quest to maximize their herd's performance - on the range, in the feedlot and in the cooler. Meanwhile, northeast of the Brownlees in Ainsworth, NE, Bob and Diana Sears are just beginning to use a new DNA-based test called the GeneSTAR ® Tenderness test to determine which of their breeding stock carry genetic markers for tenderness. The couple plans to use results of that test, in conjunction with another GeneSTAR test for marbling, to build a purebred Angus herd maximized for its potential to marble and produce tender carcasses. The Brownlees and Sears are among producers on the forefront of utilizing DNA tools to help produce a higher percentage of better-eating carcasses, while minimizing "outs." Both couples say that while it's tough to quantify a payback in exact dollars, the accelerated level of genetic progress in their herds made possible by improved end-product predictability is certainly a positive factor. Art And Merry Brownlee The Brownlees are relative newcomers to the production side of agriculture, though Merry's family - the Shadbolts - has roots sunk deep in Nebraska's Sandhills. In fact, her family leased for 30 years the very acreage on which she, Art and their sons - Edwin (18) and Ethan (10) - now make their cattle living. After residing in Omaha for 20 years, where Art worked with computers and financial cost analysis for what is now Qwest Communications, the couple moved to Ashby eight years ago. Before moving to the ranch, the Brownlees had backgrounded cattle and retained ownership through family members. Yet, Merry quips: "Moving here seemed like taking over a 747 in mid-air." Art says the sum of their previous experiences has provided them with a non-traditional, analytical approach to the cattle business. Part of that approach is a heavy concentration on gathering and analyzing performance data. The result, Art says, is they've found themselves "doing very much what purebred breeders do, even though we have a commercial herd.

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