The Kansas Beef Council has once again found a way to put producers’ dollars to work through the Beef Checkoff program with their recent Pasture to Plate Chef’s Tour held near Wichita, Kan.

According to Todd Johnson, KBC executive director, this was an idea Sharla Huseman, KBC director of marketing, came up with and coordinated.

“The overall purpose of the Chef’s Tour is to put a face on the industry,” Johnson explained. “Chefs and people in food service are influencers in the beef industry and we want them to understand the face of the producer that brings the product to them.”

This year’s tour, the second in two years, included restaurant chefs from Kansas City, Garden City and Wichita. In addition to the chefs on the tour, there were a handful of other attendees who are involved in the food service industry.

The tour’s focus on the chefs had much more to do with what happens in their kitchens.

“Chefs are not just in a true kitchen setting,” Johnson said. “They are the ones who are instructing as well as making decisions on where their product is bought and how.”

According to him, this year’s tour was designed to be chronological in the life cycle of beef cattle.

The first stop of the tour was at McCurry Brothers Angus Ranch in Sedgwick, Kan.

This stop was selected, according to Johnson, to show tour participants the importance of high quality genetics.

“Tour participants were amazed by the technology that is at play in our industry,” Johnson explained. “At McCurry’s they got to see them ultrasound a heifer for pregnancy and they were really impressed.”

As the bus loaded up and left McCurry’s the next stop was set at Stroberg Land & Cattle in Hutchinson, Kan.

This stop, according to Johnson, was aimed at showing tour participants the commercial cow/calf side of the industry.

“Really, there were two reasons we selected Stroberg’s as a stop. First, to show the mass production and large numbers produced by commercial producers and, second, to show the care required when it comes to calving season, maintaining cows on roughage and being environmentally friendly,” Johnson said.

In addition to learning the ins and outs of commercial cattle production tour participants also got to learn the importance of low-stress cattle handling.

Low-stress, quiet cattle handling was explained to the chefs and food service personnel by Jon Mollhagen, owner of Molle Manufacturing, which produces Silencer squeeze chutes.