Much like the beef herd, heifer retention for herd replacements was up 4 percent and will allow an increase in the number of milk cows by nearly 1 percent this year.

Beef producers continued to expand the breeding herd for the second year. Beef cow numbers increased by 1 percent during 2005 after a small rise in 2004. The total number of cows increased by 338,000 head and the increase was concentrated in the western Corn Belt, where Missouri increased by 115,000 cows and Iowa by 40,000.

There are two concerns in U.S. cattle markets. First, there?s the concern that we would lose beef exports.

Overall, the U.S. breeding herd has been trending lower as a result of the sow herd shifting to Canada and as a result of higher productivity.

Many mistakenly think that equates to a 6 percent salary increase.

Our annual customer retention rate is approximately 90 percent, and we believe our training program has a lot to do with such a high percentage. In our field, your performance is the only thing that matters to your client. Our program focuses on training our employees to become top-notch security officers while also preparing them for roles in management. In the long term, we train our officers because it is essential to servicing our clients, to retaining the best employees and to building a culture of excellence.