THERE is no doubt about it - the team at Thomas Foods International are a progressive bunch, led by chief executive Darren Thomas.
The announcement that the TFI group has been awarded the exclusive licence to produce Certified Australian Angus Beef by the industry organisation, Certified Angus Group, is a real coup for the SA family-owned company.
The agreement is in place until 2020 and the ramifications for local Angus breeders are huge.
TFI has high expectations for expanding the Angus brand domestically and overseas, and expects to increase throughput four-fold in the first 12 months.
Given the high profile that its Angus products enjoyed before the signing of this agreement, TFI must be very confident to be able to make such a bold prediction.
There is little doubt that TFI is investing heavily in property and infrastructure to enable the anticipated expansion to proceed post-haste.
A new $25 million boning facility at its Murray Bridge works and an upgraded feedlot at Tintinara are ample evidence that confidence is sky high.
You have got to hand it to the movers and shakers behind the Angus breed.
The recognition of their product is probably unprecedented among any livestock breed in history.
If you asked your everyday, urban-dwelling Australian to name some breeds of cattle, sheep or pigs you may get two answers at the most.
I reckon they would be overwhelmingly Angus and Merino and they would probably comment that one you eat and the other you wear.
Any other breed would only be vaguely recognisable - and the various breed societies have nobody to blame but themselves.
When I was a kid and my parents were in the butchering business we had our own small abattoir and sourced most of our cattle from Gepps Cross.
Angus cattle were a rarity, Herefords, polled and horned, were common, along with Shorthorns and the odd assortment of dairy-cross cattle.
Murray Greys were relatively new, fairly rare and it was a shock when one day our buyer sent us some Brahman-cross yearlings.
The same was true with lambs.
Progeny from Suffolk or Dorsets crossed with Merino ewes were the staple.
Merino hoggets or mutton sheep filled the cold rooms - and as for pigs it was straight Large White or Landrace.
The proliferation of breeds throughout all types of livestock has been both a great fillip for the industry and a distraction that has managed to detract from some breeds' marketability.
Limousin, Simmental, Blonde D'Aquataine, Charolais, Santa Gertrudis, Brahman, Square Meaters, Lowlines, Speckleparks and so on all have desirable traits that appeal to cattle breeders.
But none can match the sheer selling power at saleyard and retail points that Angus cattle command.
Prime lamb breeders do not seem to face the same problem.
The choice of breeds has certainly exploded, with White Suffolk, Dohne, SAMM, Dorper and Damara becoming regular breeds in saleyards.
But customer recognition is not from breed but rather from diet.
"Salt Bush" lamb is a social-climbing necessity, as is the inevitable Wagyu steak.
Some attempts have been made to market lamb by breed but it has failed to take off in the manner of Angus beef.
Despite my continued cynicism about the average person's ability to differentiate between beef cuts from different breeds, I still have people tell me that they would not eat anything but the genuine Angus article.
So good luck to all of the Angus breeders out there - they will continue to reap rich rewards, TFI will continue to bloom and while all this is happening I am going to talk my cattle breeding mates into going black.
After all, that is where the money is!
