Our Story: Who We Are

Jim Sample, the original publisher of our magazine, created 2 magazines in 1983: Minnesota Beef Producer + Wisconsin Beef Producer, which had a combined total of 3,000 subscribers. In 1992, some regular advertisers talked Jim into combining the 2 publications into one, which became Midwest Beef Producer magazine. For the next 28 years, Jim and company published the best independent beef ranching magazine in the Midwest region, while the number of subscribers grew each year.

Then in 2020, Jim’s son Derek took the reins and after discussing what direction to pursue with his employees, relaunched and rebranded the magazine as a national publication. Now known as American Beef Producer, we feature more content, more rancher interviews, more award-winning photos, lots of stories, various guest articles, important education, and beef cattle sales advertising along with suppliers marketed towards our 21,000+ subscribers…and that number is growing just about every day.

Our staff here at ABP is dedicated to all American Beef Producers across the USA as well as their desire for more knowledge that can be applied to their own operations. We all have vast amounts of experience in this genre and know what it takes to produce a magazine that will keep our reader’s interest, month to month. Our reputation over the last 30+ years keeps us a regular read at tens of thousands of American ranches and farms alike. We often hear from our readers that our magazine is the most popular and desirable industry publication and that they are all proudly displayed in their homes or offices for their friends and families to read. Please visit our Testimonials page for quotes from regular advertisers and subscribers alike!

Meet the Team