Spring has sprung and summer is quick to come upon us. And no summer is complete without a few essential dishes: hamburgers and steaks. These are so essential that Gov. Nathan Deal has declared June is once again Georgia Beef Month. While most of us are celebrating by breaking out the charcoal, we reflect too on the industry that brings us these products to throw on the grill.

I own 100 head of cattle on a beef farm in Newton County.

Modern beef production is a family affair: 97 percent of all beef cattle farms and ranches are family-owned. Our industry produces 20 percent of the world's beef using only 7 percent of the world's cattle, and it is the sixth largest commodity in the state. Numbers from 2011 give it a Farm Gate Value of more than $400 million. That high-dollar sirloin on your place tonight began with a seedstock operator selling a beef animal to a cow-calf operation - such as most of the beef farms in Georgia - where calves are born and weaned. They spend the majority of their life eating grass. Some beef are raised entirely grass-finished, while others are sent to a feedlot or stockyard to be "finished" on a balanced diet of grain and grasses. To get that sirloin, roast or hamburger, the beef animal is harvested and distributed to grocery stores, restaurants and even overseas.

There are more than 740,000 beef cattle operations in the U.S., and I am proud to be a part of one of them. It is hard work, but well worth it to be part of the largest single segment of American agriculture. It is my job to be committed to raising healthy animals and helping America's beef herd maintain diversity in breeds and genetics, and I am thankful that technology and management practices allow me to do that better than ever today. Georgia's beef cattle industry is also committed to far more than only providing a safe, affordable, quality protein for our food supply. Producers such as myself strive to be "everyday environmentalists," meaning on average, each of us has 13 different practices in place to accomplish environmental goals, including nurturing wildlife, preventing erosion or conserving and protecting water.

Roughly 85 percent of the lands Americans graze beef cattle on are unsuitable for producing crops. Because we use 99 percent of every beef animal harvested, either for meat or for byproducts, we are nearly doubling the productivity of this land that can't grow corn or cotton. And what about waste food that humans don't want to eat? Aside from grass and hay, which humans cannot digest properly, cattle eat things such as vegetables, peanut hulls and skins, soybean hulls, cotton gin byproducts and corn stalks that otherwise would be thrown in the garbage.

I am part of a generation of beef cattle farmers who are helping to produce 13 percent more beef with 30 percent fewer animals. I am proud of the beef product my fellow producers and I put on your supper plates, and I am pleased to be part of such a valuable industry. So this month I invite you to join me. Raise your forks, your glasses and most importantly, raise your knives, and help us celebrate America's choice protein - beef.

Glenn Hayes is the owner of Hayes Furnitures and lives in Covington.