As Congress considers a 2012 Farm Bill, the top priority for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is to eliminate the livestock title, according to NCBA Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Kristina Butts.
“The livestock title was new to the farm bill in 2008 and it brought us things like Country-of-Origin-Labeling, a national animal ID system and the GIPSA proposed rule that we’ve been working on for the last few years,” Kristina said during the NCBA Policy Division meeting at the Cattle Industry Convention this week. “Our membership felt pretty strongly that this portion should be removed entirely from the farm bill.” After discussions with agriculture committee leadership, Kristina says they do feel pretty confident that will be accomplished.
At the same time, Kristina says NCBA is advocating a strong conservation title with adequate funding.
Listen to or download Kristina’s update here: Kristina Butts - NCBA Legislative Affairs
2012 Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album
According to 
The goal of NCBA is to raise $1 million per election cycle – every two years – and they need to step up donations to meet that goal this year. The live auction raised over $60,000 and the silent auction at the trade show will help as well, but a guy named Jack Daniels is also helping to put some money in the pot during the Cattle Industry Convention. 
Kyle Bauer, general manager of 
AgWired, with our parent company ZimmComm New Media, was proud to sponsor the NCBA Excellence in Communication awards for the second year of their existence. The awards recognize communications professionals from NCBA state affiliate organizations and cattle breed associations, as well as an agricultural journalist. The recipient of the 2011 Excellence in Communications and Public Relations for a state affiliate is Carmen Fenton, director of public affairs for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) and for a breed affiliate is Angie Stump Denton, director of communications for the American Hereford Association (AHA). 
At about 9:00 this morning, Jesse Womack from San Antonio, Texas was filling out an on-site registration form to attend his very first Cattle Industry Convention. 
Less than an hour after he registered, Jesse joined 
Just prior to the opening general session of the Cattle Industry Convention, the U.S. Labor Department announced that a proposal which would have barred children from many on-farm tasks will be revised to allow broader exemptions for parents who own or run agricultural operations. 
The need for more training of meat-counter employees became evident after Merck Animal Health conducted a series of consumer panels that revealed consumers identify the staff behind the counter as experts. “The consumer that goes to the retail store today still sees the person behind the counter in a white coat as the butcher and they expect them to have vast knowledge of the beef products they’re selling,” said Kyle Pfieffer with Merck Animal Health, who notes that the need for training was quickly confirmed during retailer discussions.
Farm dust regulation ranks high on the list of policy priorities for the 
Agriblogger was one of the “techie talkers” at the first ever 
Lauren has been Multimedia Outreach Specialist for MSGA for less than a year and has already made a name for herself in the agricultural social media world. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Iowa with degrees in both journalism and anthropology and while she has no agriculture background, she has become a strong advocate for agriculture. 
The 