The Cattle Industry Convention is about over. I’ve got some posts to do still but you can also find a lot of additional interviews over on the Checkoff website – Beef Board Meeting.com.
This morning the CBB welcomed a new chairman – Dave Bateman. Here’s Dave, hard at work at today’s annual meeting.
After the meeting I did a short interview with Dave.
He says he feels a mix of excitement and a little bit of anxiety because these are exciting times where there are a lot of programs and fewer dollars to work with. He’s going to focus on continuing to build beef demand while maintaining confidence and all of the things that are important to consumers.
He says they’ll continue to work diligently to improve the process of distilling what programs are most effective and can best use Checkoff dollars. Like many here Dave says that although there are some industry factors that don’t look too good right now the mood is very upbeat.
His administration will be one of collaboration using the collective wisdom of all the people who are involved. He also wants producers to know that they can contact any of the officers or board members anytime to offer their input.
You can listen to my interview with Dave here: cic-08-bateman.mp3
The beef industry honored Paul Hitch today at the general session. His family joined him on stage and he was presented with a plaque and accolades for all the work he’s done on behalf of the industry over the years. Paul’s a producer from Oklahoma.
The press got to meet with our new Ag Secretary, Ed Schafer, after his speech today.
The ever lovely Executive Director of the 
Our Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, made his first major public policy speech today at the Cattle Industry Convention. Thanks to Andy Vance, 
He did talk about the Humane Society mess over their video of animal handling atrocities at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. I think USDA has handled this quite well and the plant was shut down. What I thought was interesting was the Secretary in the press conference making a very good point about how this whacko (my word) organization withheld the video for months so they could release it to the media in a sensational way instead of bringing it immediately to the proper legal authorities so that the situation could have been halted immediately. In effect, the Humane Society prolonged animal suffering and I think the people who support them ought to know that they really don’t care about animals, only their political agenda and raising money.
The Beef Ambassadors sure do a good job of getting out and promoting beef. I know passion about the product is necessary to be chosen and Jennifer Rassler, Kempton, PA is one of them.