Congratulations to two young agricultural professionals who were awarded the WD Farr Scholarship during the 2014 Cattle Industry Summer Conference. Ariel Overstreet-Adkins from Big Timber, Montana and Josh Ison from Batavia, Ohio were honored at the first session by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation and the Farr family. They each received a $12,000 graduate scholarship. Ariel will use it to finish …
NCBA’s Update From Washington
NCBA’s Director of Legislative Affairs, Kristina Butts, was on-hand during last week’s Cattle Industry’s Summer Conference to update producers on current and future issues the Washington office is tackling. “Washington is always an interesting place in a midterm election year. The one thing NCBA is really focused our efforts on this year is more on the regulatory side of a …
NCBA CEO Expresses Upbeat Spirits Towards Next Fiscal Year
Cattlemen’s grassroots organization, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), held their annual Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, CO. last week. Producers and state organizations gathered to tackle and plan the coming year. Forrest Roberts, NCBA CEO, commented on the event and shared what we can see throughout the next fiscal year in terms of policy and markets. “This conference is …
Ag Groups Take Issue with Interpretive Rule
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s promise that under the proposed rules defining Waters of the United States (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA) “all normal farming practices are exempt – period” may be falling on deaf ears in the agriculture community. McCarthy is visiting Missouri this week to explain the proposed rules but she faces an uphill battle from the …
Grassley and Ag Reject Japan’s TPP Offer
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) took time between votes today to join with several agricultural organizations and voice strong opposition to Japan’s negotiating position in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership to exclude a number of agricultural products as part of a final agreement. “Japan seems to believe that they’re entitled to keep five sacred agriculture products off the table,” said Grassley, who …
New NCBA Officer Team
The new president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is Bob McCan of Texas, who succeeded Scott George as president during the board of directors meeting last week. “It is a great honor to be elected to lead NCBA for the next year. A strong future lies ahead of us with endless opportunities for U.S. cattlemen and women,” said …
Cattle Industry Convention
It looks like all systems are go for this year’s Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, TN. It’s the first time I’ll be missing it in a long time. But that’s the way things work sometime. I enjoyed the opportunity to be the Beef Board Blogger for eight years and it’s in the hands of the very capable staff of the …
Farm Bill Could Draw Trade Retaliation
Livestock organizations and food associations are concerned that their members will face economic harm because the farm bill out of conference committee this week makes no changes to the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL). Canada and Mexico filed a complaint over the law with the World Trade Organization, which is expected to rule on it next month. If …
Cow That Stole Christmas 10 Years Later
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the “cow that stole Christmas” – a day that will live in infamy for the U.S. cattle industry and one that Kendal Frazier with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association remembers well. Kendal recalls that NCBA received a phone call from USDA at 1:30 pm on December 23, 2003. “We immediately started to implement …
RFS Hearing Goes 12 Hours, Draws Hundreds
Over 140 stakeholders testified at a hearing Thursday on the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to lower the biofuels targets under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2014, and those opposed to the plan outnumbered those in favor by a ratio of more than two to one. “More than 100 of the 144 speakers support #ethanol, #biodiesel & advanced biofuels,” tweeted …