AgWired

I asked National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Elect J.D. Alexander some tough questions during the recent Cattle Industry Summer Conference. One such question was, “What is your favorite way to prepare your beef?” His answer – a bone in ribeye prepared on the grill. So I tried it out last night for dinner and boy was it tasty.

OK, so maybe that isn’t really a tough question but Alexander did tell me that the industry is facing some notable legislative issues such as trade issues, GIPSA rules and increasingly difficult environmental standards. So I asked him how does the industry overcome these challenges?

“The bottom line is we’ve got to work together on a state and national level to overcome these issues so we can do better what we do best and that’s producing high quality beef,” said Alexander.

I then asked him if the U.S. continues to create policies that make it more and more difficult to produce beef, how, when countries around the world are depending on U.S. farmers, are we going to keep producing the high quality protein so desperately needed to feed a dramatically growing population?

Alexander replied, “I think one of the things is obviously if they’re trying to do some regulation like that they must have a sense we’re not doing it properly right now. I’ve always said as far as the environment goes, we as producers are living off the environment. We grow the crops to feed to the cattle to grow the protein that can be fed to the nation’s population. So because we make a living off the land, we’re going to take care of the land.”

He continued, “I think part of the message is we’re not getting that message out. One of the greatest stories we have is the environmental stewardship awards. We go out to regions across the country and honor producers that are doing great things with how they are preserving and saving and enhancing the environment. We had seven picked at this conference and out of them one will be a winner.”

And NCBA will continue to showcase these forward-thinking cattle producers to help better tell the industry’s story with the goal of reining in some of these regulations that could keep America’s cattle producers from producing an invaluable product.

You can learn more by listening to my interview with J.D. Alexander: NCBA Helping to Create Export Markets for Cattle Producers

Photos from the conference are posted to this photo album: 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album.

It often appears that a major role of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is to play “defense” against all the bad policy, press and public opinion that exists. While this is a role of the organization, it is not its only function. I also learned during the Cattle Industry Summer Conference that they also focus on “offensive” tactics like spreading the good word about the nutritional benefits of beef.

I asked Scott George, a producer from Cody, Montana who is also a Vice President of NCBA about some of the defensive issues NCBA is currently engaged in.

“From the defensive portion we’re looking at some ag policy issues. Some of those are trade issues. We’ve been trying to get South Korean free trade agreement, the Panama free trade agreement and Colombian free trade agreement passed,” said George. “For nearly six years now they’ve been hanging on the fence and they have tremendous opportunity for our beef producers. If we can get those approved, we could start exporting produce to those countries that would help our producers.”

George said that according to CattleFax, it is estimated if the U.S. could open those three export markets, it would add another $25 per head for producers. Right now CattleFax estimates that exports are adding $189 in value to every fed cattle coming out of the feed lots today and if the industry could add $25 a head, George said it would help those feed yard producers as well as cow calf producers to remain profitable.

Other issues including defending the industry from the over reach of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has decided to grant themselves the right to regulate all water in the United States, said George, which is a huge property rights issue as well as a state’s right issue because it threatens state water right laws as well as personal water right laws. “So we’ve been trying to get that reigned in,” said George. In addition they are dealing with GIPSA rules, dust regulations and fighting against policy that would require producers to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.

On the positive side, NCBA has conducted a lot of research on consumer desires and is working to educate consumers about the health benefits of beef.

You can learn a lot about current policy issues and some of the proactive NCBA campaigns in my interview with Scott George: NCBA Helping to Create Export Markets for Cattle Producers

Photos from the conference are posted to this photo album: 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album.