First Ever NCBA Communications Awards

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association inaugurated some new awards this year for excellence in agricultural communications and journalism.

The Excellence in Agricultural Communications awards were presented to an outstanding state beef association communicator and to a state breed communicator. The winners were Eric Grant of the American Angus Association (pictured on the right with Mike Deering and Mary Geiger of the NCBA Communications Staff) and Jaime King from the Ohio Cattlemen’s, who was not present.

There were over 90 nominations from state associations for the first Excellence in Ag Journalism. The winner this year, picked by a panel, Ron Hays of the Radio Oklahoma Network (RON).

That’s me with Mike and Ron in the second photo. ZimmComm was proud to be the sponsor of these new awards, which included traveling plaques and gift certificates for ZimmComm services for the organization awards, as well as $100 in cash for the ag journalist award. Congrats to all and thanks to NCBA for starting this award to honor excellence in ag media and communications.


2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

NCBA President Reflects on 2010

Cindy Zimmerman

Steve Foglesong of Illinois has just a couple more days as president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and I spent a few minutes with him today reflecting on his year as the head of the organizations.

When it came to over-reaching government regulation, Steve said, “It was non-stop, one issue after another” but, he is pleased that NCBA was successful in getting some of those things changed or stopped.

GIPSA was the biggest regulatory issue that NCBA faced in 2010, and while a final decision has not yet been made, Steve is happy the Secretary of Agriculture has now ordered a full economic analysis of the proposed rule. “And they’re going to take their time and do that job right.”

After so many struggles in 2010, Steve said it was strange that the year ended with a victory that meant a great deal to the cattle industry – two years of death tax relief in the lame duck session of Congress. But, he notes that the industry will still be “looking for a full repeal.”

Listen or download my interview with Steve here: NCBA president Steve Foglesong
2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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Karl Rove at Cattle Industry Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

Addressing about 5,000 cattle industry members from around the country Thursday morning, the man who served President George W. Bush in the White House gave a nice, if somewhat backhanded, compliment to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “This is one damn confident organization to have a man with a ponytail coming in as your president,” said Karl Rove, referring to Montana cattleman Bill Donald, NCBA president-elect.

Rove, who served as Senior White House Advisor under Bush and is now a Fox New contributor, talked about a number of policy issues important to cattle producers, starting with international trade. “We gotta find ways to take what we grow and produce and manufacture and create and sell them all around the world because America can compete anywhere in the world as long as the rules are fair and the playing field is level,” he said.

Listen or download all of Rove’s remarks here: Karl Rove Remarks at NCBA
2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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Audio, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

NCBA President-Elect Stresses Working Together

Cindy Zimmerman

The pony-tailed president-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association took a little good-natured ribbing from former White House advisor Karl Rove this morning for his hairstyle, but he also poked a little fun at himself during his address to the thousands of cattle industry members.

“I am the first president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to be on Facebook,” said Bill, noting that he had to come up with some of his favorite quotes for his profile. They are “If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much” and “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.”

Getting more serious, Bill stressed the importance of the industry working together. “We’re a diverse outfit, we cover every segment of the industry, and I don’t apologize to anybody about that,” he said. “Yeah, we’ve got packers who serve on the board of this outfit. And we’ve got retailers and we have importers and cow-calf guys and stocker guys and feedlot operators. Because that’s what it takes for all of us to be profitable is all of us to be in the same room working on the same issues.”

Bill used a painting by Montana artist David Hodges to illustrate teamwork in the beef cattle industry. That painting is pictured here. Among other things, Bill drew attention to the freight wagon going up the hill on the high road. “We get a lot of challenges, a lot of groups and individuals that can say a lot of nasty things about us,” he said. “We’re gonna stay on the high road.”

Listen to Bill’s remarks here: NCBA Bill Donald Remarks


2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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First Look At Beef Industry Long-Range Plan

Chuck Zimmerman

A draft version of the Beef Industry Long-Range Plan 2011-2013 has been presented here at the Cattle Industry Convention. It will be discussed and refined I’m sure. The hope is that it will be adopted in a final version by the end of this meeting so work can get started on the 3 year plan.

To get an idea of what it has taken to get the plan put together and what’s in it I spoke with Long Range Plan Task Force Member Charlie Mostek, Tyson. Thanks to Rod Smith, Feedstuffs, for snapping a photo while I was doing the interview.

Charlie is one of 23 members on the task force which is made up of a variety of industry organizations. He says that makes it unique. Also making it unique is the fact that it’s a three year plan instead of five as has been done in the past. This effort is an outgrowth of work that had already been done by NCBA, Beef Board and Federation of State Beef Councils.

One of the things that struck me in looking at published notes on the draft is this from the Vision statement, “An industry united around a common goal . . . ” The plan lays out some specific target goals like increasing the value of exports 25% per head. Charlie says that their will be a focus on measurement. So we’ll see what the joint board of directors does on Saturday. You can listen to my interview with Charlie here: Interview With Charlie Mostek


2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, NCBA

Let the Cattle Convention Coverage Begin

Cindy Zimmerman

We are here in the Mile High City at last for the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show. Despite all the weather issues this week, attendance looks to be pretty good for this annual meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

The media room is filled with all the usual suspects and from what we have heard, most everyone who planned to make it here did. Everyone is getting ready for the second general session to start here shortly, with the main attraction being former White House advisor Karl Rove.

Past NAFB president Greg Akagi (WIBW-Kansas Ag Network) had the opportunity to interview Rove yesterday, so here is a little preview of what the cattle industry will be hearing this morning.

Greg Akagi Interviews Karl Rove

Got a couple of photos uploaded this morning, lots more to come!

2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos

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Audio, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

Cattle Industry Convention Kicks Off

Cindy Zimmerman

We’re still on our way there, but about 5,000 cattle producers were in Denver for the opening of the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show on Wednesday, according to Mike Deering with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Mike has been busy live streaming, tweeting (@beltwaybeef), taking photos, posting to beltwaybeef.com and sending out news releases from the event. He tweeted this photo of NCBA president Steve Foglesong at the opening general session.

Foglesong advised the attendees to reflect on 2010 successes but focus on possibilities for 2011.

“Your NCBA didn’t waver to the critics or this administration’s regulatory rollercoaster ride. We buckled down and took them on, which resulted in several wins for U.S. cattlemen. You ladies and gentlemen sat high in the saddle and worked with your NCBA to aggressively defend this industry,” said Foglesong. “The success stories go on and on. As you set forth policy positions this week, I am confident the success stories will continue in 2011. We will go do battle again and again with forces that are aligned against us and our commonsense approach will win again”

Foglesong said the Obama administration’s “regulatory rollercoaster ride” is unprecedented and has the potential to devastate rural America. However, he is hopeful President Obama will carry through with a thorough regulatory review to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration and other government agencies from regulating farmers and ranchers out of business. Foglesong said NCBA’s pressure on the administration to eliminate burdensome, costly and scientifically unfounded regulations assisted in the President’s decision to conduct the review.

Hopefully, your beef blogging team will be on site in time for the rest of the convention tomorrow.

Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

Largest-ever Beef Donation in Colorado

Melissa Sandfort

It’s easy to think that in the land of the plenty, everyone has consistent access to high-quality, nourishing foods, like beef. However, according to the USDA, in 2009, more than 50 million Americans were food insecure and did not have consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Today, in conjunction with the largest gathering of the nation’s cattlemen and women for their annual meeting in Denver, Greeley-based JBS USA – the world’s largest animal protein processor – and cattle farmers and ranchers from around the country made the largest-ever donation and delivery of 16,000 pounds of beef to Colorado’s Feeding America Food Banks, drawing attention to the very serious issue of food insecurity right here in our own communities.

High-quality and nutritionally efficient foods, such as beef, are important to help meet daily nutritional requirements. One, three-ounce serving of lean beef provides 10 essential nutrients, including protein and B vitamins. Iron and zinc deficiencies are common worldwide and beef is a good source of iron and an excellent source of zinc.

By continuing to innovate and advance what they do, the entire beef industry is able to work together to provide nutritious food to feed a growing population around the world.

Beef

Ag Leader Launches New SMS Mobile Package

Joanna Schroeder

It was a big day in Des Moines yesterday – a major snow storm blew in and thousands of farmers blew in with weather for the 56th Annual Iowa Power Farming Show.  In tandem with the show, Ames, IA based Ag Leader Technology launched some new precision ag products and their team spent a very busy day demonstrating them for hundreds of growers who stopped by their booth. One new product is the updated Mesa Rugged Notepad with the SMS Mobile software package.

The Mesa Rugged Notepad is a handheld device that is larger than a PDA but smaller than a laptop and the perfect size for growers to take out to the field. And it’s durable – it can be rained on or dropped and it will stand up to the wear and tear. It also has a glare-proof screen so even on the sunniest of days, you’ll have no problem reading the screen.

The SMS Mobile software includes several key types of in-field information that can be collected and analyzed including Soil Sampling Mode, Crop Scouting Mode, Coverage Mode, Boundary Mode, and General Logging Mode.

I caught up with Michael Vos, Software Sales Manager for Ag Leader to learn more about the SMS Mobile technology that was launched and how it will improve a grower’s operations. Vos gave me a step-by-step tutorial on how one element, the Soil Sampling Mode, worked. You can watch here in this detailed video. Now don’t worry. Even if you’re new to GPS systems and the software, the Ag Leader team will get you set up, trained and started in no time.

SMS Mobile is available right now through the purchase of a Mesa Rugged Notepad kit or you can purchase the SMS mobile and install it on your own device. To learn more, contact Ag Leader or visit their website.

You can check out Ag Leader during the Iowa Power Farming Show in our flickr photo album.

Ag Leader, Precision Agriculture, Video

Beef Ambassadors Blogging

Chuck Zimmerman

National Beef AmbassadorsIf I can get to Denver in time I hope to meet and interview our National Beef Ambassadors. They’re pictured here with Daren Williams, Masters of Beef Advocacy Program. I took the photo from the Beef Ambassadors Blog, sponsored by ZimmComm New Media! The new ambassadors are starting to post on it. Here’s what Austin Joyce had to say:

Howdy,

My name is Austin Joyce and I am a Freshman Ag Business major from Pearland, Texas and a loud and proud member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2014! I can’t elaborate enough on how honored and excited I am to be a member of the 2011 Beef Ambassador Team! This year holds alot in store for us and I am looking forward to meeting many new people in our industry. This is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity and I am ready for the challenge and excitiement that is to come. I am writing this blog from the 2011 NCBA Cattle Industry Meeting in Denver. If you haven’t had an oppurtunity to attend this event I encourage you to at least once. It is a wonderful convention and a great way to meet people in our industry. Also, if you haven’t already, sign up for the Master of Beef Advocacy Course (MBA). It will give you insight into our industry and allow you to be a better beef advocate!

Thanks and Gig’em,

Austin

Beef, NCBA