Speaking at the U.S. Cattlemen's Annual Meeting
By Jim Mundorf
I was asked to speak at this years USCA Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN. Here’s a recap.
When I started Lonesome Lands I wasn’t very familiar with the different cattlemen’s organizations, what they stood, or against. As I continued to learn, one of the organizations I joined was U.S. Cattlemen’s Association. I had gotten to know them through Corbitt Wall’s Feeder Flash reports, and when Justin Tupper testified at the first cattle market Senate hearing he was there because of USCA. He was the only one there representing American cattlemen and to me his testimony that day cemented the importance of the USCA.
Girls Eat Beef Too
The day started with Markie Hageman Jones who is a young lady from California who works hard on social media to inform the public about the cattle industry through her Girls eat beef too, accounts. She talked about how we need to open gates instead of shutting them on anyone who wants to learn or be involved with beef or cattle and I couldn’t agree more.
Markie Hageman Jones
Sustainable Beef LLC
Nebraska rancher, Trey Wasserburger gave a presentation on the $325 million, Sustainable Beef packing plant being built in North Platte Nebraska. I had a lot of questions about the plant and Trey’s presentation did a great job answering pretty much all of them. I am looking forward to following the success of this project.
Dr. Shawn Baker
The surprise of the day came when Dr. Shawn Baker stopped by to talk. Dr. Baker is the main guy to popularize the carnivore diet, which is a diet where you only eat meat. No carbs, no sugar, just meat. He eats 4 lbs a day. It was kind of surreal seeing a Dr. and athlete telling a room full of cattlemen that they need to eat more beef. He also talked about how he had reached out to NCBA CEO Colin Woodall about working with the beef checkoff and has been turned away.
Dr. Shawn Baker photo courtesy of Dr. Brooke Miller
Beef Initiative
The speakers before me were the Beef Initiative, which was a group of ranchers and bitcoin guys. There were a number of Bitcoin fans there including Dr. Baker. I was mostly reviewing my notes, so I didn’t get in on this until they asked for questions, which was around the time I was supposed to talk. I had no questions since I had long given up trying to fully understand bitcoin. The audience had a lot of questions and were really trying to wrap their heads around it but most just couldn’t quite get there, so the questions kept coming.
Cattle Producer Forum
By the time the questions finally stopped, they were way behind schedule which left little time for me to talk and for the forum, but things got settled down and we got into a good discussion. It didn’t take long before a number of complaints about the checkoff were brought up and most agreed that changes needed to be made, until one prominent member told the rest of us that they had tried as hard as they could to implement a different checkoff and it didn’t happen. We were told it was over, the checkoff is what it is and it was time to move on. Well I guess we were about out of time after that and they moved on to the auction where drinks and bids flowed and a lot of money was raised for the organization.
I want to sincerely thank everyone at USCA for inviting me to come. I’m not much of a meeting person, but I have found that these national ones are a place to get to know the most interesting people you can find in the cattle business. Where else are you going to meet a young lady from California, who is starting her own herd and a Nebraska rancher who's building a $325 million packing plant?
P.S. As we move toward a new year, legislative session, and farm bill, I am hopeful the USCA keeps the stance of founding member Chuck Kiker had when he wrote this article, It’s Time the Cattle Industry Takes Their Checkoff Back, and said, “The arrogance and greed of NCBA has blocked all efforts to make changes to the Checkoff that would result in a more effective program for all stakeholders. We need Congressional members with a little integrity along with USDA to stand up for all the cattle producers who didn’t get to vote in 1996.”
Introducing myself before the forum
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