Welcome back! We apologize for so many weeks without a blog, but it has been a busy time of meetings here at the ACA. Hopefully, you got to attend one of those meetings and hear an update anyway!! If not, then this week’s blog is right up your alley. Keep reading to learn more about what’s happening this week and what has been happening in previous weeks. Enjoy!
Membership Update
The membership update of the week is 9,446 members! It looks like we are going to close out 2019 with just at 9,500 members and that drives us full force to get that big 10,000 next year! The good news is that we start the year with over 3,300 members as we’ve got a load of three-year members already on the 2020 list!
It’s a busy time for county annual meetings. Please send Membership Coordinator Jessica Kennedy your upcoming county meeting information so we can get that published in the Alabama Cattleman magazine, the Bama Beef Online Events Calendar and inform staff/officers! Also, if you want a postcard made to notify members, be sure to make that request at least two weeks in advance!
After your meeting, be sure to call our office to let us know who your new leaders are! We will need their name, address, cell phone number and email address to keep them updated with information from the state office.
Lastly, membership statements for the 2020 year are set to go out the first of next week. These statements will target our 2019 non-renewed members and those whose membership will expire the first half of 2020, prior to the red coat deadline. Be on the lookout for those!
2020 ACA Convention & Trade Show
Registration is now open for the 77th annual ACA Convention & Trade show 
to be held February 14-15 at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Convention Center. What better way to say “I love you” on Valentine’s Day than to bring your darlin’ to our Friday night event, the Sweetheart Shindig? Not to mention all the fun and excitement around our General Sessions, featuring Donnell Brown of R.A. Brown Ranch and a CattleFax update, informative Cattlemen’s Colleges and Alabama’s biggest cattle industry trade show. Don’t miss this exciting event!
You can register online today and take advantage of those awesome Early Bird deals by visiting www.BamaBeef.org/Convention or you can call us at the office and we’ll take your registration by phone! Be sure to have your credit card handy and have an idea of what you and your’s would like to attend by checking out our mail-in form in the November issue of the Alabama Cattleman magazine.
Junior Cattlemen Getting Involved!
The AJCA board of directors have been out and about trying to make county meetings in their elected districts! The board expressed interest in setting foot in their district’s county meetings to update county members on junior events to come.
One of the featured talking points is that this year at convention, we will be holding THREE educational contests for youth ages 9-21 involved in AJCA, 4-H or FFA. We will be hosting a public speaking contest and quiz bowl for all age division. ACA also will host a career development contest for the senior age division to allow them to build on their resume and interview skills. The Alabama State Checkoff will be sponsoring the youth educational contest and awarding scholarships to winners. Click here to learn more about contest and register!
Legislative Update from the Exec Office
In the past few weeks, three key issues have been tackled in Washington DC.
- First, a letter has been submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service requesting that the Service promulgate new Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) rules to increase flexibility for cattlemen to protect their livelihoods from protected avian predators.
- The Real MEAT (Marketing Edible Artificials Truthfully) Act dropped in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support which addresses the false marketing of plant-based products as meat. This is a key piece of legislation that takes a step in the right direction to protect the misbranding of our product in the meat case.
- Another bill was introduced to help with hours of service for livestock haulers. This legislation looks to add 150 air mile radius on the back end of hauls to give some more flexibility on total hours of drivetime. Currently, we have 150 air miles on the front end followed by drivetime of 11 hours once a hauler gets out of the air mile radius. The addition would be helpful to give another few hours on the last leg of a trip.
All of these issues will continue to be addressed and we will work to see action on them going forward.
BEEF 101 at Auburn
This week ACA is hosting two BEEF 101 programs in Auburn. Today, ACA Director of Education and Outreach Ali Cantrell will be teaching 45 culinary students from Lawson State Community college and Wenonah High School with the help of Misty and Jason Edmondson. Friday, November 22 will host 60 students from Summerdale High School FACS program who will be hearing from Ali Cantrell and Chambers County cattleman Jim Collins.
BQA in The Black Belt
ACA staffers Kayla Greer and Morgan Pounds will head to the Black Belt 
Research & Extension Center tomorrow for a BQA training and certification hosted by Dallas County Cattlemen led by the charge of current YCLP student Bryan Monk. We look forward to visiting with producers who are looking to gain their certifications or renew them!
Events, Events & More Events
Staffers have been burning up the roads traveling to sales and other cattlemen events! Recently, officer and/or staff were present at the Salacoa Valley Farms sale, Tennessee River Music bull sale, Gibbs Farms sale, BEEF U in Auburn, the Clay County Cattlemen’s Annual Meeting, Barbour County Annual Meeting, the Frank Tuner & Sons sale, South Alabama Bull Sale, the Alabama Farmers Federation Annual Ag Foundation Skeet Shoot, Down South Grill Fest in Mobile County and the Fall Sale at Mid-State Stockyard, among others! The calendar still looks full as we head into a busy county annual meeting season. We enjoy getting out and seeing all you fine folks!
SLE Rodeo Making Strides Toward a Great 2020 Show
Significant work continues for the 2020 SLE Rodeo which includes sponsorships, ticketing and planning of the event itself. Tickets will go on sale to the public on December 15. Have you seen the newly re-designed www.SleRodeo.com? If not, take a look and use it to keep up with all of the fun happening at this exciting event!
ACA Director of Rodeo Programs Lauren Wilson has been at work with members of her sponsorship committee bringing in new and potential sponsors, and those new connections are paying off! We are excited of new partnerships coming to the show. If you want to become a sponsor, reach out to Lauren or visit our website at www.SLERodeo.com/Sponsor and complete the form or just learn more about opportunities!
Lauren also met with several committee chairs at the end of October to learn what she could about each committee to be able to better help and serve them. The meeting was very successful and she has a better knowledge of the ins-and-outs of our committees, their roles and how she can go to work for them.
We are excited to announce that on March 14-15, the weekend prior to the show, the SLE will host an Alabama Stock Horse Association Clinic and Show! More details to come on that, but we are thrilled for this new event.
Bama’s Best Burger Presentation
Barbour County Cattlemen and representatives from the Alabama 
Cattlemen’s Association state officer team and staff gathered at Brickstone Burgers & Brews on Monday in Eufaula to present owners Dwayne and Angie Register a plaque acknowledging the restaurant’s recent honor of being named home to Bama’s Best Burger. The award-winning dish, the Brickstone Burger, is a beef patty topped with bacon, blue cheese crumbles, banana peppers and Sriracha sauce. This title was earned after a two-month battle on the Cattlemen’s Facebook page and an anonymous judging round with a panel of three beef industry judges. The Bama’s Best Beef contest is sponsored by the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association with support from the Alabama Beef Checkoff Program. Their burgers earned two thumbs up from our crew!
YCLP Class VI Meets for a Final Time
YCLP Class VI finished up their last session in the Wiregrass two weekends ago. The class got the opportunity to see JYJ Red Angus owned by Jim and Jessica Yance, Southern Cattle Company, and the Wiregrass Research & Extension Center managed by Rickey Hudson. Special thanks to Jim Yance, Ken Stewart, and Ricky Hudson for welcoming the class with southern hospitality. This wrapped up YCLP Class VI stops, and next on the agenda is graduation at convention! We are proud of this year’s graduates and all they have already accomplished towards becoming leaders of this association.
Happy Thanksgiving
It may be coined Turkey Day, but beef deserves a place at any holiday table! 
To learn about unique ways to feature beef in your Thanksgiving tablescape, read our most recent blog post from Registered Dietitian Elesha Ergle.
With the holiday in mind, we would like to note that the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association and The MOOseum will be closed next Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29 in observance of the holiday. Normal business hours will resume on Monday, December 2. Happy Thanksgiving from us here at the ACA!