Happy Wednesday!
April is escaping us just as quickly as the rest of 2017 has, and we are ready for the big month of May. We’ve got a lot to look forward to with the Spring Board Meeting, the kickoff of summertime grilling season and the 2nd annual Bama’s Best Beef contest. We know many of our cattlemen are busy raking in the first baling of the summer months to prepare for wintertime, but take a break from balers, rakes and BushHogs to find out what’s going on at the ACA this week.
Membership Reminders
ACA Membership Coordinator Jessica Kennedy wanted to make sure you all got the reminder that the year-end “Over the Top” deadline is the May 9th Board Meeting. Counties who have gone “Over the Top” and have at least 100 members will be included in the drawing for the Priefert Chute. We have 20 counties who are within an arm’s length of going “Over the Top,” and your chance at a $5,000 Priefert squeeze chute should be encouragement enough! If that’s not enough, county presidents who go “Over the Top” will receive an award at the 2018 ACA Convention and TWO free banquet tickets.
ACA Membership is currently at 9,400. Be sure to send in all membership before the Spring Board Meeting that our reports are as current as possible. Following the Board Meeting, the state office will be mailing out the FINAL dues notices. Those renewals will be routed to the state office.
We wrapped up the May issue of the Alabama Cattleman magazine, our most exciting member benefit, this week. ACA Executive Vice President Dr. Billy Powell noted that he wrote his 381st column with this issue and has only one more to go. He wrote his first column in July 1985. With his retirement is set for June 30 of this year, he is looking forward to heading back to his home in Washington County where he will enjoy the company of his many grandchildren.
Beef 101
Today, ACA Assistant Executive Vice President and Beef Checkoff Director Erin Beasley is teaching future chefs about beef from pasture to plate at Auburn University’s state-of-the-art beef cattle teaching facilities! Erin, with the help of veterinarians, cattlemen and meat scientists, will be teaching this group about live animal production as well as how beef carcasses are harvested and fabricated into retail cuts. This is a gold mine of information for chefs who will be preparing the food we all eat in restaurants across the state!
Legislative Session Near End
We are in the short rows of the legislative session, and the General Fund and Education budgets have yet to pass. The gas tax, which would in part fund the re-paving of rural roadways, is hanging on by life support, but the Ag Commission is pleased to note that there aren’t any bills that would have a negative impact the cattle industry lingering behind the scenes.
SLE Rodeo- Coming Back for a 61st Year!
Last week, the Southeastern Livestock Exposition Executive Committee
met to discuss final reports on the 2017 SLE Rodeo and livestock week and to make decisions regarding the 2018 show. The committee is excited to announce that the 61st annual SLE Rodeo, along with Frontier Rodeo Company and PRCA Freestyle Bullfighting, will come bucking back to Montgomery March 15-17, 2018. Save the dates now!
AJCA Round-Up Dates and Intern
The ACA is excited to have Logan Strock in our office this summer as he has accepted an internship where he will lead the effort in putting on the 11th annual AJCA Round-Up. Logan is a current AJCA director and a student at Mississippi State University where he is studying agricultural education and plans to graduate in 2019.
The dates for this year’s Fiesta-themed event are July 20-23 at 
Montgomery’s Garrett Coliseum. Stay tuned as rules and registration information will be made available late May. We can’t wait to see you there!
Facebook Success!
The ACA Facebook page has reached another milestone this week as we broke through to 16,000 followers!! For those non-Facebookers out there, this means that we reach over 16,000 people a day with our positive message about beef and beef cattle production. This year’s goal is 25,000 so help us get there and spread the word to LIKE our page!
Here’s a Few Handy Links You May Enjoy:
Thanks for reading this week’s post! Until we post again next week , we want to remind you that you can stay in touch with us by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Have a great week!
On Tuesday, the Ag Coalition met at the ACA to continue monitoring activity in the state legislature then ACA leaders Dr. Billy Powell and Erin Beasley spent this afternoon at the State House meeting with staff and visiting with elected officials. This afternoon, we were pleased to host a luncheon for Sen. Luther Strange as he is in town on his Spring Break. He gave us an update from Washington D.C. and made a few comments on the special election announced for August 15.
Tomorrow stopped by today to visit The MOOseum and to learn more about our association. This is a crop of students at Auburn’s College of Agriculture who are studying under the Agricultural Communication curriculum and will become the marketing, PR, communication and journalism leaders of the agricultural industry throughout their diverse careers. After touring the building and meeting the staff, the group had a Q&A session with ACA Director of Social Media and Communications and Agricultural Communication alumna Kayla Greer.
During April, the state beef checkoff has supported multiple hands-on BQA workshops at Research and Extension Centers across the state. We anticipate that close to 200 cattlemen will become BQA certified through this effort, led by Dr. Soren Rodning who is the BQA coordinator for Alabama. Great work to Dr. Rodning and his team as well as the many cattlemen who have come out to learn and get certified!
Board Members: Please don’t forget that the Spring Board Meeting is set for Tuesday, May 9. Make plans to attend as it will be a great meeting and day spent at the State House meeting elected officials from your districts!
This week we are excited to host a special group of youngsters to The MOOseum as the First Family brings a group from their home county. ACA President Richard Meadows will be joining his youngest, Luke, and his fourth grade class from Houston Academy as they tour The MOOseum today. This is a busy time of year in our children’s educational center as fourth graders from across the state are traveling to Montgomery to put their entire year’s worth of Alabama History education to the test by touring Capitol Hill.
