Welcome back to the blogosphere, cattlemen! ACA staff has been out and about in the state over the past several weeks as we’ve hosted regional meetings with county leadership. It was great to see so many familiar faces and meet new ones while learning from each other. Now, we’ve got your feedback in hand and are already busy at work planning ways to provide cattlemen with the educational programs, activities and information they want most! While we’ve been busy traveling, business has still been booming back at home base in Montgomery. Keep reading to learn more about what all has been happening and what’s to come.
Membership Update and Refresher from Regional Meetings
We had great participation and feedback from our Regional Meetings. Thank you to all who attended! Out of 67 counties we had 39 represented this year. One of the highlights from the meetings was revealing a little about the new membership software. This new software will be available to all counties who wish to use it by November. The new software will be much more user-friendly and is updated quite frequently to improve functionality.
In October Jessica will work with Kayla on creating tutorial videos for counties to review. These videos will focus on specific training in areas that county secretaries will be using to input membership, print reports and other options available should you choose to use those. Also, Jessica will be leading some training webinars that county leadership can join in on their computers and ask questions live. County secretaries will be receiving information on electronic check option if the county opts to keep electronic check information or county bank card on file at the state office. This option will eliminate waiting on checks to be mailed and processing and will allow for more real time updated membership. You can choose to decline this option and continue to process membership via check by mail. Also, counties will receive one login and it will be given to the county secretary who enters membership. Those logins will be sent once we have everything set up and ready to go. If you have any questions please send those to Jessica and stay tuned for all the exciting updates!
On another note, Jessica will be working to prepare for the first 2018 membership mailout. It is extremely important that you provide her with the correct mailing address for your county contact to receive those remittances. Last year we had several who went to a previous secretary/treasurer. Email those addresses to Jessica by October 15.
Youth Field Days
Your Alabama Beef Checkoff dollars went to work to host a Cattle Judging Field Day on Saturday, Sep. 16 at CK Cattle in Hope Hull. We were excited to have 50 youth from counties all over the state join us for the day. To kick off the event, Jason P’Poole discussed the fundamentals and terminology involved in judging cattle. Following the discussion, youth took to the pens to judge three classes, including Angus heifers, SimAngus heifers and ChiAngus bulls. Participants then took a lunch break while scorecards were tallied, and the top three in each age division received prizes for their success. A farm tour of CK Cattle finished out the day. We would like to give a special thanks to ACA Vice President Chris Langley, AJCA Director Chelsea Langley and Regional VP Jim Jordan for attending this event and the folks at CK Cattle for allowing participants to learn from their outstanding cattle.
We encourage parents, teachers and county junior cattlemen advisers to save the date for Nov. 11 at Langley Farms in Camp Hill for a Youth Production Field Day. Dr. Soren Rodning, Sarah Dickinson and Courteney Holland will teach on a variety of topics including BQA, calving demos, body conditioning scoring and forage testing. Register your youth today at www.BamaBeef.org/ProductionFD.
Judge Roy Moore Wins Senate Race
September 26th marked the runoff election between U.S. Senator Luther Strange and former Judge Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate seat resulting in an overwhelming win for Moore, securing the nomination for the Republican party. Moore will now face Clinton era U.S. Attorney Doug Jones (D) in the general election on December 12. Moore is known for being a constitutional conservative and has served as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court from 2000-2003 and 2013-2016.
Strange was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat when President Trump selected then U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as U.S. Attorney General. He served on the Senate Agriculture committee in that time. One of Governor Ivey’s first acts was to hold a special election for the Senate seat, which has resulted in Moore becoming the Republican nominee for the general election in December.
ibotta app launch
It’s an exciting day at the ACA as the first October Beef Month celebration kicked off! Today we launched a statewide campaign with a consumer app called ibotta. This app offers rebates on groceries and household items, and starting today, you’ll find a $2 OFF roast coupon for any brand/variety of roasts purchased in most Alabama food retail stores. This campaign will sell over 5,000 roasts throughout the month and will provide consumers with great information about the beef industry!
CLICK HERE TO EARN THIS REBATE
AFC Scholarships Available Soon
On Sunday, Oct. 1 Alabama Cattlemen’s Foundation scholarship applications will be available at www.BamaBeef.org/Scholarships. We encourage you to visit the site and explore the many scholarship opportunities for high school and college students in Alabama. Each year, the AFC gives over $50,000 in scholarships to deserving students whose parents or grandparents are members of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association.
Check out the many scholarship opportunities, and don’t forget- the deadline is Dec. 1 at midnight!
International Visitors Stop by ACA
ACA staff was pleased to host representatives from the USDA Africa 
Foreign Agricultural Service. The representatives have to come to Alabama from Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania to learn about American agriculture. ACA Executive Vice President Erin Beasley answered their many questions about the beef industry, led them on a tour of our building and even grilled up some delicious beef for them to try out!
Auctioneering Champion Visits Montgomery Stockyards
Montgomery Stockyards welcomed Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) World Champion Auctioneer Brian Curless from Pittsfield, Illinois last week to visit the area and sell cattle on sale day. ACA staff enjoyed the opportunity to visit the market, meet with Brian and hear his impressive chant. While in Alabama, Brian also took time to visit Autauga Farming Company with ACA Past President Bill Lipscomb.
Beef up the blood supply
On Oct, 13 from 10-3 the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association will host a “Beef up the Blood Supply” campaign. We have partnered with Alabama Department of Ag and Industries and LifeSouth to bring a blood drive event to the Cattlemen’s Building in downtown Montgomery.
The ACA will be providing a steak sandwich to patrons of the event who donate blood. With the recent natural disasters that have struck our fellow Americans, it is more important than ever to ensure we have an adequate blood supply. Rewarding donors with a steak sandwich grilled up by an Alabama cattle producer is an ideal opportunity to involve the community in this charitable effort while encouraging them to eat beef during October Beef Month.
Beef 101 with Wood Fruitticher
The fall BEEF 101 programs kicked off last week and welcomed Wood 
Fruitticher (WF) Foodservice, based out of Birmingham. New salesmen from around the state gathered to learn about beef from Pasture to Plate in an effort to sell more product. WF has heavily increased their beef sales over the last two years by focusing on steak cuts and also introducing branded beef items. They primarily sell to restaurants in the state. Next week, the checkoff is excited to partner with Certified Angus Beef (CAB) to offer BEEF 101 to 50 retail and foodservice people.
Remember, if you want to be apart of BEEF 101 or just attend for further education, let us know. Upcoming dates are:
- Tuesday, October 3 (10AM-3PM)
- Thursday, October 12 (10AM-3PM)
- Friday, October 20 (8AM-Noon)
- Tuesday, October 24 (10AM-3PM)
Big News for JBE
For over 50 years the Junior Beef Expo has been hosted by the Southeastern Livestock Exposition (SLE) during the rodeo and livestock week in mid-March. Last month, Jimmy Parnell and Paul Pinyan presented a proposal for the Alabama Farmers Federation to manage the JBE under the umbrella of the SLE. The decision was unanimously accepted. The JBE will continue to be supported by the SLE as it always has, but managed and coordinated by Alabama Farmers Federation. The Alabama Cattlemen’s Association (ACA) will continue to provide support to the JBE through funding, volunteers and communication about show.
Here are a Few Handy Links You May Enjoy:
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