What a week! Events, meetings, cancellations and now a hurricane. It has been a little busy around these parts! While October is soon coming to a close, the Beef Month 2020 chapter will close, and will will drift into year-end projects and start rolling on SLE Rodeo. The fun never really stops around here, not even in a year like 2020! Keep reading to learn more.
Checkoff Meeting Postponed
In true 2020 fashion, yet another one of our meetings as been rescheduled! The Checkoff Marketing Plan Task Force meeting that was set to be held tomorrow, October 29 at the ACA building has now been rescheduled for Thursday, November 19. We came to this decision following news of the potential impacts of Hurricane Zeta. If you would like to attend the meeting on November 19 to help us brainstorm ideas for 2021 checkoff programming, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our office at (334) 265-1867.
YCLP Recap
YCLP Class VII spent their weekend in North Alabama for their third session. This year’s class has only two session remaining, believe it or not! They have toured numerous cattle producers all across the state.
This past weekend they toured ACA President-Elect Clay Kennamer’s backgrounding yard and cow-calf operation. They also had the opportunity to tour Lookout Mountain Genetics. We appreciate John Starnes, Stephanie Turner, and Tristan Tilley for being great hosts. The class also stopped by Lake Majestic to catch their cowboy auction sale. Lake Majestic is owned by one of our YCLP alumni, Nic Cornelison. We would like to give a special thanks to Jackson and DeKalb County Cattlemen’s for cooking a steak dinner on Friday night for the group.
The class will graduate at Convention in March. If you are interested in the program or participating next year please contact YCLP Coordinator Morgan Desselle at morgan@bamabeef.org!
AL.com Email Marketing
October Beef Month may soon be coming to an end, but our promotions are running strong. This afternoon, we deployed an October Beef Month email marketing campaign through AL.com that featured beef imagery, recipes and nutrition information. This email was targeted to nearly 200,000 Alabama parents, the target audience of the checkoff promotion. We are excited to learn the results of this campaign after ample time is allowed for opening!
Membership Update & Board Memo
We have surpassed our membership from last year- YAY! But we still haven’t reached that big 10,000…help us get there! Board members, please RSVP to the upcoming Board meeting to be held November 12 at the RSA Activity center in downtown Montgomery. Send your RSVP to jkennedy@bamabeef.org.
FACS Advisory Board
ACA Director of Education and Outreach Ali Cantrell was asked this week to sit on the new Family and Consumer Sciences Advisory Board Committee. She attended her first meeting here in Montgomery on Tuesday, October 27 and was included in discussions on how to expand the FACS program and how ACA and the checkoff program can impact the culinary arts. This committee will meet twice a year but will be in close contact throughout the year in order to market different educational programs.
Bull Sale Season
ACA Staff will head to the CK Cattle Headquarters Sale this Friday. Sale Session is in full blast around the state. Head over to our online sale calendar to view the sales going on around the state, you are sure to find one that fits what you are looking for!
ACA Hosts Regional Meeting
ACA will host Region 2 (LA, MS, TN, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC) state executives and leadership next week on November 4-5. The agenda will include policy and beef checkoff topics as well as give states some time to discuss holding events with the challenges of COVID-19. ACA officers will attend the meeting as well as Jimmy Holliman who serves as Region 2 Policy VP and Eric Smith, Region 2 PAC General.
USDA’s CFAP 2 Program
Late in September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture opened application for a second round of COVID assistance relief through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), or CFAP 2. Key details include:
Cattle Payments: The CFAP 2 payment rate for eligible beef cattle is $55 per head. Payments will be based on the maximum owned inventory of eligible livestock, excluding breeding stock, on a date selected by the producer, between Apr. 16, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2020.
Signups will run through December 11, 2020.
More CFAP 2 details are available on USDA’s website: https://www.farmers.gov/cfap/livestock.
Foundation Scholarships : Deadline Soon!
Applications for the 2021-2022 Alabama Cattlemen’s Foundation Scholarships are now open online at www.BamaBeef.org/Scholarships. The ACF is proud to award over $65,000 in scholarships annually to Alabama’s youth in livestock and those who are the children or grandchildren of longtime members. We offer a variety of scholarships with a range of requirements— there’s truly something to fit any student! We appreciate those who purchase the Cowboy vanity car tag that help fund these scholarships, as well as the generous families who have endowed scholarships through our foundation. Applications CLOSE on November 6 at midnight, so be sure your favorite student(s) submits today!
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