Happy Trails, 2025 SLE Rodeo!
The 2025 SLE Rodeo & Livestock Week brought tons of talent to Montgomery from the livestock expo showrings to the Garrett and Crawford arenas! The PRCA ProRodeo was packed full of National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifiers and PRCA Hall of Famers. The SLE is always so proud to bring the best in ProRodeo to Montgomery, AL!
The SLE also had wonderful involvement in all of its auxiliary events, including the Poarch Band of Creek Indians (PBCI) scholarship awards ceremony, SLE Youth Rodeo Showdown, PRCA Youth Rodeo Camp, Junior Livestock Exposition (beef/dairy/swine), Junior Livestock Judging Contest (a team came all the way from Wyoming!), 4-H Speech and Quiz Bowl Contest, Benson Ranch Horse Jackpot, Allen’s Roping Productions Breakaway and Team Roping, Alabama Select Horse Sale, Cowboy Church, and Miracle Rodeo.
There’s a multitude of people who make this event possible through sponsorship and hands on participation. SLE officers and members are truly grateful for everyone who plays a role in producing the annual SLE Rodeo and Livestock Week! The support received from our community allows them to continue to fulfill our mission: supporting youth involved in agriculture and rodeo. Thank you for helping support the next generation!
MEMBERSHIP REPORT
The ACA is aiming to go Over the Top again in 2025— help us get over 10,500 members! As we are one quarter into the membership year, we are proud to report that we represent 7,004 members and growing more with each county annual meeting that takes place. We are grateful for the grassroots efforts of our county organizations and look forward to another year of membership advocacy alongside you!
Membership Deadlines to Remember
Remember, the Over the Top County Chapter deadline to earn your president a coveted ACA red coat is June 30, just three months away! Membership must be in the office or entered in the database by June 30. Note, the second round of membership remittances will go out in April.
Membership Prizes
Reminder! All counties who go Over the Top by the end of 2025 will be entered in a drawing for the Priefert Squeeze Chute, donated by our friends and supporters at Priefert Ranch Equipment and Hartford Veterinary Supplies, while the county who increases by the largest percentage will earn a Priefert head gate! New members— and their recruiters!— will go into a drawing for a John Deere Gator, brought to you by our friends at SunSouth, TriGreen Equipment and John Deere!
County Meetings
We need to know about your county meetings in more ways than one. First, we need to know when it will be! Please send the date, time, and location information to ACA Director of Membership Jessica Kennedy so we can list your upcoming meeting in the magazine and on our online events calendar. Second, following the meeting, we need to know about leadership changes. Submit the names and contact information of your county president and secretary also to Jessica Kennedy so they can be added to our correspondence list!
ACA Summer Regional Meetings This Summer
Save the date as the popular summer regional meetings will take place again beginning in June. This year, the ACA is teaming up with Alabama Extension to provide and educational program at each meeting— talk about a two-for-one! Regional Extension agents and specialists will provide the educational components of the program, and the ACA will provide updates to attendees during a meal at each event. Save the date for a meeting near you:
- June 12– Blount County Multipurpose Complex, 2PM-7PM
- June 26– The Cedars (Demopolis, AL), 11AM-3PM
- July 17– Wetumpka Civic Center, 4PM-8PM
- August 8-Grace Fellowship Church (Atmore, AL), 8AM-2PM
ALDA FARM TOUR
Thanks to the Alabama Beef Checkoff Program, members of the Alabama Dietetic Association kicked off their 93rd Annual Meeting with a hands-on beef production tour!
The dietitians and health professionals visited Curtis Farms to learn all about beef during a tour of the operation. Discussions about herd health; what a year cycle looks like for producers and livestock; labels in the grocery store; and common misconceptions about commercial food production left these individuals better prepared to provide Alabama consumers with accurate education about the true nutritional value of beef and how this product makes it to the plate.
JUNIOR CATTLEMEN Spring Field Days
Save the date for Spring Youth Field Days, coming to north and south Alabama this April! The North Alabama Spring Youth Field Day is April 2 at the Blount County Multipurpose Center, and the South Alabama Spring Youth Field Day is April 9 at Parnell Farms in Stanton, AL. Those who participate will leave the event with a certification in Beef Quality Assurance (BQA). Learn more and register now online by clicking here. Registration for this FREE youth educational opportunity closes March 28.
LFP For Counties
Numerous counties in Alabama have been approved for eligibility for the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) winter grazing payments. This program, offered through the Farm Service Agency (FSA), provides compensation to eligible livestock producers who have suffered grazing losses for covered livestock. It also covers producers of grazed forage crop acreage of native and improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover or acreage planted specifically for grazing. For more information about this program or to sign up in one of the following counties, contact your local FSA office or visit www.farmers.gov.
Eligible counties include Autauga, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Franklin, Greene, Hale, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Lowndes, Madison, Marengo, Morgan, Perry, Sumter, Washington, Wilcox and Winston.
Political Round-Up: March Update
The month of March held two weeklong breaks for lawmakers as the week of March 10 hosted a District Work Week, while March 24-28 was legislative spring break. With the countdown on and those breaks in the rearview mirror, noses are on the grindstone at the State House. While crime, tax cut packages, immigration and veterans’ affairs packages have dominated the conversations in committees and in the chambers, attention has now collectively shifted to getting the 2026 state budgets across the finish line, along with other key pieces of legislation, before the gavel drops on the last possible day of May 19.
General Fund (GF) and Education Trust Fund (ETF) Budgets
Outside of weekly hearings and other bills that will have a fiscal impact on the budgets, the budget packages have not yet begun movement. As stated in last month’s report, the FY26 General Fund budget (HB186) was introduced in the House, while the FY26 Education Trust Fund Budget (SB112) dropped first in the Senate. There are line items in both budgets that the ACA will monitor to ensure level or increased funding, including the budgets for the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries, career technical education and FFA programs, as well as the $40,000 line item for Junior Cattlemen programs. Additionally, a priority for ACA’s team will be lobbying for $500,000 in increased funding for the Conservation Incentive Program (CIP), housed in the Alabama Agricultural & Conservation Development Commission.
Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR)
SB185 sponsored by Sen. Randy Price would define the terms of “Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship” (VCPR) and would prohibit veterinarians from dispensing medication to any animal without a valid VCPR in place. This legislation is intended to align the state code to federal policy. The ACA is engaged on this legislation to ensure the language is not burdensome to cattle producers. The ACA is working with the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association staff and the bill sponsor to find an amendment that would satisfy the needs of both small and large animal veterinarians and clients.
Alfa Health Plans
The Alabama Farmers Federation has introduced legislation that will allow the organization to offer affordable health coverage to Alabama’s farmers and small business owners. While a senate version of the legislation (SB84) was introduced early on in the session, the House version (HB477) dropped following the District Work Week and presents a variety of amendments. The ACA will work to support this legislation as it could greatly benefit members who do not have access to employer-provided health care plans and are burdened by the high costs of marketplace coverage.
$192 Million Tax Cut Package
The House recently passed a bipartisan tax package totaling $192 million in tax cuts for Alabamians that will head to the Senate for consideration. One tax cut (HB386) will reduce the grocery tax from 3% to 2%. Alabama remains one of the only states in the country with a grocery tax. The other bills (HB387, HB388 and HB389) would grant municipalities the full discretionary authority to lower their own sales tax on groceries, increase tax exemptions for seniors drawing from retirement and increase tax exempt income for those making under $60,000 per year.
We will report back here in April, but in the meantime, if you have questions or concerns, please call our office and ask to speak with Executive Vice President Erin Beasley or Director of Communications and Legislative Affairs Kayla Greer.
Sen. Britt Backs WOTUS Reform
Last week, U.S. Senator Katie Boyd Britt delivered remarks during U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin’s announcement that the EPA will work with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to deliver on President’s Trump’s promise to review the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). Since taking office, Senator Britt made fighting the Biden Administration’s overreaching, ambiguous, and job-killing WOTUS rule a top priority.
Administrator Zeldin has directed agencies to move quickly to ensure that a revised definition follows the law, reduces red tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution. Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Zeldin believes it is time for the EPA to finally address this issue once and for all in a way that provides American farmers, landowners, businesses, and states with clear and simplified direction.
“I’m of the belief that food security is national security, and our agriculture community continues to be under attack, but that is no longer,” Senator Britt stated. “Common sense has finally been restored, both at the White House and here at the EPA. I am so proud to be here today.”
Administrator Zeldin introduced the Senator where he applauded her efforts to advocate on behalf of Alabamians: “When I met with Senator Britt… I went in and she had a long list of questions to ask me, of priorities that she had on behalf of her constituents, and WOTUS was right up there, top of the list. So, from the first moment I met Senator Britt to here today, she’s been a great champion for this cause, representing her home state of Alabama…”
Prostart Invitational
Beef was highlighted during the 2025 Alabama ProStart Student Invitational held in Orange Beach, February 23-24. The Alabama Beef Checkoff Program supports this high school culinary program by sponsoring the event and offering an incentive to teams who demonstrate their beef cookery skills during the culinary contest by providing the Best in Beef award every year for the team that cooks the judges’ favorite beef-highlighting dish. Congratulations to the 2025 winning team, Baldwin Preparatory Academy!
CATTLE CONNECT PODCAST
Tune into the Cattle Connect podcast weekly on Friday mornings at 7AM. Listen is as staff discusses beef industry news, hits on a variety of educational topics and explores the many facets of the ACA! This podcast is available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube, Amazon Music and at www.BamaBeef.org/Podcast. Season 2 of the show aired January 3 and already features more than 10 episodes full of timely information for cattlemen and members of our association!
BLACK VULTURE DEPREDATION SUB-PERMIT
Livestock producers experiencing depredation from black vultures may now apply for a no cost Black Vulture Depredation Sub-Permit through the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries. All approved applicants will be allowed to take up to three black vultures as long as the statewide take number has not exceeded 500. If 500 vultures are harvested in the state, applicants will receive an email notifying them that no more vultures may be taken during the permit period. For more information, visit agi.alabama.gov.
BAMA BEEF EVENTS CALENDAR
The Bama Beef Events Calendar (www.BamaBeef.org/Events) is beginning to fill up with county cattlemen’s, youth and Extension activities as we look toward the late spring and summer months. Check it daily to make sure you don’t miss an event near you!
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