Who turned on the heat?!
In true Alabama fashion, the threat of a late spring frost has lessened and the heat has turned up during April. This warm, sunny weather has cattlemen hitting the hay fields to get in the first cut of baling season while cattle graze on the beautiful green grass that’s come from a wet and warm few months.
Your ACA staff is gearing up for the summer months ahead as we prepare for summertime beef promotions and continue educating producers and consumers about our favorite protein, beef. Keep reading to learn more about what the cattle folks in Downtown Montgomery are up to this week.
Legislative Lookout
It’s been a busy couple of weeks around the ACA on the legislative front. We’ve had big names in the political world, including Twinkle Cavanaugh, Tommy Tuberville, Martha Roby and Luther Strange, by the office for visits or to have a luncheon. In light of the changing of the guard in government, the ongoing legislative session and upcoming elections, it’s important to stay close to our state and national leaders.
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.
Future Communicators Stop By ACA
On Tuesday, the Auburn University Agricultural Communicators of 
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.
This group isn’t the only that’s stopped by lately. With warm, springtime weather, we’ve been hosting many school and leadership groups who are touring Downtown Montgomery in The MOOseum. It continues to be a popular place! If you’ve got leadership or other extracurricular groups in your county, encourage them to visit The MOOseum so we can showcase the cattle industry in Alabama.
Beef 101: Back at it on Friday
We will have a BEEF 101 on Friday with Wallace State Culinary in Hanceville and McAdory Middle School FACS program. President Richard Meadows will work with the group on live animal information, and ACA staffers Erin Beasley, Kayla Greer and Kim McBrayer will join the group to help out and answer questions.
BQA Certification Soars in April
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!
SLE Executive Meeting
On Friday, the Southeastern Livestock Expo Executive Committee is 
meeting to review the 2017 SLE Rodeo and Livestock Week many activities and discuss figures relating to attendance and expenditures. This meeting will decide the plans for the 2018 show, so stay tuned for more information!
Spring Board Meeting
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!
Here’s a Few Handy Links You May Enjoy:
Thanks for reading this week’s post! We’ll be back next week- same time, same place. Until then, 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!
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.
Take a break from your summertime siesta to join us in Montgomery for a fiesta! That’s right. The 11th annual AJCA Round-Up will be taking on a “South of the Border” theme at Garrett Coliseum’s livestock barns July 20-23. Stay tuned for registration information. We look forward to seeing you there!
Be sure to check out all of the BQA trainings that will be held during April and May at the Research & Extension Centers across the state. All of these will be hands-on, interactive trainings to achieve BQA certification. Earning your BQA certification has never been easier, so don’t miss out on the opportunity. Visit us online to learn more. 
Auburn University. The checkoff-funded program, BEEF 101, will host over 200 individuals from culinary students to Extension personnel who all share an interest of learning more about beef from pasture to plate. Cattlemen are encouraged to attend if they are interested. The dates are April 5, 10, 21 and 26. 
Who’s seen one of those catchy recipe videos produced by Buzzfeed Tasty? They’re quick, fun and make preparing even the most difficult dishes look like a breeze. Well, your Beef Checkoff here in Alabama is jumping on the recipe video bandwagon. Last week, Checkoff staffers Kayla Greer and Erin Beasley set up shop to film four different recipes perfect for different times of the year including summertime, back to school season, tailgating and the holidays.
We would like to remind you to keep these fellow cattle families in your prayers. We would also like to give a shout out to Cullman County cattleman Cody Rasco and his team of volunteers for answering the cry for help out west. Cody worked to gather fencing supplies and organized a team to take the load out west to donate and offer a helping hand. In his 
Chandler of Titus, Ala. Sarah Grace is 14 years old and has a beautiful voice you can all hear at the Friday night performance of the show. Not only was Sarah Grace’s audition outstanding, we had many!! So many, in fact, that the committee elected to select an entry for each show! We are excited to have Sydni Sikes with her sign language interpretation to perform at Wednesday’s Miracle Rodeo, Ella Langley of Hope Hull perform Thursday night, Sarah Grace Chandler on Friday and Mary Kate McPherson of Faunsdale at the Saturday matinee show.
ACA Assistant Executive Vice President Erin Beasley is spending time today the Certified Angus Beef Specialist Seminar in Mobile as it features foodservice and retail specialists from around the world. The conference focuses on education about the product from Pasture to Plate. By gaining more knowledge about this product, we can improve our education programs with retail and foodservice partners who sell CAB.
left and right! We are thrilled to meet all who are interested in this program and watch them grow in the years to come. If you want to apply, visit
The members of the Southeastern Livestock Exposition met at the building on Tuesday for rodeo committee updates and to host Montgomery-area media in for a steak luncheon. SLE President Walter Crim, color commentator and Frontier Rodeo Company General Manager Don Gay and 2017 SLE Rodeo entertainer Trent McFarland informed the media about what to expect at this year’s show!
Max Bozeman will shining their faces on the Charlie Platt show on Thursday in Dothan to present him with “TV Broadcaster of the Year” plaque he was awarded at this year’s convention. Charlie does an outstanding job of helping us promote beef during October Beef Month and is a big fan of Alabama’s beef cattle industry.
two ways…
to participate in the steak cookoff on Saturday, March 18 in conjunction with the SLE Rodeo. 
your farm, it can probably be handled at our trade show. We’ve got over 65 national, state and local vendors bringing everything from heavy farm machinery, off-road vehicles, cattle working facilities, insurance, breed associations, nutrition and nutritional supplements…it’ll all be at our trade show for you to see and learn about.
There will be no shortage of networking at the convention’s many meetings and throughout the trade show. We also are offering family fun at the Wednesday night “Rotational Grazing” event where families can enjoy social time with good food and music provided by the Good Ol’ Boys, aka Ed Whatley’s crew! To wrap up Convention, the Sweet Young’uns will open up the dance floor with over 50 years of musical entertainment experience!
Erin spent the day last Friday at Sysco Gulf Coast Geneva where top salesmen were awarded cash prizes for their beef sales in December through January. One prize was given to the salesmen who sold the most beef and the other was given to the salesmen with the largest percent growth. Overall, this promotion generated an increase of over 25,000 lbs. of beef compared to the same time last year. These promotions are a great use of checkoff dollars.
If you call next week, you might find many of the staff out of the office as we will be in Nashville, TN attending the 2017 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show. We’re excited to have quite the impressive list of Alabama attendees and encourage Alabamians to use our Trade Show Booth #1392 as a gathering place! It’ll be a packed and busy three days as staff will be attending receptions, checkoff meetings and federation meetings, and cattlemen will be attending the many outstanding Cattlemen’s Colleges, the gigantic Trade Show and the fun events in the evening. Hey, speaking of Cattlemen’s Colleges, we’re proud that our ACA President-Elect Richard Meadows will be a panelists at one…great!
There will be no shortage of networking at the convention’s many meetings and throughout the trade show. We also are offering family fun at the Wednesday night “Rotational Grazing” event where families can enjoy social time with good food and music provided by the Good Ol’ Boys, aka Ed Whatley’s crew! To wrap up Convention, the Sweet Young’uns will open up the dance floor with over 50 years of musical entertainment experience!
Each year, the ACA has the distinct honor of hosting 67 of Alabama’s top teens. On Thursday, the ACA will open its doors to the Distinguished Young Women of Alabama for a luncheon, tour of The MOOseum and a presentation on the beef cattle industry in Alabama. These ladies are in the Capital City staying with host families as they prepare for their state pageant this weekend. DYW, formerly known as Jr. Miss, is a scholarship pageant based on brains rather than beauty. These high school seniors are smart, talented and serve as leaders in their schools and communities. ACA is pleased to have them by to fuel them up with protein before the big show!
time. Remember, if your county is interested in coming to a BEEF 101, 