Saturday Oct 11, 2008 The selection of the 2009 Beef Ambassador team in complete. I must tell you that I am proud to call each one of them a fellow beef producer. From left to right, Sharon Byrne, PA, Jessica Sampson, CA, Allison Grainger, TX, Sierra Simpson, OK, and Bradley Copenhaver, VA. Congratulations and I look forward to working with you in the upcoming year.

More bang for your buck
by Kelli Loos

As producers we may lay awake at night worrying about the markets or the weather or maybe even whether or not the neighbors peaked-rumped bull will jump the fence and get in with our heifers. But perhaps what we should be worrying about is what we will do if consumers decide to listen to the well-funded vocal minority and cut meat out of their diets. Now that is something worth considering and even more importantly something worth taking action on.

For the past nineteen years, representatives of the National Beef Ambassador Program (NBAP) have worked in urban areas and convinced literally millions of soccer moms and college coeds that beef is a vital and important part of a healthy diet. The teams have gone to places we would just as soon steer clear of, where traffic jams don’t mean a herd of cattle plodding down a gravel road, just to get out the good word about beef and to help us sell our product. For whether you believe that you raise beef or you raise cattle, without a market for beef we would all be in trouble.

In the past, the NBAP has been funded by check-off dollars and run by the American National Cattlewomen (ANCW). In 2007 alone, working on a bare-bones budget of just over $100,000, this program made over 115,000 direct consumer contacts, 24,000 student interactions and over 20 million media impressions using print, television and web-based communications. Despite the success and longevity of the program, ANCW was denied the use of check-off funds for the 2009 fiscal year.

In light of this new development, ANCW is reaching out to the beef producers of the United States that benefit most from the work of this energetic and enthusiastic bunch of beef lovers. If every beef producer in this country were to donate just $1, the program would be adequately funded for the next five years. You already send your dollars, one per head, to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board every time you sell an animal. We are requesting just one dollar be sent to the ANCW Foundation, PO Box 3881 Englewood, CO 80155 or donate on the web at www.ancw.org. Of course, larger donations will not be turned away!

After seeing these passionate young leaders in action, I personally guarantee that this donation will be a wise investment for the future of our industry and you will certainly get the most bang for your buck that you have ever gotten in regard to the promotion of beef!

Monday Oct 14, 2008 Head out on Lady Blue (my main saddle horse) to check fall yearling heifer calves just before dusk. Dawn and dusk the two absolute best times of the days to ride your pasture.

Friday Oct 10, 2008 17 female and 3 male young beef ambassadors gather in Oklahoma City for the 2009 American National Cattlewomen's Beef Ambassador Contest. Tomorrow 5 will be selected as next years team but I will tell you that in the past five years I have never witnessed a stronger field top to bottom. Once again reminding us that the best thing produced on American farm/ranches is without a doubt our young people.

More information can be found at National Beef Ambassadors website by clicking here

Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 I am feeding salt and mineral to fall calving cows at dusk. I saw the moon creep in the background of cow 5202 and thought I just have to capture that.

Monday Oct 6 2008 with an 1.5 inches of rain on this day even the goats were reluctant to venture outside.

Friday Oct 3 2008 31 Limousin cows seem to be glad to be rid of their 2008 calves as they are turned back to pasture for another year.

Loos Tales Foodlink Chuckwagon at World Dairy Expo 2008 with Australian guest. Simon and Virginia Ewing plus Deb and Sue.

Rural America awakens like a bear

All of sudden the masses are energized and others seemed to be amazed. I have been reluctant to write about political candidates because it seems as though most media outlets can’t find anything better to talk about but this is one I just cannot let pass. Sarah Palin from small town Alaska has wound up the nation and not just part of it. I am talking about most all of the nation and I know that because I am on the list serve of some of the most liberal activists in the country and they are indeed as keyed up as the conservatives. To sum it up in three words, they hate her and I love it. On the other side of the equation, the media is reporting that the conservatives of the country are excited too and that same media acts as if they didn’t know any conservatives still existed.

In fact, the Washington Post has reported in near disbelief that someone could think like this electrical engineer from Virginia. David Willis said, "Hearing her pro-life stance, her conservative values, her family orientation -- it has really resonated with the proletariat and caused people to say: 'Hey, I'm going to get involved here. This is someone I can relate with; this is someone that can win”.

For me personally, I like her as the VP selection for two reasons. First, she obviously values human life. The biggest challenge in the value system of our society today is that too many want to value the life of a dog, a car or some material possessions equal to or above that of humans beings. That is wrong and I see a person willing to say it publicly, not only with words but also with actions in her life.

Second, she can relate to the everyday citizen that has not had representation in our country’s capital for far too long. Critics say she doesn’t have enough experience. I say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Only one media outlet has carried the whole story about her acceptance speech that propelled her into the nation’s conscience. At the beginning of her speech, her teleprompter was dysfunctional and we as viewers couldn’t even notice that she was flying without the words in front of her. If fact, the one line that may help elect John McCain President of the United States was not even in her script but she ad libbed it to fill time until teleprompter could catch up. That famous line: “Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull?….Lipstick.”

The most irritating reporting about Palin’s speech began as soon as she concluded. I was initially watching the broadcast on PBS but had to switch to ABC because the government-run station couldn’t get the audio to match the video and it was too frustrating to watch. Leave it to our government to screw that up. Diane Sawyer commented that Palin was, “apparently attempting to politically motivate the small town rural communities as she obviously appealed to them.” This is the point that urban Americans don’t get: People from rural America don’t do things just for political gain. We do them because they are the right thing to do, we are proud of what we have, we are proud of the small, rural communities that we call home. It is not just another place that we stop along the way as we get transferred up the pay scale within a company. We are proud people and we don’t need teleprompted scripts in order to convey that passion.

I must add that I am proud of another woman who spoke at the convention on that same night. Carolyn Dunn, a farm wife from St. John, KS., set the stage for Mrs. Palin by addressing the entire GOP convention where she talked about the need to maintain domestic food production. She also greatly emphasized the need to retain our young people in rural communities. For far too long, our rural communities have been viewed as the “fly over region” as people shuttle from coast to coast for their seemingly important business. Now we have a couple of ladies from rural America, displaying such a pride in rural America, that most cannot even relate to it or understand where it comes from. But I am here to tell you that the only way we get our young people excited about the opportunity to raise their families in rural America is if we wear our pride on our sleeves everywhere we go.

For me, one person seems to understand the rights that we as American citizens have earned. One person seems to value human life and sees the resources of our nation that benefit human life only if we utilize those resources. One person seems to understand that with passion and faith as your motivation, you can accomplish what others may have given up on. One person seems to have awoken a hibernating bear that didn’t think about the changes that were happening around us.

Now a flashback to the State of the Union Address that was given on December 2, 1806. One of nations first Statesmen said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories”.

Remember that on November 4, 2008 you will be the one person that decides who most closely follows the vision of our founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson.

If it is to be it is up to me

We have just had one of those great days on the ranch working cattle that makes it all worth it. Kelli and I and our three daughters, operating off the tailgate of the pickup, worked calves through the portable corral and gave pre-weaning shots. It was one of those rare perfect days, weather and all, and so in celebratory fashion we sat down together to enjoy a big, juicy cheeseburger, fries and corn from the garden. Come to think of it, I don’t remember many cattle-working days that were not followed with burgers and fries, frequently at our local steakhouse. The funny thing is that at the very same time, executives in major cities around the country are meeting in some of nation’s high-end restaurants and ordering $44 dollar Prime steaks. I don’t believe we are much different than any other ranching family by eating the all the beef, from ribs to ribeyes and plenty of ground beef, while the big shots eat only the most expensive.

The thing is we enjoy about days like that one are the cattle portion of the beef business and I believe that is another trait we share with other cattle owners. The problem is that unless we start to understand what it is that high end user needs to know and we learn how to get that information to them, I fear we will lose some of the value of the beef from the cattle we enjoy.

This long, drawn out story about our day does have a point. Just before we headed to the yard to work the cattle, I learned that the operating committee for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board met last week in Nashville and decided not the fund the American National Cattlewomen’s Beef Ambassador program. I have volunteered to work with these kids for the past five years and the progress that I have seen in each team, from the time they start until they finish, was simply unbelievable. I have also witnessed them in their element, taking on meatless agendas and the people behind them. The time spent with the program and the kids has led me to believe that it is the best investment we make with beef check-off dollars.

I fully understand that when you are attempting to allocate funds and your funds have been cut by $7 million, you must do things that you don’t want to do. But the truth of the matter is that we all make choices based on our priorities each and every day. You can do anything that you have a commitment to, if you so choose. The Beef Ambassador program has been operating on $118,000 annually. To think that you could train and support five young beef producers on this meager budget and use them to make over 20 million impressions on consumers about the importance of the beef industry is just hard to even imagine and yet that is exactly what they have done.

You and I are part of the problem here. One area that saw the smallest amount of cut in the budget for 2009 was producer education. Did you know that they have once again authorized $2 million dollars to do nothing but tell cattle producers what the check-off actually does to help cattlemen? Granted, if some money wasn’t spent on this education program, we would have an even bigger wreck in regard to cattlemen understanding the value of the research, development and promotion of the beef products we produce.

So here is where I circle back to where I started. I do understand the joys and rewards of sitting in the saddle and rounding up the cattle. I get that sense of satisfaction in administering animal health products to provide for the health well-being of my cattle. But at the end of the day if we are not educating our consumers, that person in the high end restaurant will not see the value in a $44 dollar piece of prime beef. More importantly, college kids will continue their trend of eliminating meat from their diets completely. Or soccer moms will choose a plant-based product for their kids because they just read in Time magazine that our consumption of beef is causing global warming.

For some reason, our industry leaders don’t believe grass-roots initiatives like the Beef Ambassadors are effective at reaching our consumers and instead we need professional “agency” people. Well, I couldn’t disagree more. First of all, what agency will even look at you for $118,000? None. Secondly, what happened to the old cliché of “pride of ownership”? “Local” food is all the rage and consumers are encouraged to get to know the people that produce the food they buy. Consumers now want to hear from the person who tends to the animals and protects the environment. Instead of giving them what they want and introducing them to our great stewards of natural resources and providers of great products, we have decided it is better, or maybe just easier, to let a third-party be the voice for our producers.

I believe it is time we step up and take a stand for the future of our industry, forget about the Beef Board operating committee and take this matter into our own hands. We have a group of women that have dedicated thousands of hours of effort into training the future leaders of our industry at the state, local and national level. We have a program in place that makes 20 million media impressions, 115,000 consumer impressions and 24,000 student impressions in just one year. Most of these kids are far better spokesmen and much more in-tune with consumers than the good old boys that gather for coffee every morning and cuss about the markets. It’s time the Beef Ambassador program gets the support it deserves. I urge you to contact any member of the American National Cattlewomen or go to their website (www.ANCW.org) and do what you can to support this great program. Your contributions can be mailed to ANCW, PO Box 3881, Englewood CO 80155. Be sure to put Beef Ambassador in the memo. Our donations will be the best investments we can make to help preserve the future of the industry that we love.

In honor of Memorial Day, I'm going in a little different direction today
than usual. As many people across the nation honor our fallen heroes for
their sacrifice, it seems many others are just happy to have an extra day
off. Regardless if you're working or relaxing today, let's take some time
to reflect on the many blessings we have in this great country.

I've been fortunate to have traveled around the US and visit some other
countries as well. Two places I've visited in the past few years stand out
in my mind quite vividly. The first is my recent trip to Guatemala where
the topic of the Catholic priest's homily at a parish in a poor indigenous
town was the importance of helping those less fortunate through charitable
giving. to a congregation of poor, indigenous field laborers! What a
reality check. While we're consumed by higher fuel prices, a slumping
housing market, and a weaker dollar, others are too poor to notice the
difference. Yet, they're being reminded that it's through selfless giving
that our lives are truly enriched.

The other really powerful experience I've had on a trip is the Changing of
the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. In the
silence of our country's most sacred ground, each clicking step of the
soldier standing guard punctuates his duty to fellow soldiers and all of
us they protect. The honor, fortitude, and commitment of these elite men
can't be summed up in words. When given the option to stand down from
their post during Hurricane Isabel (while the rest of D.C. had long been
evacuated), the Old Guard chose to continue their 24/7 vigil at the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier. in the middle of a hurricane!

There really are a lot of great places to visit and enjoy around the
world, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's a blessing to have been
born in the United States. As I drive around the area seeing neighbors
preparing their fields for another growing season and kids playing in
their yards, I'm reminded how fortunate we really are.

I'm proud to be an American and lucky to have grown up in rural Wisconsin.
Thanks to all of you and your family members who've defended the greatest
country on Earth. It's through this service that we are able to enjoy the
freedoms and blessings that we sometimes take for granted. Let's not just
remember our servicemen today. Next time (and every time) you see a
soldier or veteran, go up to them and say a simple "Thank You for Your
Service". I'm sure they'd reply that they're 'just doing their job'. But
after all, it's because of them that we're able to do ours.

Happy Memorial Day! -- Tom

Tom Wall

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