April has flown right past us, and now we are staring a busy month of May in the face! When in the world did that happen? Just as we’ve started to enjoy springtime and all the green grass that comes with it, and now we are quickly shifting our sites toward summertime and hay cutting season. While you work hard in the field, your ACA staff is hard at work in Montgomery protecting your best interests, building a magazine, entering membership, attending meetings, holding beef promotions, educating consumers….whew…and the list goes on. Keep reading to learn all about what’s happening at the ACA this week.
BAMA’S BEST BEEF- Nominations closing soon!
Have you ever tried an unforgettable beef dish served at an Alabama restaurant or food truck? We’re excited to learn about all the unique beef dishes served up at local dives across our state, and the kick off of our 3rd annual Bama’s Best Beef contest has not disappointed in its short lifetime thus far. The contest kicked off on Monday, April 16 with a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram announcement and in just over a week’s time, the post has already brought in over 100 nominations, reached over 58,300 Alabamians on Facebook and garnered over 122 new likes on our page. We’re very excited about some of nominations we have received in each of the categories as they are truly mouth-watering sounding! Stay tuned for more as nominations close this Sunday at midnight!
If your local diner is home to a DELICIOUS beef dish, be sure to visit BamaBeef.org/BestBeef to submit your nomination today. We also challenge you to share the contest on your social platforms and learn more about by listening to our Southeast AgNet release with Randall Weiseman or visiting the contest webpage. This contest is your checkoff dollars at work, cattlemen. Let’s get the biggest bang for our buck and work together to promote it!
Youth Production Field Day SUCCESS!
Success is the word to sum up this past Saturday’s Youth Production Field 
Day at Langley Farms in Camp Hill, AL. Beautiful weather, gorgeous scenery, interactive lessons on forages, the seven quality cow checks and assisted calving followed by a delicious brisket lunch and tour of Langley Farms made for a successful day of Alabama Beef Checkoff dollars at work! Over 35 youth were in attendance and enjoyed a day of interactive, hands-on learning.
Special thanks to Chris & Elizabeth Langley and family for their generous hospitality, Dr. Soren Rodning, Sarah Dickinson and Caroline Nichols for their expertise, the Auburn Collegiate Cattlemen and CattleWomen for their catering services and all who joined us to make this event a success.
Membership updates
ACA Membership Coordinator Jessica Kennedy is updating county contact information for mailouts and emails. County leaders, please visit BamaBeef.org/CountyChapters today to double check your information. If you find something is incorrect, please call or email Jessica at the office- (334) 265-1867. Information needed includes mailing address, phone number and an email address, with emphasis on the email!
Speaking of mailing address, Jessica is also working to get the final membership renewal mailout sent to the printer for next week. Remember to get your memberships entered because 100% of the dues from this mailout will come back to the state office otherwise. Need helping figuring out how to enter your membership? Contact Jessica to schedule your i4a training. We really need more county participation on the membership entering effort! The quicker county secretaries can learn to enter, the quicker your membership will get entered into the system and start receiving their magazines. We certainly don’t want anyone missing out on those!!
We want to continue to shoutout our Over the Top counties as we are extremely proud of their hard work and true, grassroots efforts. Over the Top counties include Bibb, Butler, Choctaw, Clay, Coffee, Colbert, Conecuh, Covington, Cullman, Dale, Escambia, Greene, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, Perry, Russell, Sumter, Washington and Winston counties! Now, this means there will be a very special presentation made at the August Board Meeting…you guessed it…RED COATS! County presidents- if you went Over the Top and do not already have a red coat, we cannot stress enough the importance of going to get fitted for your coat and sending the suggest size into Jessica. The reason why it’s so important you get fitted is because (1) we can’t return the coats should they not fit and (2) we cannot re-order your correct size until the next year…which means you’ll be without for another year!! (Our orders are set at a minimum volume, and we are unable to order just one or two coats at a time.) We know you want that coat just as much as we want to give it to you, so please get sized! P.S. if you’re planning to attend the Board Meeting on May 17, Jessica has a few limited sizes you may try on if you’d like 🙂 Please, send your coat size to Jessica asap!
…speaking of…county presidents and secretaries be sure to SAVE THE DATE for May 17 as we’ll be meeting up in Montgomery for an engaging, interactive Board meeting we’ve entitled: “Building the Brand: Steering County Leaders Toward Success.”
Ag Commissioner Forum
On Thursday, the ACA will be represented at the Ag Commissioners Forum hosted by the Alabama Agribusiness Council in Auburn. The panel will be made up of Rick Pate, Sen. Gerald Dial, T.O. Crane and Cecil Murphy who are all running for commissioner of Ag and Industries. They will discuss their vision surrounding several topics related to agriculture and how they would operate as commissioner.
Spring Beef 101- That’s a Wrap!
Today marks the last of six spring BEEF 101 programs held at the Auburn University Beef Teaching Unit and Meats Lab. Throughout the month of April over 200 participants from culinary arts programs across Alabama will have joined us on a beef journey from pasture to plate. Your checkoff went to work as we hosted programs for McAdory High School, Greenville High School, Central High School and Columbus (GA) High School FACS students as well as Lawson State Community College, Trenholm State Community College, Coastal Alabama Community College and Drake State Community College culinary arts programs. This is big news as these future chefs and foodservice representatives will head into their careers with a thorough knowledge of beef cattle production told straight from the cattlemen…and veterinarian…and meat scientist’s mouth! Big thanks to all who have joined us to help put on these many programs.
County Activities Happening Across Alabama
County activities are are on the rise as warmer weather means less time spent feeding thanks to green grass and more bearable temperatures…so long snow and ice! This past weekend, ACA staffer Michael Agar enjoyed a trip to the Clay County Cattlemen’s Association Spring Meeting while ACA Executive VP Erin Beasley attended a successful Lauderdale County Field Day at Hamner Farm in Killen with 50 other producers. The Greene County Cattlemen’s Association also held a successful Weed Control and Calibration Field Day at Eutaw City Park! Looking ahead, Michael Agar is excited to head to the Dekalb County Cattlemen’s Annual Meeting on Thursday night followed by a trip to Thorsby for a Farm City event on Friday, while Erin Beasley is pleased to spend her last Saturday in April with the Butler County Cattlemen’s Association at their annual meeting. The Mobile County Cattlemen will gather at Freeland Farm for their Spring Meeting on Saturday, and further up the interstate, the BEEF Truck will be hauling Michael Agar and Kayla Greer north to Cullman for the Crimson Classic Sale. A few other events to look out for are the Pike County Invitational Steer & Heifer Show (rules and registration now posted here), the Cattlemen’s Bus Tour (register here) and all kinds of educational Extension events, which can be found here.
Producer Event At Tuskegee U
Last but not least, on Tuesday the ACA was involved in a conference aimed at small producers hosted by Tuskegee University. Along with a policy update for attendees, information was shared about how small producers can use the association as a resource for their operation.
CATTLEMEN’S BUS TOUR
JOIN US AS WE EXPLORE THE BEEF INDUSTRY FROM PASTURE TO PLATE!
COST: $325/PERSON
FORM & FEE DUE MAY 1, 2018
Join us on a 3-day, 2-night tour of the beef cattle industry across Georgia, 
Florida and Alabama! This tour is a true “pasture to plate” experience as it starts off with a tour of Golden State Foods in Opelika where McDonalds burger patties are produced followed by a stop at Buckhead Beef in Atlanta, Georgia where wholesale beef cuts are further processed into cut steaks ready for the restaurant.
After learning what happens to beef once it leaves the farm, we’ll stop for a visit at the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association and then tour Chatel Farms, an FPL feeding facility, in Reidsville, Georgia. We will then head south to tour the Georgia Museum of Agriculture & Historic Village at ABAC, wake up to tour the North Florida Research & Education Center and round out the tour at Southern Cattle Company in Marianna, Florida.
BUS TOUR AGENDA
For more information, contact Michael Agar at (334) 265-1867 or magar@bamabeef.org.