Tuesday's Convention Adventures

I am supposed to be on vacation from my farm, right?  My brain doesn't think so, it won't let me sleep in! Yesterday that was a good thing!  Tuesday was Cattlemen's College and I had a fun filled day of learning ahead of me...on no sleep.   
The opening session was due to start at seven, but in this huge hotel I had to leave the room at six-thirty.  I got to the session in enough time to score a front section seat where I could see the speaker, Bob Langhert- VP for McDonalds Sustainability.    He gave a talk that was interesting.  Some points I took away were that BEEF producers and McDonalds have common ground. We are both criticized by the public and we both have a strong commitment to BEEF.  After the talk, the audience was allowed to send in questions via text or note card.
Two that struck me were:
Q- Do you think consumers will pay more for a sustainable labeled product?
Basically Mr. Langhert's answer was that Yes, some might do that a little now but that he thinks consumers will be more willing to do so in the future.
Q- Is there a risk of too much transparency?
The answer to that was that if we DON'T share our stories, consumers that are directly involved in animal agriculture will loose our trust.

Bon Langhert speaking to CattleWomen and Men from across the world.

   After our opening session, we split up into smaller ones.  I made my way to "What Are Consumers Saying About Beef" by Molly McAdams from TX. She started the talk off with "Consumers want value."  She then went into how the demographic of families are changing. "Our consumers look a lot more like Modern Family."  Once we understood that the world is changing,  we moved onto the topic of  branding.  We talked about value-added trends like: low or reduced sodium, premium ground BEEF, and clean labels.  During the slide presentation there was a picture of  packaging with the words "Beef raised with No Hormones, No Antibiotics. Vegetarian Fed...Always."  It got a ton of laughs because cattle spend the majority of their lives eating grasses and forages on the family farm and even if they continue on to a feedlot they are put on seed (Vegetarian) rations.  After the slide show Ms. McAdams had an exciting exercise planned for us to learn about  the importance of telling OUR BEEF STORY.  My group had to sell a video game designed to teach kids about farming and ranching safety.  We had to make the story appealing to the mother in the family. Women are the primary consumers and decision makers when it comes to family spending.  It is important that we remember who is primarily cooking and buying the meals (the Beef) we are marketing when telling our story.  We called our video game the OK Corral!   Ms. McAdams was an excellent speaker and I really enjoyed her presentation!



  The next session was bound to be entertaining. It was labeled "Stop the Fighting on the Way to the Funeral Home" by Jolene Brown.  The talk was basically about how to run a family business and how to prepare for transitioning into a new generation on your farm.  "Are you a family-first business or a business-first family", she asked us? Treat farming as a business she preached.  I enjoyed her talk because I am involved in family agriculture businesses on both sides of my family and the transition from generation to generation is sometimes difficult.


  Before lunch I attended this session "What were the Smartest Things Our Families Did to Maintain Ranch Profitability, and Sustainability, and Family Value."  I noticed one recurring theme over and over again in all of my sessions today and that was that BEEF farming is a family affair. I certainly know this to be true but sometimes consumers have a different picture in their minds.  They see factories and I know the truth is the exact opposite.  J.K. "Rooter" Brite, TX;  Jim Hagenbarth, MT;  Johnny Harris, GA, were our speakers and they layed it out as a Q&A session.  Their opening statements were all about family.  I got a lot from their talk but more like life lessons and do and do nots!  A lot of wisdom in this group!  One of my favorite take aways from this session is don't retire.  J.K. "Rooter" Brite said, "I see people doing it, and they die"   I laughed because who would want to retire from farming anyway!!

 

Food, Food, Food!  The Cattlemen's College lunch was sponsored by Certified Angus Beef it was down right scrumptious.




 During lunch, I went to the room until it was time for the opening session for the convention. It was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim VetMedica, Inc.  We had the pleasure of hearing keynote speaker Captain Phillips, seeing the Peterson Brothers preform, and hearing the winner of the national anthem contest sing  She was from a  KS native, and happened to be just twelve years old!  It was fantastic! We heard from Weldon Wynn, chair of Cattlemen's Beef Board; Scott George, NCBA President; and Barbra Jackson, ANCW President.








After the opening general session ...the tradeshow opened and we were treated to drinks, food and local Tennessee treats!  Mom and I were worn out but we still had a little room for some dessert at Jack Daniel's in the hotel.

Montana Stockgrower girls and me!

Weldon Wynn, Chair of Cattlemen's Beef Board!

It was great to see Kim Rounds, CSU student from California!
 Former Beef Ambassador Team Member!



Dessert at Jack Daniels

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