Prime_Time_summer_2019

Speaker Line Up American Akaushi Association 8 th Annual Convention

W e’re excited to welcome several outstanding speakers to AAA’s 8 th Annual Convention. Join your fellow American Akaushi breeders to hear what these leading beef industry profession- als have to say during convention events on Saturday, Oct. 12. Morning General Session Danielle Beck, senior director of government affairs, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Meat substitutes have been around for decades as an option for consumers who didn’t want to eat animal protein. Histori- cally, none of these proteins have been able to replace animal proteins on consumers’ plates. As the topic of alternative proteins continues to capture both consumer and media interest, join us as Beck provides the latest look at how the beef industry is actively maintaining our place as the No. 1 protein and an overview of the regulatory environment surrounding this topic. Chance Farmer, Ph.D., beef technical manager, Micronutrients Can you affect the lifetime health and per- formance, and therefore, production of your herd by taking better care of animals before they are even born? Yes, you can. Do your cows really ever have a day off? No, they do not. Should you let your cows’ body condi- tion and nutrient status slip for an extended period? No! If you are not treating your cows like productive employees, you are mismanag- ing your herd. Employees need the right amount of resources to do their job cor- rectly. A cow’s job is producing productive offspring. It is not their fault if cows do not have the right resources to produce. Just like any other business, if you neglect your employees by not providing the resources they need to do their job, it does not pay. This is long-term thinking.

There is something to be said for good, old-fashioned animal husbandry. More im- portant, there is scientific justification for well-conditioned beef cows that have their nutritional requirements addressed. If you forget about the next calf crop because they are still in the mother’s womb, you may regret it. Life begins at conception, not at birth. Not paying attention to your pregnant cows can have a negative effect on produc- tion for years to come. This is long-term thinking. Join Farmer as he discusses the importance of fetal programming. Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs, National Cattlemen's Beef Association The decisions made in Washington, D.C., continue to have an impact on our industry’s bottom line. Leading that list of decisions is the importance of trade. From tariffs, retal- iatory tariffs and the threat of tariffs, we’ve seen a sizable shift in the way the trade game is played, but our ability to adapt to the changing landscape has allowed us to engage on trade deals with Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and oth- ers. The push is always to take down trade barriers in order to get our high-quality beef to customers around the world. The way the game is played in D.C. has changed on many levels. We have taken a combative relationship with the Environ- mental Protection Agency (EPA) and turned it into one where EPA turns to us for input on decisions they make because they don’t want to harm cattle producers. This has led to several environmental victories for us. Environmental activism has taken on a new leader in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal. The Green New Deal, however, has provided an opportunity for us to showcase the environmental ben- efits cattle production provides and shows that we are part of the solution, not part of the problem. Hear from Woodall as he 

Akaushi Prime Time • Summer 2019

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