The-Ledger-Spring2018

ABERDEEN  SPRING REGIONAL NEWS

Eastern Aberdeen Association BY DUSTIN BENDER, SECRETARY

Eagles kept working through all their obstacles this season and “moving forward.”  I think that is symbolic of our plight here in the Aber deen breed and what we need to do – keep moving for ward, keep working, keep getting better. Whether it is our AAA Board of Directors, regional associations or, more im portant, ourselves as breeders, we can look back and dwell in the moment or we can move forward. We can help each other and all gain as individuals; it’s a proven theory. That is what we in the Midwest are determined to do – get better at every level and move forward together as teammates in our own Super Bowl – the success of the Aberdeen breed. Our directory has distributed more than 450 copies to every individual breeder registered in our Midwest foot print or to the general public as they were put out at the Iowa State Fair, World Beef Expo, American Royal and Iowa Beef Expo. This has allowed us to get exposure and spread our message to people in our region about what Aberdeen cattle can do. It’s the most effective advertising and exposure your operation can get for the money.  We will be doing this again and will be releasing the directory on May 1 to distribute it in time for the summer breeding season. In mid-March we will let you know how to advertise. If you are inside our region or operate outside of the Midwest and would like to advertise in the Midwest regional directory, please contact Chance at thebrandlive stock@gmail.com . We are also in the process of redoing our website to make it a more professional and customer-friendly experi ence. We will promote it on Facebook when it is finished. Finally, we established a goal this year to begin build ing a network so our MAA members can get their animals to a feeder to feed them out and then process them for sale in a retail market. This is something we feel can be a valuable benefit to our members, which will hopefully trig ger a greater interest in our breeding animals among the commercial cattlemen in our region. To start we need to collect data from our members. Like someone once told me, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” The statement is really accurate; without data we would be foolish to ap proach the feeder and retail end. Be on the lookout for us this spring as we gather data from our members. If you are interested in joining the MAA, please contact Chance at thebrandlivestock@gmail.com and come be a part of the MAA’s 2018 calving season and this year’s new beginning! Southern Aberdeen Breeders Association BY BILL CABANISS, PRESIDENT Spring is close by. Hopefully everyone has had some fall calves and is anticipating new spring arrivals. I thought I might talk about a subject that seems to be confusing many of our new members – registering cattle. Unless other arrangements are made, when you purchase a reg istered animal, the seller will generally transfer the owner ship to the purchaser. This eliminates the purchaser from having to do anything other than furnish the seller with the name and address he/she wants shown as the animal’s new owner. Problems generally arise when it comes to registering previously unregistered animals such as calf-at side and calves born following the purchase of a cow. The first thing to do is to go to the Registering Cattle

The National American Aberdeen Show and Sale, as well as the annual meeting during the National Western Stock Show have come and gone, and the Eastern Region was lucky to have one of its members elected to the American Aberdeen Association (AAA) Board of Directors. I would like to thank all of the out-going Board members and wel come all the new Board members. If you’re not aware, Rob Fanning of Kentucky was elected to the AAA Board. Rob and his wife, Heather, have been active in the breed as well as the Eastern Region for many years. We are happy to have a voice from our region on the national Board. Whether you calve in the spring or fall, one of the most important features on your farm should be a pad of paper and a pen – yes, the forgotten art of record keeping. We commit things to memory only to try to remember them two weeks or a month later. Why do we do this to our selves? We are setting ourselves up for failure. Birth dates, birth weights, calving scores, how long it took to nurse, weaning dates, weaning weights, hip heights, docility, ud der scores, scrotal circumferences – each of these num bers and dates are things we will need for our future. The next step is just as important, and I am as guilty as the next person. I diligently take notes all the time, but without organization, these notes end up in a pile. I was talking with a friend and he asked when we were starting to calve. I said thankfully, with the cold and windy weath er, not for another three weeks. The next morning I walked out to a baby calf looking at me through the gate. Her ears were frozen more than half way down and she had a dry nose and cold mouth. With some time in the house, she is doing well now. But this was a situation that could have been prevented. Sure enough, after digging out the notes, she was born right on the AI breeding date. The bottom line is find a record-keeping method that is easy and works for your operation, and be diligent. It’s always better to use records to make educated decisions than to run your operation on guts and guesses. Visit www.easternlowline.com for more updates! And join the conversation with us on The Official Eastern Aber deen Association (EAA) group on Facebook. Spring is in the air and, for many, calving season is un derway. It’s the resetting and starting-over point for a lot of us as our herd starts creating the next generation, a new beginning! Members of the Midwest Aberdeen Associa tion (MAA) are doing the same and, just like during calving season, there is reason for excitement and hope. The excitement to continue to build on the success that was created from last year and hope that some of the things that didn’t work very well get better. I didn’t have a dog in the super bowl fight, but I enjoyed the game and really en joyed Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce’s comments. I encourage you to watch it, if you haven’t, by searching Jason Kelce on Google. His comments were very inspira tional and were about starting off working at something, for him, as an un-recruited football walk-on at the Univer sity of Cincinnati. At every step he worked hard, and the Midwest Aberdeen Association BY TODD BOHLMEYER, BOARD MEMBER

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