The Sun Sets ON CCA MIDYEAR MEETING IN RANCHO MURIETA
by CCA Director of Communications Katie Roberti For the first time since 2019, the CCA & CCW Midyear Meeting was back at the Murieta Inn and Spa in Rancho Murieta at the end of June. Outside of CCA’s Annual Convention held at the end of each year, the Midyear Meeting is one of the best opportunities for members to come together to discuss current cattle industry issues with fellow producers and hear from industry leaders, agencies and affiliate organizations. It is a critical time for members, the voices of the Association, to determine the organization’s direction and influence the future of ranching in California. This year’s Midyear once again met those needs for CCA. “As always Midyear serves our membership well as it is an excellent opportunity not only to get ‘the family’ together, but to make sure we are hearing from our membership on issues that are important to them, and getting ideas for policy development and how we move our organization forward,” CCA President Tony Toso, Hornitos, said. California’s wildfire crisis and solutions to mitigate it were heavily discussed throughout the event. On Wednesday, Anthony Stornetta, Division Chief-Operations with Santa Barbara County Fire Department and CCA Fire Subcommittee Chair, gathered the Subcommittee to continue working on those efforts. Discussions on wildfire continued in the Property Rights and Environmental Management Committee Meeting on Thursday as Len Nielson, staff chief for prescribed fire and environmental protection with Cal Fire provided an update. Specifically, Nielson presented the “Strategic Plan for Beneficial Fire Prescribed Fire planning and process State Certified Burn Boss Liability.” Unsurprisingly, a whole host of questions were asked by members during the presentation. Nielson engaged with attendees and answered the questions throughout his allotted time. Although the policy meeting went longer than scheduled, the discussion could have carried on even further and parts of the presentation weren’t able to be addressed due to time constraints. 68 California Cattleman July • August 2022
To hear about some of the subjects Nielson presented on, listen to season 2, episode 14 of Sorting Pen: The California Cattleman Podcast. Stornetta co-hosts this episode with CCA Director of Communications Katie Roberti as Nielson sits down with the two for an update. In the conversation, hear about the role ranchers and prescribed burn associations have in helping the state reach its goals for prescribed fire, available grants and partnerships for those who want to participate, the 2022 Prescribed Fire Strategic Plan and more. In addition to wildfire, the 2023 Farm Bill and federal transportation issues being worked on currently in Washington, D.C. were discussed during the Ag Policy, Marketing, Tax and Credit Committee Meeting. Allison Rivera, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s (NCBA) Executive Director of Government Affairs, virtually joined the meeting to share on those issues and take questions on both subjects. Also participating in the Midyear Meeting virtually from Washington, D.C., was Kaitlyn Glover, the executive director of the Public Lands & NCBA’s Natural Resources. Glover spoke in the Federal Lands Committee Meeting on the federal legislative and regulatory issues the Public Lands Council is currently tackling on behalf of cattle ranchers. CattleFax General Manager Duane Lenz made the trip to Rancho Murieta to provide an outlook on the industry and discuss accessing and using federal reports and other available data to make informed marketing decisions. The presentation from Lenz was the first workshop in a new workshop series on cattle markets made possible through a grant provided to the California Cattlemen’s Foundation by Western Extension Risk Management Education and the USDA National Food Institute of Food and Agriculture. Lenz additionally spoke to CCA’s Leadership Series at the meeting. Although Lenz has been coming to CCA events to present the CattleFax Outlook for decades, this year’s Midyear was unique, as it marked Lenz’s final event with CCA as he is retiring soon. You can learn more about
