THA Annual Meeting

The THA Annual meeting on Friday evening was a time of fellowship, information and good food! The group even got to sing Happy Birthday to Bobby Singleton. The meal was excel- lent, featuring Certified Hereford Beef prepared by the Trousdale County Cattlemen’s Association. The Stan East family of Rogersville, Tennessee. was recognized as the family of the year. The East’s will be highlighted in our Summer THA Newslet- ter.

The East Family, 2020 THA Family of the Year: pictured from left to right: Stan Webster, Stan East, Mai Massengille, Con- nie East, Margaret and Beau Massengille

Bobby Singleton gave a sale update. He was excit- ed about the increased use of social media for this year’s sale. He reminded everyone that marketing is a must to sale our cattle. He pointed out that social media is free and we need to take advantage of it.

Jeremiah Malone and Richard Brown of TLP spoke with the group about the Hereford Influence Feeder Calf Sale. The decision to move the tim- ing of the fall sale and the additional advertising produced great returns. The 2019 fall sale had a record number of calves. The group sold well above market average. Mr. Brown encouraged Hereford breeders to continue offering input and sugges- tions to improve the sale. Jeremiah encouraged the group to support the sale, stating that this is our best tool not only to market our feeder calves, but to improve the demand for Hereford bulls.

Joyce Ashe, President of the Hereford Women of Tennessee, encouraged all of the women to join the association and help support our juniors. The Her- eford Women help sponsor the Tennessee Hereford Queen program and funds a $500 scholarship for a Tennessee Junior each year, Mrs. Ashe then intro- duced Libby Rushton, the 2019 Tennessee Hereford Queen and Hereford Women scholarship recipient. Miss Rushton expressed her gratitude to the group for their support and encouraged other young ladies in the junior association to take advantage of the queen program. She highlighted her experienc- es and memories of serving as an advocate for the beef and Hereford industries. One of her favorite parts of being Queen was to be the “smiling face” that offered encouragement to junior members at shows and other junior functions.

Libby is also the President of the Tennessee Junior Hereford Association. She spoke about the success the TJHA had enjoyed at the past Junior National. She encouraged the juniors to participate in the upcoming Southeast Regional show this June in Fletcher, North Carolina and the Hereford Junior National that will be held in Louisville, Kentucky this July.

Tommy Coley, our AHA Hereford field represen- tative, delivered association updates. He informed the group that new EPDs were being developed for traits such as hair-shedding. He also mentioned a new feeder calf marketing opportunity that is avail- able through a new partnership with Nolan Stone. This will allow producers to market full loads of calves directly from the farm.

The evening concluded with the election of four directors. Russell Crouch of McMinnville, was elected to serve the remainder of David Parker’s term. Jeremiah Malone, Lawrenceburg, Stan Web- ster, Chestnut Mound, and Sally Wingler, Chris- tiana, were re-elected to serve three year terms as directors. Jeremiah Malone of Lawrenceburg will continue to serve as your THA President and Mike Rogan of Rogersville will be your Vice President.

2020 THA Board Members: Dakota Brasher, Zachary Hopkins, Jim Coley, Bob Coley, Sally Wingler, Gary Preston, Julie Chapin, Mike Rogan, Jeremiah Malone, Stan Webster, Russell Crouch, and Kathryn Ingram