PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE by Randell Major NMCGA President
Randell Major President Magdalena Loren Patterson, President-Elect Corona Dustin Johnson NW Vice President Farmington Cliff Copeland NE Vice President Nara Visa Jeff Decker SE Vice President Lovington Roy Farr Vice President at Large Datil Shacey Sullivan Secretary/Treasurer Peralta Tom Sidwell Immediate Past President Quay Pat Boone Past President Elida
Dear Producers, and All,
T
his year’s NMCGA Joint Stockmans’ will be live virtual meetings. Jonas, Michelle, and Taylor have been doing a great job getting this planned and organized. The planning of such an event is everything but routine. This year’s convention adds new brainstorming simply because this will be our first virtual convention in our 106 years of existence. Our guest speakers will be Randy Blach the CEO of Cattle Fax, Marty Smith President of NCBA, Corbitt Wall of National Beef wire, and Jim Richards with Cornerstone Government on Political Outlook just to name a few. NMCGA will be sending out the registration forms, so be watching for it. Sam Smallidge from the Range Improvement Task Force and Nick Ashcroft Nat’l Res Policy/ Plan Analyst, Sr., emailed out a survey that is collecting facts and data about the wolves and your operation. It is important to fill the survey out. The data will be important to show the changes if or when the wolf arrives at your operation. The survey will help expose increased costs of operation and other damages that producers face. One thing we can count on is that the US Fish and Wildlife Service will be looking to expand the wolf population. This information will be vital when presenting to decision makers or for any other legal matters. Recently the NM Court of Appeals concluded that theft of cattle, be it 1 or 100 head, are potentially only exposed to a single felony count for the heist. NMCGA has signed on to the New Mexico Livestock Board’s amicus brief to educate the New Mexico Supreme Court about the livestock industry and explain why the Court of Appeals came to the wrong conclusion in their legal analysis. When stealing livestock, it should be one felony per every head of livestock stolen. Criminalizing cattle rustling is an important deterrent to protect property interests in livestock and the industry. NMCGA recently submitted comments that we do not support USDA’s mandated proposal to transition to Radio Frequency Identification Tags as the official identification tags for all currently covered cattle and bison moving interstate. Concerns are RFID tags can easily be removed to evade being identified, fined, and prosecuted for animal diseases or other forms of wrongful acts. The high cost to implement and maintain an RFID system will be passed on to the producer. Other concerns are privacy and hacking of data and New Mexico remaining a brand state. This year has been especially challenging. Issues that affect our cattle producers and feeders are still out there. NMCGA continues to advance and protect the cattle industry of New Mexico. Your continued support of this association is needed and greatly appreciated. There will be several opportunities to support the association during the Joint Stockman such as the sponsorships, on-line auction, and raffles, just to mention a few. Please contact the office if you have any questions. I hope everyone is having a great Fall, and I look forward to seeing you all at this year’s Joint Stockman. Until next time,
Randell Major
10
NOVEMBER 2020
