Family Business…

Loren Patterson President Corona

Bronson Corn President-Elect Roswell

Dave Kenneke NW Vice President Cimarron

Cliff Copeland NE Vice President Nara Visa

Jeff Decker SE Vice President Lovington

Roy Farr SW Vice President Datil

Joe Culbertson Vice

President at Large

Amistad

Shacey Sullivan Secretary / Treasurer Peralta

Randell Major Immediate Past President Magadalena

Tom Sidwell Past

President Quay

Those two words are easy to say together but hard to live-up to. Every single pressure a normal business experiences exists from the ups and downs of markets, asset management, debt levels and inflation. Then we add all the personality and emotional dynamics that exist in a modern family and try to build a future together.

Yet, 96 percent of New Mexico Agriculture operations are Family Businesses. How are we doing? I’m not very sure. I have had situations in my own family business that didn’t end completely successful. Although the business aspect has continued to grow and prosper, the family situation became strained.

Experience tells me that keeping those words together successfully requires splitting them apart for practical management. One of the biggest problems I experienced was that we had no long term business goals, there was not a clear and open sharing of the finances and big money decisions were sometimes made without the knowledge of others. On the other side, family dynamics were not static.

People got older and personal goals changed, new family members came in without being made relevant to business goals and responsibilities were not made clear. We are in the midst of graduation, wedding, tax, irrigating, calving and branding seasons. All of these make our lives so busy that we kick things to the back burner. I’m no different.

If you are involved in a “Family Business” I challenge you to spend some serious time looking at the foundation you are building. Making a family business pass to the next generation requires serious attention. I plan on examining our family business over the next few months and breaking it up into sections, one month I’m focusing on life insurance, one month I’m focusing on establishing a trust, savings and rainy day funds the next month, etc.

My goal is to make it a priority every month to address an aspect of the business so that should something happen to me or we bring new members into the business, family and the business can still prosper.

Why take a month to address each aspect? These aren’t always easy subjects and they require each family members’ input. What has always been apparent in our industry is that those families that have successful businesses together are usually very strong, close-knit families. Good luck to those who take on the challenge!

I was so excited to see all the members and friends up at Cimarron for the Northeast Regional Meeting. What great speakers and participation. Having Philmont host the meeting made a great day filled with history of our industry.

Special thanks go to Vice-Presidents Cliff Copeland and Dave Kenneke for organizing the meeting. Special thanks goes to all our sponsors and the New Mexico Beef Council.

We were also able to present the Torch Award to Linda Davis. She has been an inspiration to generations of New Mexico Agriculturists and a shining example of the possibilities of what a multigenerational family in our business can accomplish. Thank you Linda for your words and dedication!

Hope to see everyone in Ruidoso! Pray your neighbor gets rain!

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Loren Patterson

Just

by Caren Cowan, Publisher New Mexico Stockman

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal & Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) has just closed yet another comment period on electronic identification eartags as official identification in cattle and bison. Although the Federal Register notice was nearly eight pages long, the issue at hand was sexually active cattle over the age of 18 months. This applies primarily to dairies that are already using electronic identification.

There were nearly four pages of self-justification for the regulatory process. One of the most disturbing comments made by USDA was their reliance on organizations providing “significant and ongoing input on the animal disease traceability program.

It should be noted that there are 700,000 cattle operations in the US; the three national cattle organizations represent much fewer than 70,000 of those cattlemen and women. How can the federal government implement a program with the reach and the cost of traceability with input from less than 10 percent of those impacted?

An additional concern is the fact that neither USDA nor the largest of those organizations make any connection between the open Mexican border and the free flow of humans, livestock and wildlife and the threat of catastrophic livestock disease outbreak.

An unfortunate Fox News interview with a newly elected volunteer leader of the largest of the three organizations tripped a switch with ranchers who live and work under the constant threat of the border invasion. The concern about the potential ramifications of that interview led to a meeting of the minds of cattlemen from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in mid-April on traceability. Some were for, some were against.

The meeting surfaced many interesting thoughts. The largest concern of ranchers is not the traceability, but of who holds the database. There was no dissension on the fact that the program must be voluntary.

Other concerns included the liability attached to animal identification and the fear of market manipulation if the database is held in government hands. It is clearly understood that in the event of a disease outbreak, there needs to be access to specific