President’s Perspective

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Thank you, Jerome

By OCA’s President Tom Sharp

First and foremost, as I write this article, today is July 10, and our Executive Director Jerome Rosa is completing his last day with the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and will be traveling to Arizona where he will begin his new employment on July 13, a new chapter in his service to the beef and cattle industry as the Executive Director for the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association.

We will greatly miss Jerome and his tireless, dedicated, and conscientious work efforts and advocacy on behalf of OCA’s membership and Oregon’s statewide beef and cattle industry. Over the last six years, Jerome has served to his fullest capacity while working with OCA past presidents Ray Sessler, John O’Keeffe, Nathan Jackson, and now myself. During this period, he has demonstrated an outstanding performance record of extensive industry knowledge, important legislative accomplishment, difficult issue resolution, and outstanding people and agency relationship skill. Jerome has clearly demonstrated a true passion for our cattle industry which will be difficult to replace.

I visited with Jerome yesterday in OCA’s Salem office, prior to his departure, and asked him for any closing advice or thoughts for our association. He shared the following statements with me:

“OCA should strive to be the

Face of Oregon Agriculture.”

“It is important OCA leadership cares about, understands, and advocates for statewide issues – whether they be sage grouse in the east, tide gates on the coast, or wolves in between.”

I think such advice are excellent “words of wisdom” and important goals for our association to remember. Thank you, Jerome. And best wishes to you and Carole in your transition to Arizona where you can now be close to your Arizona family of children and grandchildren for the great opportunities in life ahead!

OCA’s Communications Director, Robyn Smith, produced an outstanding “OCA Farewell Interview and Highlights Recap” with Jerome which can be viewed on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/xs_-l5BLkqQ.

And secondly, while our country and industry continue to deal with the personal health impacts and severe economic

“It is important OCA maintains a strong presence in our State Capitol.”

“OCA’s membership growth and retention are the biggest issues right now.”

effects caused by the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic, there has been a couple recent industry developments important to note:

During Oregon’s Special three-day Legislative Session adjourned on June 29, HB 4206 received bi-partisan support and was passed by Oregon’s House and Senate and is expected to be signed by Governor Brown. HB 4206 importantly directs Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) to adopt rules establishing a program for state inspection for the processing and sale of meat products. This legislation was requested and successfully added in the special session due to meat shortages and skyrocketing prices affecting the consumer retail markets. This bill was supported by ODA, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, the Oregon Beef Council, and members of Oregon’s federal delegation.

USDA revives mandatory radio tags for cattle. On July 6, the USDA revived and proposed to make RFID tags mandatory effective Jan. 1, 2023, for cattle and bison older than 18 months. The USDA said it would grandfather in metal tags put on cattle and bison before that date.

“Cattlemen want to know who’s going to pay for the electronic system,” said Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Oregon Cattlemen’s Association members may recall that this mandate was originally planned by USDAAPHIS for Animal Disease Traceability (ADT), but then later withdrawn at the end of 2019. Concern about the potential producer impacts of this mandate resulted in the December 2019 formation of OCA’s “RFID Special Committee” led by chairman Jon Elliott to study the USDA RFID proposal and develop an OCA position statement for cattle industry discussion on this subject. Jon has written articles in this magazine earlier this year concerning draft documents for OCA member review and commenting. Those efforts by OCA’s “RFID Special Committee” are important once again as the USDA agency has published within the Federal Register a public commenting period ending on October 5, 2020.

In closing, I hope our summer continues to be relatively mild statewide without severe wildfire impacts and that our cattle can continue their successful land stewardship efforts benefiting needed fuel-load reduction!

Also, SAVE THE DATE for OCA’s PAC Fundraiser on September 24. While we will offer COVID safety precautions, the event is outdoors and should be an excellent opportunity for folks to enjoy a night out and to visit with familiar faces from across the state. •

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