Red Angus Association Collegiate Scholarship Winners Named

Red Angus Essential to Scholarship Winners’ Futures

The RAAA junior activities committee is pleased to name each of the following five JRA members as a recipient of the Red Angus Association of America’s $1,000 college scholarship.

Each applicant is asked to describe the key challenges facing the beef industry in the next five years, the role of Red Angus in addressing those challenges and how those challenges impact their career path. You can read each recipient’s response in the following pages.

Natalie Evans — Jacksonville, Illinois

Natalie Evans is the daughter of Sean and Amy Evans. She and her family run a commercial and registered cattle operation called Coal Creek Cattle Co.

A recent graudate of Routt Catholic High School, she was a part of sideline cheerleading, the varsity track team, student council, NEHS, NHS, service club and ambassador club.

Outside of school, she was involved in 4-H where she has held the positions of president, vice president and secretary of her club. Being involved in the Red Angus breed and the beef industry has encouraged her to pursue a degree in pre-veterinary medicine with the intention of going on to veterinary school. She also has the strong ambition to continue her family’s operation, alongside her two siblings.

The biggest challenge facing the beef industry in the coming years lies in social media and fighting against the deception that is continuously spreading across the world about the beef industry. The internet and social media can be your best friend, but it also can be your biggest nightmare. A lot of misinformation triggers fear and anger inside the average consumer. It’s the mission of upcoming generations to use technology and power to properly educate our consumers.

Another challenge the beef industry faces is the unproper labeling food companies place on their products for marketing. For example, when a company labels beef products as “antibiotic- or hormone-free,” we producers know that all meat going into the grocery is antibiotic- and hormone-free. Yet, the average consumer does not know any different because they fall into the trap of illusive marketing.

Red Angus, as a breed, has done a great job reaching producers through social media and other marketing

tactics such the Red Angus Magazine. While these efforts are important to the producer, the breed also needs to make moves to educate our consumers. To reach them, the association itself can advocate for the industry through social media, but the biggest impact is going to be made at the producer level.

In a producer’s hometown, there are several ways to advocate for our breed and the industry. Placing articles in local school bulletins or newspapers, if allowed, can help reach the public and inform consumers. Producers can also post on social media or on blogs and spread the word about the misconceptions of the beef industry. Finally, as a future veterinarian focusing on the beef industry, the one thing I will need is feedlots, operations and cattle to work with. If the demand for beef becomes less significant due to misconceptions, a need for people like me won’t be valued or required. Also, with a promising future for my own operation, I will need beef-consuming customers myself.

Jamie Geyer — Lisbon, North Dakota

Jamie Geyer is the daughter of Wylie and

Sherry Geyer. Jamie graduated from Lisbon

High School in May. She excelled in school by always being on the honor roll. She was involved in many outstanding organizations during high school. She was the local 4-H club treasurer for the past four years. She served the FFA chapter as treasurer for one year and president the past two years.

She is the sixth generation in her family to be involved in the agriculture industry and after graduation from college, plans to go home to the family farm and continue to raise Red Angus cattle.

The beef industry has many road blocks that they push through every year. Most of the challenges are nothing new to ranchers. The challenge I see the beef industry facing in the next five years has been ongoing for many years. For so many years, the big four meat packers have impacted the ranchers, wholesalers and consumers in every state.

The four big meat packers have tried to reduce the number of cattle slaughtered, which has created supply restraints. Reducing the slaughter numbers works to fill the packers’ pockets on both ends. Cattle feeders then have too many cattle to

feed so they must take what they can get when they sell them. So, the packers can charge more to the wholesalers to get the beef they need, and in hand, consumers end up paying more at the grocery store.

These packers control too much of the beef market and something needs to change. The packers have been to court many times, but nothing ever seems to change.

RAAA has come up with a few solutions that I think have really helped the rancher’s bottom line. The Feeder Calf Certification Program and Allied Access have benefitted both purebred and crossbred

cattle producers. The yellow FCCP tags increase the selling price on average to $2.98/cwt. These are both great programs that the Red Angus Association should be proud of.

As I sit and think about going off to attend college and getting my degree in animal science and ag business, it would be easy to walk away from the farm I was raised on and get an 8-5 job in some large city. I just don’t think that is something I could ever do. These packers will continue to be a challenge when I return home to raise Red Angus cattle, but I am not going to let them stop me from following my dream.

Bailey Jean Smith — Shiner, Texas

Bailey Jean Smith is the daughter of Michael and Sarah Smith. As a recent graduate, she was involved in cross country and track. One of her career goals is to write for a nationally renowned agricultural organization. Having been involved with Red Angus for most of her life, writing for a Red Angus-based magazine or other form of media would be a dream come true.

One of the most prominent issues facing the beef industry today is misconception in the media. Why do most people focus and rely on social media when there are other information sources? Many get a sense of community from social media. This, in turn, causes a dependency on that source of belonging, and in many cases, causes social media and the opinions of others to be their only view of the world today.

The reason this happens to be the greatest threat to the beef industry is the fact that the industry’s future lies in these kids’ hands — whether they know it or not. Knowing this, it’s also the duty of the other side of the next generation — youth that defend agriculture and have the education and knowledge to do so —to be an influence for the better.

How? Using what threatens the beef industry as the very tool to spread positive light to the subject. However, for this method to be effective, ag youth must be aware of how others perceive agriculture and its related industries, with an emphasis on the emotions they feel when seeing certain things. The statement of facts is well-intended, but essentially useless when attempting to get a point across to kids. So, anyone wanting to educate others who have not been exposed to the beef industry would have to put themselves in that person’s shoes and try to see what they see to counter it. Given, I want to pursue a career in journalism, this issue would directly affect me in the future, and it would become my responsibility to educate those who didn’t grow up surrounded by ag as I did.

Calley Stubbs — Wallace, Kansas

Calley Stubbs is a fifth generation rancher, and daughter of Becky and Darrell Vandike and Adam and Jill Stubbs.

She recently graduated from Wallace County High School, where she was active in volleyball, basketball, scholar’s bowl, forensics, choir, student council and the National Honor Society.

Calley was first introduced to the Red Angus breed in 2011, when NAJRAE was held in her home state of Kansas. Calley plans on attending Butler Community College where she will study animal science and be a part of the livestock judging team. She plans to become a ruminant nutritionist, where she will create and adjust rations for cattle.

The beef industry has overcome many challenges, but continues to face new threats. A constant threat to the beef industry is consumer misinformation. This has been a problem for years, and it won’t be easy to fix. One step is talking to consumers about what we do and why we do it. Consumers want to know everything about their food. They want to know where it comes from, where it is raised and the impact of raising that product.

We have an audience to explain our way of life to, so let’s take the opportunity. Misinformation runs rampant in society, and agriculture is no exception. In fact, it seems

to be a target. If we reach out to consumers, they can get the correct information right from the source.

The public has been told that agriculture is the main contributor to global warming. We know that this isn’t true, but the consumers don’t. They would rather blame the agriculture industry instead of the transportation and energy industries who are the main sources to blame. Farting cows seem to be the No. 1 enemy to progress against global warming. However, science can’t support that stance. It’s true that cattle produce methane; although greenhouse gases produced by transportation last in the

atmosphere much longer than methane according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Producers need to show how efficient their ranches are. After all, if a ranch uses more resources than necessary, it won’t be profitable. Getting these messages out is vital to stop misinformation. As a producer, we all need to be transparent to the public about our practices.

The Red Angus Association can also help highlight how amazing the beef industry is. They can reach out to larger organizations to help improve the public perception of the cattle industry. Together, we can reduce the misinformation spread about the cattle industry.

Mitchell VanderWal — Brentford, South Dakota

Mitchell VanderWal is the son of Jeff and Beth VanderWal. Mitchell has loved agriculture his whole life. Everything from raising cattle to learning about plants, he has always been eager to learn more.

His education at Northwestern High School of Mellette, South Dakota, taught him to always look up to the next level of progress. This mindset has aided him in building his cattle herd. The marketing knowledge that he learned and acquired during his time at South Dakota State University has taught him how to manage his assets and explore his career aspirations.

Junior Red Angus has taught him life lessons that he will cherish for a lifetime. His communication and herdsmanship skills have benefited tremendously from his Red Angus involvement. With all these skills combined, he will grow his cattle herd and jumpstart his career.

My favorite game to play at my grandma’s house when I was younger was dominoes. I would walk to the game closet, grab the shiny blue box from its shelf and spend the next half hour trying to figure out how I was supposed to play the game with my cousins.

However, most of the time we took it to the kitchen table and set up the dominoes in a line standing on their edge. With one touch of the hand, the dominoes would all fall into each other and tumble forward. However, if one domino was out of place, the chain reaction would stop, and the last domino would not fall.

To me, there is one issue that hangs above all other challenges in the cattle industry. In the world that I live in, it seems there simply are not enough workers to go around. I’m not sure if there is a lack of people, or if people simply lack the skills needed to fulfill the wanted jobs.

Without workers, the processes of our world cannot go on. For

instance, every cattle producer’s end goal is to sell their beef, whether that beef is going to produce cattle for another producer or if the cattle will travel to the packing plant to be harvested and fabricated into meat cuts. The issue is many packing plants lack the labor to harvest these cattle. Without them, cattle prices will waiver and producers may have a product that might lose money.

Thus, I have come up with two solutions that Red Angus can help solve. First, produce cattle that will perform at their best. When labor is short, the producer can still benefit and earn money. Second, educate young people to be successful leaders. With more leaders entering the workforce, people will be more motivated to pursue a career and fill those wanted jobs. Even if these two solutions seem miniscule compared to the big challenge, they could be the first dominoes to set the chain of success in motion.

The committee is also pleased to announce Dalia Weber as the recipient of the $500 Dee Sonstegard Memorial Scholarship.

Dalia Weber — Rock City, Illinois

Dalia Weber is the daughter of Todd and Valerie Weber. Born and raised in Rock City, Illinois, she attends Dakota Jr. Sr. High School and is involved in many activities including varsity girls basketball, football manager and president of the Dakota FFA Chapter.

Red Angus has played a huge role in her life and will continue to as she plans to run for a junior board position and build her industry connections.

The beef industry faces many challenges. One key challenge that stands out to me is the shortage in employees at processing plants and workers on farms. This is leading to prices dropping in the beef industry.

I believe there are ways that the Red Angus Association can help to stop this shortage. One way would be putting out advertisements reaching out to high school and college students to really push the importance of stopping this shortage. The Red Angus Association has the social media platform to reach newer generations and promote these job openings. Another way the Red Angus Association could help stop this shortage could be to partner with some processing plants and offer internships for college students. By doing this we would be getting the new generations involved in the industry and we would be helping them to better understand the importance of filling these positions.

This shortage will impact my career in many ways. If the shortage doesn’t go away, it will give me an opportunity to do my part in trying to stop it. I could use the connections I have made over the years as the beef ambassador and the platform I hope to gain by joining the NAJRAE board to reach out to the younger generations and encourage them to go out and get a job at their local processing plant or to buy their meat from local farmers to help them stay in business.

I believe to fix this shortage, it’s going to take everyone in the industry doing their best to promote beef and the industry every chance they get. We, as an industry, also need to really help the younger generations to better understand what an important role the beef industry plays in the ways of the world.