The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a self-declared "sophisticated political organization," submitted a petition to Ohio’s Attorney General this week in support of placing an "anti-cruelty" measure on the statewide November ballot. The proposed measure would allow voters to require the newly created Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to adopt standards that will effectively end livestock production in Ohio by making it economically unfeasible to feed chickens, hogs, or veal calves in the state.

Utilizing a large corps of paid petition circulators, the group will seek to collect more than 600,000 signatures of registered Ohio voters upon approval of the petition forms by the Secretary of State. In doing so, they will attempt to circumvent the will of the Ohio voters in passing the measure to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board last November.

Recently, I spoke to the Five Nations Beef Alliance at their Young Rancher’s Round Table about telling our story to the consumer. The U.S. was represented by NCBA, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Australian Cattle Council represented their respected countries, and delegates from Mexico and South America were also in attendance.

Jill Harvie, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, and I were talking before the event, and both agreed that is seems like at all these conferences and meetings we do a lot of talking. Great ideas are brought to the table, brainstorming happens, we feel empowered, we can change the world, and then we go home. We quickly get caught up in feeding cows, fixing fence or the office job and the ambition is lost.

This time we really wanted to prove that action could be taken. So Jill grabbed her camera, and sent me some footage and this was the result.

Now, I bet you can find a video camera laying around. And you probably know some techy kid, whether it is your son or daughter or the neighbor, that could do some editing. We need to put ourselves out in front of the public. The consumer likely has never seen a cow or a rancher for that matter, but they are curious. If we don’t answer their questions PETA or HSUS will.

So when we get home from NCBA, let’s put these ideas into motion.

I am really starting to think we won the lottery.  What I mean is I have never seen this much snow here.  After our Christmas blizzard, the weather service announced that it was a record amount of snow fall for the month, since records have been kept.  January is about the same so far.  This coming weekend our lows are to be in the negative twenties with a high of five below.  We have 40 mph winds and a few inches of new snow.

I really haven’t thought that much about it until I was contacted to do a press release, detailing what cattlemen are going through right now.  That is when it kinda hit me.  I am not doing any other activities, than taking care of my cattle.  We were going to have Christmas at the farm.  But with the weather no one was getting in or out.  So my wife , and my parents helped me with the shoveling of feed bunks.  After feeding I check the water tanks to make sure they are not frozen and still working.  At that time, I will take a hard look at the cattle, and make sure every one is sound and healthy.  After that round I warm up, eat lunch and More...

Last week I attended GLCI’s conference on grazing lands.  I was one of many presenters; my topic was on management intensive grazing on native meadows in Eastern California and Western Nevada.  I met a lot of people from around the country and am brimming with optimism about the future of cattle and grazing in the United States.  I’m always optimistic to some degree.  I figure there are enough pessimistic people in the cattle world already, I’d rather not be one of them.  One of the things that really caught my attention was Nathan Mudd’s presentation about cattle ranching on the island of Sitkinak in Alaska.

Nathan Mudd owns and runs Alaska Meat Company

 Wild Cattle in Alaska

Nathan Mudd gave his presentation right before I went.  He talked about his family that leases the island of Sitkinak from the state of Alaska.  There are around 650 head of wild cattle on the island, they were introduced a long time ago and turned into a totally wild herd.  To me, it was fascinating to hear what domestic cattle will evolve if they are left to fend for themselves.  The cattle graze the hills in the summer and winter on the beaches.  Like most large prey species, More...

On the heels of last week's ruling by the EPA that greenhouse gases are a hazard to human health and the environment, leaders and policy makers from around the world gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to debate and discuss how they might work together to reduce carbon emissions and the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from various human activities, commerce, and industry.  Setting aside the recent revelations calling into question the validity of the underlying research data supporting the notion of "manmade" climate change, the Copenhagen summit brings one major problem to the forefront: current global climate mitigation efforts are intentionally geared to the detriment of the US farmer.

Several farmer leaders made the trek to Copenhagen to discuss and observe what happened in the various meetings and debates.  Representing grain producers at the summit, Ohio Corn Growers' Association Executive Director Dwayne Siekman reported on the week's events via his blog.  Siekman observed directly the application of my thesis: "From the onset it was obvious... that the participants of [the summit] believe the focus should be on farmers in developing countries that have struggled for decades in producing food and feed and criticizing Western Civilization agriculture for being too productive."  Furthermore, Siekman shared More...

Cattle farm and ranch families around the country are in the midst of a "food fight" this week, a five-day campaign to defend the beef industry against misinformation.  Prodded by numerous instances of blatantly false or unintentionally misleading stories in the mainstream media or around various social media networks online, cattlemen are engaging in one of the most unique and transparent public relations efforts in recent memory.  Speaking to a joint session of the National AgriMarketing Association and National Association of Farm Broadcasting in Kansas City, Missouri last week, Charlie Arnott of the Center For Food Integrity shared that his organization's research found conclusively that consumers have an unprecedented level of trust in farmers, but that at the same time, they don't see many modern production styles and practices as farming.  Putting a "face" on these farm and ranch families is one of the biggest steps needed to combat this basic schism, Arnott explained.

Coincidentally enough, beef backers were already working on the "Food Fight" campaign, rolling it out less than 48 hours after Arnott's presentation in Kansas City.  My colleague Lindsay Hill of ABN Radio, President-Elect of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, caught up with Lucinda Williams, Chairman of the Cattlemen's Beef Board, to discuss the effort.  Williams explains the reasoning behind the effort, and how farmers and ranchers can be involved in the effort this week, and through efforts long after the "food fight" has ended.

LucindaWilliamsCattleman.MP3 (2.62 mb)