Welcome to the new Cattle Call Blog!!  First, I want to introduce myself to you and give you my background and a little idea of the topics I will be discussing in the future in the Young Producers Council.  I am Travis Reid, and I am a small 30 head Angus seedstock producer, nestled on 200 acres into the middle of South Central Pennsylvania near York, PA, halfway between Harrisburg, PA and Baltimore, MD.

I am sure several of you are asking, really?  They have cows there?  We sure do, and Agriculture is still the number one industry in Pennsylvania.  In fact, I am situated in the "Snack Food Capital of the World."  More on this later.  My family first settled and established our farm in 1852, all the way from Hanover, Germany.  I am the 6th generation and we began our roots in crops, beef and dairy cattle, and also poultry.  My descendents were one of the only few egg producers for the town of York (Our Nation's First Capital) through and after the Great Depression in the 1930s.  Later we decided to sell the milk cows and layers, and worked stocker cattle and cow/calf operations.  Later, after I graduated from college at the University of Delaware, I started building a very good Angus seedstock operation which I continue today.

After my undergraduate studies in Animal Science-Pre-Vet, I always got the question, Are you going to be a Vet?  Of course I did not want to pursue that route, and then I worked with a few companies in Animal Nutrition, Transportation, and more Seedstock experience.  I even started my own beef cattle carcass ultrasound business until I transitioned into more education.  I started my MBA (Master's in Business Administration) in 2006 with Delaware Valley College with a focus in Food and Agribusiness and just recently finished.  Even though I haven't finished NCBA's MBA, I don't want you to get confused with the one I have.

Now, I am a Secondary Agriculture, Business, and Science educator here in South Central Pennsylvania.  I have always had a passion for providing my experiences with others, and now I can do it as a career but with haymaking, breeding cows, etc, its a year round job!  Food and fiber literacy is very important to me, and it is one of the things young producers need to talk about and get the word out about where our food comes from.  Other topics I will discuss is how the economics fit into our cattle operations and what are businesses doing, or not doing to help beef demand.  I have been involved with international markets and the global supply chain in the past few years, and there is always a good topic to discuss pertaining directly to our bottom lines.  I have been to New Zealand and I have a true passion for everything that is beyond our borders.  I enjoy traveling when I can and hopefully I can bring you a little insight on the beef industry around the world.

I look forward to communicating with all of you about a few of these things and how we do things in the northeast.  Thanks for your time.