Wednesday, June 22, 2016

What's Going On Wednesday: June 22, 2016

It's officially summertime in Alabama. 
Even though it's felt like it for two months now, the pop-up thunderstorms, high humidity and ridiculous heat indexes have verified its arrival. We hope our cattlemen are staying cool out in the hay fields and while keeping up with everyday tasks on the farm. We urge you to remember to dangers of the Sun and high heat, so don't push it out there! Grad your cowboy hat, water cooler and take a quick breather while you find out what's going on this week at the ACA. 


Executive Committee and ACF Joint Meeting

Tuesday was an eventful day for the ACA staff, Executive Committee and Alabama Cattlemen's Foundation board as they met to discuss ACA/ACF programs Tuesday. The group gathered at Sysco Central Alabama located in Calera to meet, learn and enjoy a delicious, beefy meal prepared by Sysco's Chef James.

While at Sysco, the group of 18 ACA leaders toured the loading docks and were floored at the organization of a distribution system that is firmly dedicated to three major branches of food safety- traceability, sustainability and cold storage integrity. A system of codes and wearable technology used by Sysco ensures proper handling to guarantee safe, quality food upon delivery. As cattlemen, we appreciate the highest level of integrity used in handling our prized product. Thanks, Sysco! 

This was an important meeting as the group disucussed a few major topics relating to the ACA and ACF. The discussion points of the day were:
  • Alabama Cattlemen's Foundation scholarships
  • Cowboy Tag Sales
  • Increasing AJCA Chapters in the state
  • How to Increase Private Treaty Sale Checkoff payment
  • and Membership, including the new Associate Membership
Good discussion and brainstorming will leave the ACA staff busy as we begin to take that feedback and develop programs of work. Some of those new programs of work will be announced at the August Board Meeting. 


Alabama Cattlemen's Foundation Scholarships 

One of the topics was scholarships at yesterday's meeting, and the ACF Board is proud to announce the creation of three new scholarships for the upcoming school year. Stay tuned for more information! 

The ACF Board also reflected over the past 20 years of scholarship funding by Cowboy Tag sales and voted to honor two men who helped get this tradition started. The ACF Board is pleased to say that at the 2017 Scholarship Banquet, two "Tagged for Greatness" scholarships will be given under the names of Representative Curtis Smith (Colbert County) and Senator Bobby Denton (Chilton County), the Alabama leaders who were instrumental in getting the Cowboy Tag passed into law, in appreciation of their service. 

Be on the lookout for scholarship applications to come out in October! 


AJCA Round-Up

The 10th annual AJCA Round-Up will be here before you know it! Just think, one month from today, we'll all be enjoying the events and contests at Garrett Coliseum. 

All the information you need for this year's show is available on our website, including links to registration! Don't forget, you must be a paid AJCA member in order to compete in the Round-Up. Join Today

Learn more, sign up and get ready for the 10th annual AJCA Round-Up to be held July 21-24 at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery. We can't wait to see all our favorite Juniors, and they'll want to be there because Round-Up Coordinator Madison Tew has ordered some amazing prizes and it working daily on all the details associated with this year's show! 


BamaBeef.org - Under Construction!

The new BamaBeef.org is OFFICIALLY under construction with a completion date set for August 11. 



Get excited as this new streamlined website will offer all the user-friendly functions of a modern site with a good, old-fashioned look! The plan is for it to become your #1 resource to anything related to Alabama's Beef Cattle Industry. 
While ACA's newest webmaster Kayla Greer has been busy in online training and generating the website's content, the website design team has been working on completing the overall look of the site. We are excited to see what they've come up with as we are expecting those to hit our inbox any second. Stay tuned as training continues and we get closer to our launch date! 




Western Supermarket Meets the Beef Girl

On Thursday, ACA's Erin Beasley will be judging all seven of the Western Supermarkets stores in the Birmingham area for a current summer grilling promotion. Each store will be judged on decoration, meat case display and safety/cleanliness in the cutting room. At the end of the promotion, tonnage increase for each store will be factored into the overall winner of the promotion.


The MOOseum


The MOOseum is buzzing with activity from summer camps and day cares! We've got groups coming by to learn and play daily. 



Learn about beef cattle, sit on saddles, play in Cowboy Slim's kitchen and dress up like a rough-and-tumble cowboy for the afternoon. 

Book a tour for groups or just walk on in for individual families. We are located at 201 S. Bainbridge Street Montgomery, AL 36104. Got questions? Call 265-1867 or email Jessica.

Speaking of The MOOseum, big plans are in the works for renovation, and we mean it! Dr. Billy Powell, Erin Beasley and Kayla Greer are working this week to make renovation plans and edits. Get ready for the same, great children's center with a fresh face! 



Membership Report


The membership number of the day is 11,052 members of the ACA! We reached 11,000, and plans for 2017 Membership promotion were discussed at Tuesday's Executive Committee meeting. These plans included county officer training from the state staff at regional meetings to be held in the fall, so wait to hear more from that! We're here to help. Call us if you need anything! 

Also, Don't forget our John Deere Gator drawing sponsored by John Deere, SunSouth, Tri-Green Equipment and Snead Ag. For every new member you recruit, your name and the new member's name will go in the drawing. ACA members also have the opportunity to purchase more chances to win by calling ACA at 334-265-1867.



Junior Beef Expo

Thursday will bring a meeting to finalize plans for the 2017 Junior Beef Expo. Attending this meeting will be represenatives from the Southeastern Livestock Exposition, the Alabama Farmers Federation, Alabama FFA and Auburn University. 

Stay tuned and get excited for next year's state show! 


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