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Wolf Reportings

Membership

Buddy Membership

Cattlemens Corral

MFU & MCA Joint Mid-Year Meeting

June 14-15, 2012 – Red Lion Inn, Kalispell

Thursday, June 14, 2012

8:00 – 10:00 AM MFU Board Meeting

10:00 – evening Tours – via chartered bus

- Kalispell Kreamery

- Jess Peterson, U.S. Cattlemen’s, speaks on the bus

LUNCH - MCA Speaker —

- Stoltz Lumber, Forestry Experiment Project, Kalispell

- Aqua Algae, Columbia Falls

DINNER - Dinner in Columbia Falls

- Visit Farmers Market

- Back to Kalispell via bus

Friday, June 15, 2012

8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration

9:00 – 9:15 AM Adam deYong, MT Dept. of Labor

Welcome Remarks

9:15 – 10:00 AM Mark Schiltz, Western Manager, Montana Land Reliance

Farm & Ranch Land Management Planning/Easements

Lindsay Warshaw, Land Link

Beginning Farmer/Rancher Matches: Challenges & Opportunities

10:00 – 11:00 AM Chandler Goule, NFU VP for Government Affairs

Farm Bill Update

11:00 – Noon Bill Patrie, Executive Director, Common Enterprise Development Corp.,

Innovative cooperative businesses

12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch

Tess Brown, RI Farmers Union, Urban farming

1:30 – 2:30 PM Noxious Weeds/Invasive Species of the Region

2:30 – 3:30 PM Bill Patrie, Cooperative Opportunities: Next Steps & Discovering the

Possibilities

Special thanks to Mission Mountain Food Enterprise and Cooperative Development Center, a

division of Lake County Community Development, for speaker sponsorship and coordination

Montana Cattlemen's Association Mission Statement

To actively participate with Montana cattle producers to protect our industry's future.

To address market interests, serve to support Montana's environmental, cultural and historical heritage, and protect the interests of Montana cattle producers in international markets and trade issues.

The Montana Cattlemen's Association shall be true environmentalists in protecting and advancing their environmental positions in water rights, mineral rights and natural resources.

The purpose of MCA is to address the market interests of Montana cattle producers. MCA will serve to support the environmental, cultural and historical interests of Montana cattle producers. A primary purpose is to restore prosperity to rural Montana by advancing the interests of agriculture.

MCA is composed of 12 districts throughout Montana. Each district selects its own director. Those districts and current directors can be found by clicking on the officers & directors button above. Your voice through your director is important to the success of MCA and your future.

With increased imports, decreased market share, a collapsed finished cattle market, and a host of other challenges facing the cattle producer and his way of life, it is imperative that each and every cattleman in the State of Montana becomes more active in protecting his livelihood.

By joining MCA your voice will be heard and with hard work, dedication, and perseverance the cattle industry can become profitable once again!

November 2011 (pdf)

Special Membership Offer

The MCA Board of Directors have unanimously voted to offer a free Buddy Membership to any New Member MCA Member who renews their membership. Just sign in to the website using your log-in and password and click the Buddy Membership to sign up a friend.

MCA Submits Beef Checkoff Improvement Recommendations

The Montana Cattlemen's Association (MCA) has submitted recommendations to amend the Cattlemen's Beef Board checkoff program as follows:
1. Checkoff dollars be used to promote only U.S.A. beef from cattle born, raised, and processed in the United States of America.
2. A periodic vote on the checkoff program (every five years).
3. Prohibit any one cattle organization from serving as the "prime contractor" for the program, but allow all U.S. cattle organizations to participate in approved projects on a case-by-case basis.
4. Reform the Cattlemen's Beef Board to reflect proportional representation from all national cattle organizations.
5. Allow for checkoff expenditures to protect U.S.A. beef and cattle from unfair trade practices and to protect the U.S. cattle herd from import practices which threaten cattle herd health and beef consumers.
6. Allow checkoff expenditures to promote branded products from small and large packing entities.
7. Provide that 70% of all funds collected remain in the state where collected, and 30% to the national Cattlemen's Beef Board.
8. Provide an exemption for producers contributing equal or greater funds into a private sector self-help effort.
In addition, the MCA Board recommends any increase in the checkoff assessment fee not be considered unless or until the above recommendations are implemented.