Grassroots members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) concluded a successful Summer Business Meeting in San Diego, CA. Cattle producers discussed top issues facing the cattle industry including risk management, taxes, and business regulation.
“Our grassroots members are the backbone of NCBA, and I am extremely proud of how they made their voices heard through our centuries old grassroots policy process,” said NCBA President and Wyoming rancher Mark Eisele. “The policies passed at the Summer Business Meeting will direct our association’s advocacy efforts in Washington to strengthen our industry’s profitability, reduce crippling government regulation, and safeguard our way of life for the future. Thank you to everyone who attended this meeting and spoke up on the issues facing our industry.”
The new policies passed by NCBA members direct the association to improve disaster relief and risk management programs, advocate for reduced capital gains tax, and oppose burdensome business registration and reporting requirements like the Corporate Transparency Act. Several existing policies were also renewed or amended.
NCBA members also discussed the implementation of USDA’s new animal disease traceability rule that will take effect in November.
“The USDA rule moves the cattle business forward allowing more efficient and accurate means of tracing animal movement in the event of a disease outbreak, which is crucial as diseases like Foot-and-Mouth Disease continue to spread around the globe,” said Eisele. “USDA has made the decision to switch from visually readable to both visually and electronically readable tags for certain classes of cattle moving interstate. NCBA has already secured funding to help defray the cost of making this change and we will continue pushing for additional funding and privacy for producer data. NCBA policy also supports the work of U.S. CattleTrace, which is an extremely important partner in the efforts to increase the adoption of EID tags and overall herd traceability. CattleTrace is an excellent resource for producers seeking to implement a traceability program for their herd.”
USDA’s traceability rule updates a previous 2013 rule that requires intact cattle 18 months of age or older, rodeo and exhibition cattle, and dairy cattle moving interstate to have a visually readable ear tag. The new traceability rule simply switches the type of tag from visually readable to both electronically and visually readable. This new rule will take effect on Nov. 5, 2024.
The Summer Business Meeting is one of two annual meetings to set policy for NCBA. Learn more about the NCBA grassroots policy process at ncba.org
