2016 American Maine-Anjou Association Board of Director Election

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1 2016 American Maine-Anjou Association Board of Director Election

2 Board Profiles American Maine-Anjou Association Board of Director Election Included is a complete listing of the 2016 Board of Director candidate profiles. Profiles will also be available on the AMAA website, maine-anjou.org. Any ballot that is postmarked on or before Oct. 1, 2016, but not received on or before Oct. 12, 2016 will be void. Vote ONLY in your region for regional directors and ALL members may cast an at-large vote. Only current AMAA members are allowed to vote. Mail-in, faxed, hand delivered or ballots sent via federal air courier are accepted. Facsimile votes must be dated on or before Oct. 1, Fax to (913) The individual member must sign ballots. Forged entries will be subject to legal action. REGION I REGION II REGION III AMAA Board of Director s Voting Ballot Any ballot that is postmarked on or before Oct. 1, 2016, but not received on or before Oct. 12, 2016 will be void. Vote ONLY in your region for regional directors and ALL members may cast an at-large vote. Only current AMAA members are allowed to vote. Mail-in, faxed, hand delivered or ballots sent via federal air courier are accepted. Facsimile votes must be dated on or before Oct. 1, Fax to (913) The individual member must sign ballots. Forged entries will be subject to legal action. Please cut and mail form to: Walsh & Stverak, LLC Mission Rd., Suite Prairie Village, KS NAME AMAA # SIGNATURE Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin California, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah REGION I (vote for two, two positions open) Cliff Randall Troy Jones REGION II (vote for two, two positions open) Hardy O Hara Landon Nagel REGION III (vote for one, one position open) Jirl Buck Mike Rigby AT-LARGE (vote for one, one position open) Steve Robinson

3 REGION 1 Troy Jones - Ohio My family and I own and operate Jones Show Cattle in Harrod, Ohio. We run approximately 180 cows with 60 of those being registered Maine-Anjou, along with a few purebred Angus cows. The rest of our herd consists of recipients. The main focus of our operation is keeping the cattle sound, functional and easy feeding. We also maintain a very aggressive embryo transfer program which allows us to excel with the industry standards. I feel the breed has a lot to offer the commercial industry. By adding more substance to the cattle, which in turn will yield more product and value, and more marketing of Maine bulls can make that possible. I feel the Maine- Anjou Association has a lot to do to catch up to the larger breed associations, but with the right focus and guidelines, it is possible. I think the number one thing to do is have knowledgeable representatives go out and promote the breed. They should target the large producers and industry leaders. By targeting leaders in the industry, they can better promote the breed. Other people will see the top leaders using Maine influences and want to follow, thus causing a chain reaction that can only benefit us. I feel MaineTainers will promote or advance the breed and increase the number of cattle available for registration. At the same time, it s important to improve the quality of genetics and continue to raise functional cattle that work for all producers. I have been director of the Allen County Cattlemen s Association for four years, manager of Jones Show Cattle, past AMAA board member and have been involved in our family owned feedlot, which has allowed me to gain hands on experience with the cattle industry. REGION 1 Cliff Randall - Louisiana My family has been involved in the cattle industry for the last 100 years starting with my great grand parents. My family was involved with commercial cattle, club calves and registered Angus before becoming involved with Maine-Anjou genetics in the 70 s, from which we eventually became a total Maine-Anjou operation in the 90 s. I have been involved with the Maines all of my life, from exhibitor and breeder as well as board member of our state association and involvement with the national junior board. The number one strength of the Maine-Anjou breed is that it is versatile and can fit every cattleman s operation in some way from the commercial cattleman, feedlot, packer, seedstock producer and show industry. There is no other breed out there that can stretch across all spectrums of the industry as well as our genetics can.

4 The future of the Maine-Anjou breed is bright and strong, as previously said, we are truly the most versatile breed out there. We are willing to improve our genetics and embrace the future of the industry. We are focus driven and realize that we need to promote ourselves to the cattlemen of the future. With this said, I believe as an association we must shift our focus to research and promotion of our breed, not only to the large cattlemen, but to the small cattlemen that can easily see the influence that our genetics can have. We must broaden our reach of promotion out of the midwest into the east and southern parts of our country, but at the same time continue to improve our promotion in the midwest as well. My operation is actively involved in promotion of Maine-Anjou genetics to small cattlemen through many different avenues. One of the best has been with a local university in Mississippi that focus on the education of small commercial breeders in southwest Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. We also are active in promotion of Maine-Anjou genetics through different youth activities through 4-H and other youth cattle organizations. REGION 2 Hardy O Hara - Montana My dad, Mike O Hara, started raising Maine-Anjou cattle in Since then it has been a passion for him. He passed that passion on to me, which has continued to grow into an obsession to improve on I have now shared this passion with my children, who are just getting started with showing Maine cattle in 4-H. In 2001, along with my brother Heath, we started specifically focusing on creating high quality MaineTainer cattle using the vast Montana registered Angus genetics as our base. We currently run a herd of roughly 25% registered black Angus cows, 60% MaineTainer cows and 15% Maine- Anjou cows. We breed all of our cowherd with the commercial bull customer in mind. Most of our calves are 3/8-5/8 MaineTainer that we believe is what our commercial bull customers are looking for. I took a position on the board in 2014 at the Fort Worth board meeting. The time has been short since taking this position, but I have enjoyed the opportunity and challenges of being on the board. The genetic differences within the Maine-Anjou breed is a major strength of the Maine-Anjou cattle! It is a small gene pool, but within that gene pool is a very diverse set of genetics. It sounds counter intuitive, but Maines can deliver many different types of cattle to suit whatever a customer is looking for. I believe that the future is bright in the Maine-Anjou breed! I feel that the commercial bull market is where the Maine-Anjou breed has the biggest opportunity for growth and feel that with the use of genomics, performance testing and kill data that the breed can take advantage of this opportunity. We currently participate in an annual multi-breed bull sale in North central Montana in early April. We started participating in this sale to get our cattle out in front of new potential customers that had never seen Maine cattle before. We have been very happy with the increased interest in our cattle since starting this venture only two years ago. We have started taking a small number of cattle to the Yards in Denver to participate in the Maine-Anjou Bright Lights sale. We were happy with our results this past year and look forward to participating in the future. We support local 4-H and FFA members by selling a few show

5 steers and show heifers. My children are getting started in 4-H and are now showing Maine cattle in the local county fair. We feel it is important to support the local youth and hope to pass our passion of Maine genetics on to them. REGION 2 Landon Nagel - S. Dakota My family started using Maine- Anjou bulls in the late 1970s. We became more aggressive in breeding Maine in the 80 s when we began artificially inseminating cows. My dad has served on the national board and I have served on the junior board. Everything we do in the cattle business revolves around Maine-Anjou cattle. The Maine-Anjou breed has many strengths, from carcass traits to mothering abilities. The ability for a commercial cattleman to sell heavy calves at weaning time is critical and the Maine-Anjou breed allows this to happen with calving ease. I believe that the Maine-Anjou breed has a bright future. However, I think that the commercial cattleman controls the future. If we can continue to hang heavy carcasses on the rail and produce an easy doing female then we will be in high demand. The Maine breed needs to be promoted in a way that disassociates us from the club calf industry. Maine-Anjou cattle are performance cattle in an attractive package with great eye appeal for buyers, but the key is performance. Our operation revolves around registered Maine-Anjou cattle. Not only do we sell bulls in the spring and females in the fall, but we are very aggressive when it comes to purchasing costumer s calves. Whenever we market cattle we advertise them as Maine-Anjou cattle. Having our customer s calves perform well around the nation and having them top sale barns is the best promotion of Maine genetics there is. REGION 3 Mike Rigby - Idaho Our family has been in the cattle business since they homesteaded in Utah. About 15 years ago we started in the Maine-Anjou breed and have never looked back. We breed for growth, carcass, maternal and phenotype. The strengths I see in the breed today are phenotype, docility, maternal, growth and carcass traits. I would like to see the breed used more in the commercial sector. To achieve this, I believe we need to promote Maine-Anjou genetics.

6 We raise and sell high percentage bulls and females to local commercial producers. We participate in a bull test in Idaho and the cattle do well. The bulls in that test are indexed on growth, carcass and maternal traits. REGION 3 Jirl Buck - Oklahoma Myself, Brenda and Bailey Buck own and operate Buck Cattle Co., in Madill, Okla. We have been in the Maine-Anjou business for 28 years, the cattle business is how we make our living. I was raised on a ranch and exhibited cattle while in 4-H and FFA. I am a graduate of Murray State College and Oklahoma State University. Currently our family runs 200 head of Maine-Anjou cows and raises 120 head of embryo calves annually. We sell 120 bulls and 150 females annually. We market our cattle in our annual spring and fall sales, monthly online auctions and have cattle available through private treaty. Maine-Anjou cattle have so much to offer the cattle industry with their feed efficiency, maternal strengths, disposition and added performance. I feel the Maine- Anjou dominance in showrings across the country has helped the value of the top end cattle. We need to continue to promote and make the commercial producers aware of the value Maine-Anjou genetics can add to their programs. I feel it is important we continue to support and educate our juniors and other members to continue to move forward. We as breeders are all on the same team, we need to all work together and support one another to expand grow and get more people involved. We support and are directly involved with both the state and national associations. Me and my wife, Brenda, have both served as state youth advisors. It has been our pleasure to work with youth and guide them to be successful with their Maine-Anjou cattle. Additional comments Our association must continue to stay on the cutting edge of technology. I feel it is important that we as breeders continue to collect and record data to improve the value and accuracy of our EPDs. This breed combines great cattle and great people. It s simple, we need to continue to get more folks involved to become stronger and achieve our goals. AT-LARGE Steve Robinson - Texas I grew to love and appreciate the cattle business by working with my grandfather on our family farm in Bokchito, Okla. In , I served as the State Vice President of the Oklahoma FFA association traveling all over Oklahoma promoting agriculture and encouraging high school students to be the best at whatever they choose to do. After graduating from college in 1986, I left the family farm and moved to Maryland to pursue a business career. I built a successful business utilizing cutting edge technology and using the skills that I learned growing up on the farm like, hard work, honesty and a never give up attitude. I had always heard the saying you can take the boy out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the boy. Well this is certainly true with me. My passion for raising cattle and owning a farm remained. I came to realize that I would never convince my wife and kids to move back to the farm in

7 Oklahoma so I decided to look for land in Maryland. In 2006, I purchased 900 acres an hour outside of Washington, D.C. with a goal of putting together some of the best Maine-Anjou s in the country. As you can imagine, most breeders would never let go of their best donor cows. As luck would have it, I met Fred DeRouchey and explained to him what I was trying to do. As most of you know, Fred, Joan and the whole DeRouchey Family had spent years putting together one of the premier herds in the country and has been a leader in the promotion of the Maine-Anjou breed through both the showring and their yearly bull sales. After a few weeks of negotiations and the assurance from me that I am dedicated to staying on the cutting edge of the Maine-Anjou breed, Fred agreed to sell me his entire herd to include his bank of semen from present and past champion bulls, as well his inventory of embryos. I was attracted to the Maine- Anjou breed because the cattle are so versatile, not only do they win in the showring but they also excel in the real world. In so many breeds there is a huge gap between what works in the showring and what works in the commercial cattleman s herd. Maine-Anjou bulls offer the cattleman Hybrid vigor with weaning weights that are off the chart. Bushy Park Farms even has bloodlines that combine low birth weights with higher than normal weaning weights. Data collection is the future of the breed. We as breeders need to participate in more feed trials, bull tests and other data gathering avenues so we can prove with solid facts how outstanding the Maine- Anjou breed and our genetics are. I look forward to a bright future in the Maine-Anjou breed and working with the great people associated with it. Currently our operation holds two sales, the Bushy Park Farm Tradition of Excellence sale in the fall and the Girls of Summer sale in the spring. We additionally market heifers and bulls on online sales throughout the year. We exhibit cattle at all of the major shows throughout the year and the South Dakota State Fair. We support both the junior and adult associations however we can.

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