A meeting of the minds with various leaders in the cattle industry was recently held in Andalusia.

Cattle industry leaders heard good news concerning changes in a new Farm Bill at a regional workshop at the Covington Center and Arena in Andalusia, which was sponsored by the Alabama Cattlemen's Association (ACA).

Danny Crawford, who is the state director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA)

and Robert Jones,

who is state conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) stated that cattle producers would benefit from shifts in the Farm Bill away from row crops to conservation practices, wildlife and livestock

They encouraged cattle producers to go by their local FSA and NRCS offices for more information. In addition, the cattle leaders received an update on how the beef checkoff is working to increase consumer demand.

The session was part of six regional meetings held by the ACA.

The regional meetings provided the opportunity to get grassroots leadership input into the association's program of work and kickoff the 2003 membership drive.

The ACA currently has 12,630 members making it the largest state cattlemen's organization in the United States.

Initiated in 1944, the Alabama Cattlemen's Association is a statewide marketing and trade association working to promote, protect and advance the state's beef cattle industry and inform the consumer.

The state beef cattle industry had cash sales exceeding $476.3 million in 2000, which created a $2 billion monetary impact to the state's economy.

The cattle industry ranks second among all Ag commodities in cash receipts .

Alabama has 25,000 farm operations with more than 1,370,000 head of beef cattle and ranks eighth in the nation in number of farms with beef cattle.

For more information on how you can become involved in the beef cattle industry, contact the Alabama Cattlemen's Association at 334-265-1867 or visit the web site at www.bamabeef.org.