'MAYBE WE WEREN'T LISTENING,'
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Posted by Tommy on Feb-7-05 7:32am from 63.190.0.106
'MAYBE WE WEREN'T LISTENING,' Cattlemen's Official Says
By Chris Clayton
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
SAN ANTONIO - Jan Lyons, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, was asked point-blank by a California cattleman how she intends to get back about 1,000 members from that state who didn't renew their annual memberships.
Lyons, a Kansas producer, went on for a minute or two about attrition and overall loss of cattle producers nationally and a change in the group's membership pricing.
Then she acknowledged a possible communication problem with members.
"Maybe we weren't listening," Lyons said at a forum attended by several hundred members during the group's national convention here last week. "Maybe we weren't responding to the membership. We're trying to change that. I believe we have put a new face on NCBA."
Trade issues dominated the association's annual convention, attended by more than 6,000 people - one of the biggest turnouts in recent years.
But there was an underlying tone that the association is working to regain its grass-roots appeal as well as members it has lost in recent years, including some to the Montana-based Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, or R-CALF.
Lyons said the association is developing a campaign in areas where it is having membership problems to "return investment back to the countryside."
"We know who we are, and we know who we represent," she said.
The NCBA remains the national flagship organization for people in the cattle industry, but as the issue of mad cow disease has evolved into a three-way trade dispute among the United States, Canada and Japan, R-CALF has seized the bullhorn and often dictated the debate.
The United States closed its border to Canadian beef after the discovery there of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Japan closed its border to U.S. beef after a case of BSE was found in Washington state. Cattle trade with Canada is set to resume next month, but U.S. beef is still banned in Japan, which last week reported its first human case of mad cow-related illness.
The border closings have helped drive up cattle prices and given R-CALF an opportunity to recruit new members by advocating protectionist trade policies, while the free-trade supporters in the NCBA are on the defensive.
"I don't think there's any question we have a cultural division with some people out there," said Missouri producer Mike John, president-elect of the NCBA.
Lyons said she frequently hears from people who say they are watching what the NCBA does on a particular issue before they decide whether to renew their memberships.
"Lately, we've heard it's been the Canadian cattle issue," she said.
Terry Stokes, the NCBA's chief executive officer, also noted Nebraska is one of the places where R-CALF has gained a foothold, and the NCBA is in a tug of war for membership.
"Overall, you see a competing vision out there," Stokes said.
When NCBA member Allen Bright of Antioch, Neb., is asked about the group's grass-roots efforts, he pulls out the national convention program and points to the array of marketing, animal health, taxation, environmental, regulatory and issue programs, including topics specifically directed toward young producers.
"The list is endless of those kinds of things NCBA is doing every day in Washington (D.C.) and rural America," Bright said. "It's not just Canada. It's not just Japan. We hear all the talk about R-CALF representing the cattlemen. The business climate is more than Canadian trade."
It's a challenging year for the NCBA's national membership chairman, West Point, Neb., feedlot owner Harry Knobbe, but he sees opportunity.
The membership committee is issuing gift membership coupons so producers can have their friends and neighbors join. Knobbe points out the NCBA was prepared for a potential announcement of a U.S. case of mad cow disease and attacked the issue as soon as it happened.
"Do you want to organize the firemen when the fire starts or before?" Knobbe asked. "We've been the sentinels for all you people waiting for the siren to blow."
The NCBA's continuing struggle is to represent cattlemen nationwide who have different environmental, political and economic interests in various regions of the country and segments of the industry, he said.
Knobbe has been coming to NCBA meetings since the early 1970s and continues to give his time to the organization because he sees other Nebraskans volunteering, too. He makes a point every year of bringing someone new to the convention.
"I wouldn't miss this," Knobbe said. "I would be afraid of what I missed."
Craig Utter of Ainsworth, Neb., said the NCBA represents the broad cattle industry, including people who aren't members. For example, he said, many nonmembers were among about 80 people who attended a Nebraska Cattlemen meeting last month on trade issues.
"Our grass roots in this association goes beyond our members because we actually allow people who aren't members to talk," Utter said. "They can't vote on things, but they can express their opinions."
Utter, who has a cow-calf herd of about 250 animals, has been a member of the NCBA since 1994 and has been a regular at the national convention since the late 1990s. He said he doesn't feel the NCBA's positions are dominated by large producers.
"I've always taken a little bit of offense to that view of NCBA," Utter said. "They are not just representing the big boys. The little guy has a chance to be heard here."
