Tommy, I guess the NCBA didn't have to worry on what to do about the border, because R-Calf seems to have handled the problem temporarily. Personally, my thoughts are the border just as well be opened and get on with business as usual. I'm sure if the shoe were on the other foot, and if I happened to be a Canadian rancher, I would want the border open. The United States and Canada have had a long standing friendship and have always been good neighbors until recently. It would be nice if we could "mend our fences" and resume that peaceful and mutually beneficial neighboring relationship.
BSE is such an emotional issue, and really lacking in substance. A person has a much better chance of dying in a car wreck on the way to his mailbox, than he would of dying by eating meat from a BSE cow. I'll bet an old BSE infected cow would have looked pretty good to the pioneers of the Donner Party, when they were stranded by deep snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Cow meat sure would have tasted better than eating their human neighbors.
I am predicting that while everyone is distracted from BSE, other cattle problems are sneaking in that will have way more consequences with the average rancher. BVD, Johnnes disease, and trichonomyocis (sp?) are some that come immediately to mind. What a fickle bunch the human race is, to make such ado about hardly anything.
Keep in mind, we are all going to die sometime. No matter how physically fit we are, how low the cholestrol count is, how many pills we take daily, or whatever, for each one of us our days are numbered. The only thing any of us can truly do to prepare, is to make our peace with the good Lord, accept him as our Saviour, and die without any worries, because it will all be Fine in Heaven.
Getting back to NCBA versus R-Calf, I just appreciate the more positive attitude of the NCBAers. They are progressive and trying to better their positions. The R-Calfers seem to always be longing for "the good old days" which, looking back, weren't really all that great. Now is a pretty good time to be alive and ranching.
Many R-Calfers howl and gripe about the Beef Check-off. They moan and groan if they have to cough up $500 to pay for this, which has been proven time and again to be money well spent. Yet they will dump in $500 without batting an eye to an R-Calf benefit auction, when some high-rolling lawyer will eventually get that money.
Well, Tommy, don't mind me. I just appreciate living in the good old USA and having the privilege of free speech. We are all so lucky that we can belong to any organization of our choice. Let's you and me just agree to disagree on a few issues. I truly think we have more in common than we have differences.