Charolais Viewpoint: Dressin' In Our Sunday Best!
11/03/2009 02:54PM
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Next spring, your AICA will host the 2010 Charolais World Congress. To say receiving, entertaining and educating beef producers and Charolais breeders from around the world takes lots of planning is a gross understatement. But the opportunity to take a global captive audience, all serious beef producers and showcase the unique production system in our country is priceless. The international group arrives in Oklahoma City, May 13. For the next eight days, the group will visit registered Charolais operations, commercial ranches and feedyards. The planned stops are designed to educate, entertain and make certain each visitor understands and appreciates the efficiency of beef production in America.
The visitors will get a history lesson beginning at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. After a ranch visit at M&M Charolais, Perry, Okla., and a stop in Marietta, Okla., the group heads south toward the Red River and dinner at Lehman Charolais near Tioga, Texas. The tour will stop at Wes Marti Charolais to
view an excellent display of Full French Charolais, then return for an evening of entertainment at the world famous Billy Bob’s Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards
district.
On Monday, May 17, the group flies to south Texas for tours at Thomas Charolais, the King Ranch and Graham Feedyard, Gonzales, Texas. They will participate in discussions related to branded beef and the feeding industry. The group finishes the day with a tour of Texas’ own Shiner Brewery and a leisurely stroll on the famous San Antonio River Walk. The final three days of the tour will be filled with a general membership meeting and an optional trip to the Texas Hill Country.
The two states we’ll be touring, Oklahoma and Texas, represent 23% of the nation’s cow-herds and 28% of the fed cattle population in the U.S. Our international visitors will experience a microcosm of the Charolais business, its influence on the beef industry and its relevance in the food chain—all within a very busy week.
The majority of beef produced in other countries is vastly different than U.S. beef. Due to many economic and geographic factors, the majority of beef in countries other than the U.S. is supplied from dairy herd cull cows or intact males.
The European cattle, representing what we in the U.S. have labeled Continental, are harvested for extreme leanness and are marketed with a minimal feeding and finishing regimen. Our beef production system is the most efficient system to produce an end product customized to the consumer’s demand anywhere in the world. The diversity of our seedstock operations, the success achieved through extensive crossbreeding and the advancing science and technology enable the Charolais breed in America to tell our story to a global audience.
Although the plans have not been finalized, international visitors will be invited to a Pre-Congress Tour that will provide even greater exposure and more information about the beef industry.
The 2010 World Charolais Congress is the 36th annual event of its kind. More recent world events have been hosted by Australia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is a rare occurrence and an honor to be selected as the site of the 2010 event. We need your help. We intend to pull out all the stops and need as many Charolais producers and AICA members to join us as hosts on a tour that is certain to be entertaining and remarkably educational.
Stay tuned! Check www.charolaisusa.com often for details as they become available, and plan to register after January 1, 2010. This event deserves the best we have to offer. We’ll be dressin’ in our Sunday best and showin’ our international friends the Charolais breed, AICA and the best the U.S. beef business has to offer. Come join us!
Source: J. Neil Orth, Executive Vice President