Fall is here and soon the leaves will be turning and we will all have the holidays on our minds. However, before we get to the holiday season, we have a big event in front of us and that is the 2020 National Brahman Show. This month I would like to update you on some positive milestones in the Association.
As most of you know last November the Board of Directors voted to change the constitution about the location of the office to indicate the following:The principal office of the Association shall be located in Texas.
During the July Board of Directors meeting in Brenham, Texas it was approved to make Bryan/College Station the new home of the ABBA office. A lease was signed on October 1, 2020 in Bryan, Texas and we will keep the Houston office open until the 18th of December. This time line will help with the transition of business practices and hopefully not to disturb member services. All members will be receiving a postcard in early November with the new address, telephone numbers, and instructions for when to start using the new information.
Another exciting announcement is the launching of the ABBA registry system, Digital Beef. The office has been BETA testing the new system for approximately four (4) weeks. We looked through the current system and identified 16 members that utilize the system in different ways and have contacted them to help with the next stages of the BETA testing. Our hope is to try to debug Digital Beef before the initial launch to the entire membership. We know that we still might find some issues when it goes live, however there should be no big issues due to the time we are taking to complete the BETA testing.
As most of you know, there are still events and fairs being postponed or are being cancelled due to COVID- 19. With that being said we are being proactive in the office to come up with alternative plans for some of our big events. I will not go in great detail at this time, but rest assured that since August we have been coming up with alternative plans and locations for our major Brahman events. This information will be passed on to the Committees and Board of Directors at the upcoming meetings during the National Show for approval.
The 2020 ABBA Brahman Bull Development & Marketing Program is also going very well this year. The bulls have been on feed for approximately six (6) months and are progressing very well. We have performed the phenotype score on the bulls in October. This is only one part of the overall calculation for the program. The bulls have been scanned and the data also looks very promising. We will be fertility testing bulls after the phenotype scoring and determining which bulls will make the sale one December 9-10, 2020 on Cattle in Motion. Be on the lookout for more information on the bull sale along with pictures and videos of the bulls in the sale.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the 2020 ABBA National Brahman Show is being dedicated to Mr. Laster Leachman of Choudrant, Louisiana. Mr. Leachman, with membership number 3015, joined ABBA as a member on March 4, 1965. His family and cattle were the loves of his life. Mr. Leachman was known as being hard-working, but always had time for his family and friends and enjoyed teaching the next generation the value of hard work. We will honor this true gentleman and cattleman during the National Show on November 6, 2020.
In closing, I would like to say it has been a complete honor to be employed as the EVP for the past 10 months. I made my first International visit as EVP to Ecuador in October, and look forward to making more in the near future to other countries. I also look forward to seeing as many of you that will be making the trip to the National Show and meetings in November held in conjunction with the State Fair of Louisiana.
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman
See you Down the Road!!
Joe Mask
