Youth Beef Industry Congress Recap

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FEATURE YBIC – Youth Beef Industry Congress

Seven American Junior Chianina Association board members, and advisor Heather Counts, attended the 2022 Youth Beef Industry Congress in April. This conference (held every other year) gives junior boards the opportunity to network with other junior beef association boards as well as take part in leadership, career and industry learning sessions. The 2022 YBIC was held in College Station, Texas and hosted by the American Junior Brahman Association and the Junior Beefmaster Breeders Association. The location gave our juniors a chance to visit Texas A&M University and learn more about the beef industry in the southern United States. A highlight of the event was visiting 44 Farms and learning about their operation, their branded beef program and more.

Advocating for agriculture was a big focus of the conference as well. Industry leaders spoke to the juniors about the need to tell the agriculture story, no matter how big or small, to those we come in contact with. Advocating for our way of life is vital for our success. “If we don’t tell our story...who will?” Wise words to think about.

The final day of the conference included a panel of industry leaders who hold various positions. One highlight was listening to former AJCA board member, Jennifer Ann Scasta, talk about her time as a junior board member as well as the path that has lead her to her current position at Texas A&M University. The junior board wrapped up the weekend at an Escape Room, using teamwork skills to escape before time ran out! What a fun time!

Attending these leadership conferences is a great learning tool offered to our junior board members. They had a great time networking with other juniors as well as learning from some of the best in the industry. Enjoy their recap of the conference.

Shea Whaley…

I had so much fun at YBIC; it is something I will cherish forever! A part of the Conference that I enjoyed was the 44 Farms tour; it was really neat to see such a beautiful ranch. I also really enjoyed the night at Big Shots; that was so much fun! The last thing that I enjoyed was the escape room with the board; that was a great way to work together!

I learned lots of very good information while attending the conference! One thing that stood out to me was about advocating for agriculture. I was listening to some Instagram stories yesterday, and this stood out and reminded me about advocating and its importance. I think now more than ever, we as cattle producers and ranchers need to advocate and get involved with politics because of everything in the world today and how much negative feedback and comments we get about our industry. I think just one sentence could go a long way in educating consumers and is something I know I need to do a better job of.

Maddie Smith…

YBIC was such an amazing opportunity and I’m so glad I got to be part of it! First off with me only being a sophomore in high school it opened a lot of new doors for an educational path for me. All the keynote speakers were incredibly amazing and really helped you think about why we are in Ag and how we should advocate for it. It was all about telling your story and using certain techniques that you can apply to your career path that will certainly help you in the long run. Collier Farms and 44 Farms were amazing. I loved getting to see how their operations worked so that I could learn from them on how I could use it in the future. I learned that no matter how big or small, old or young you are, you can make an impact on the agricultural industry. It was truly a good life lesson to learn.

Berren Strope…

The first day we visited ST Genetics and had a keynote speaker along with a panel of advocacy speakers. ST Genetics was a massive operation that had several interesting parts to it. It was a lot of fun to explore the different parts and learn about them. That evening, we traveled to the Hildebrand Equine Complex to have dinner and listen to several speakers. The first speaker was Dr. Torri Lienemann, who had an incredible story for us to listen to and learn from. The second speakers were a panel of three talking about how to be better advocates in the cattle and agricultural industry.

The second day was packed full of tours of several farms and several different speakers. The farms that we visited were Collier Farms and 44 Farms. Both were large operations, like ST Genetics, that had many interesting parts in it. Both operations used different cattle breeds than we use in Nebraska which made it very interesting to learn about. In the afternoon, after the tour of 44 farms, we had a keynote speaker and a marketing panel. The keynote speaker was a young lady that had started her own boutique centered around advocating for agriculture. The marketing panel consisted of four people talking about how to better market agriculture. Both were a lot of fun to listen to.

The third and final day was filled with educational sessions from speakers like Jon DeClerk, Kalli Ellis & Jennifer Ann Scasta. The sessions taught us different skills like public speaking, advocating for agriculture and how to better present ourselves. Lastly, we finished the day by listening to a closing speaker who gave some lasting advice for us to consider.

The tours of the different operations were great learning opportunities to see how different operations work and what works best for them. The speakers provided great advice for people to listen to and learn from. All in all, YBIC was a great learning experience with a lot of fun packed into it.

Raymond Beneker…

Attending YBIC in late April was a very eye opening experience for me. During my time in College Station, Texas, I got to listen to lectures from the most influential people in our industry and visit some amazing places. I enjoyed the chance to spend time with my friends on the junior board and it was very rewarding to meet and work with people my age that are as passionate about the beef industry as I am. Of everything I learned, my greatest takeaway from YBIC is that everyone has a place in agriculture. It doesn’t matter if you breed show heifers for phenotype improvement or if you want to increase feed efficiency for market steers…we should all support each other!

Madeline Sonnenfeld…

YBIC was a great event where I was able to learn many aspects about the cattle industry. We toured several different cattle operations and genetic facilities. My favorite place we visited was ST Genetics. In the future I want to be a cattle embryologist so it was interesting to see what they all did there.

Another facility that was super interesting to visit and learn about was 44 Farms. Being able to learn about their marketing and seeing how they run their operation was super interesting.

It was a great opportunity to spend time with the Chianina junior board and be able to visit with other breed board members. There were endless opportunities to meet others who are very prominent in the cattle industry. It was an amazing experience I would recommend to anyone on a breed board to attend.