Dallas County The Dallas County Cattlemen’s Association recently teamed up with the Polk County Cattlemen’s Association to sponsor a BQA certification meeting. The meeting was held on May 2 at Prairie Grove School. The nearly 120 local beef producers in attendance heard from Dr. Craig Payne, University of Missouri Extension state veterinarian. Payne’s program centered around what we as cattlemen can do to assure the consumer that we raise healthy cattle that produce safe and wholesome beef. Our May 14 meeting was held in Buffalo at the O’Bannon Community Center with 80 members and guests in attendance. Sponsors for the rib-eye steak dinner included Agri-Services of Lebanon, Gibson Insurance, and Mid-Missouri Stockyards. We greatly thank all of them for the delicious meal. Agri-Services of Lebanon is owned by Dwight Bethurem and offers feed, seed, fertilizer, lime, and chemical as well as custom application. Since we all live with weeds in our pastures, presenting the program for Bethurem was Brant Mettler, Corteva range and pasture specialist. Brant has talked to us a few times before and always presents a very informative program. Brant’s main topic was “Why Control Weeds.” He stressed that fewer weeds means more grass, which leads to more pounds of beef and more profit for us as cattlemen.
outstanding young people. Offering brief remarks at the meeting on behalf of Senator Sandy Crawford was her husband, John Crawford. Sen. Crawford could not attend because she was busy in Jefferson City wrapping up the 2019 legislative session. We appreciate the great work both she and Representative Jeff Knight do for all of us in agriculture and the cattle industry. We are proud to have them as DCCA and MCA members! A number of us recently attended the Buffalo FFA banquet on May 3. Each year we present a student a gift card to a local farm store to the Beef Proficiency Award winner. Emily Whipple took home the award this year. We wish her continued success with her beef projects. April 23 was a very busy day for us as we hosted a record 168 fourth grade students at the Dallas County Fairgrounds for our annual “Beef Field Day.” We will not be having membership meetings this summer, but we will certainly keep busy firing up our grills to cook at different events and volunteering at the Ozark Beef House and Missouri Beef House at the state fair. Some of our junior members will be exhibiting at the MCA All-Breeds Junior Show in June, and we plan to bring a large contingent to the Cattlemen’s Steak Fry that same weekend.
Brant especially touted the use of Grazon Next and Chaparral as the two best chemicals to control a variety of weeds. In addition, they have no grazing restrictions. His company is working on a new product called Rinskor that is showing promise of weed control without killing clover. He hopes that it will be made available in 2021.
JUNE 2019
Also speaking at the meeting was Andrew Huhmann representing Gibson Insurance of Tipton. The local agent for Gibson is DCCA member Katie Stewart. Huhmann talked about how his company offers a gridbased system to insure all or part of our pasture or hay ground. Coverage is available in 60-day periods with no money up front. The deadline for 2020 coverage is November 15, 2019.
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DCCA President Bobby Stewart introduced Emily Whipple, one of our scholarship recipients. Emily is a recent graduate of Buffalo High School and will be attending Missouri State University this fall. Our other scholarship recipient is Spencer Ashworth. Spencer is a senior at MSU and has been actively involved in the beef cattle industry his entire life. We are very glad we can help further the education of both of these
Brant Mettler, Corteva range and pasture specialist.
DCCA member Andy McCorkill, Dr Craig Payne, DCCA President Bobby Stewart (left to right).