Being Prepared

from Georgia Cattleman February 2023

February PRODUCTION POINTS

By Dale Sandlin

GCA is prepared for the next legislative session as the General Assembly begins their work. This year, we’re focusing on four main items of concern for our industry: securing more funding for UGA’s Animal and Dairy Science Department; working to help get more funding for the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Meat Inspection Service for recruitment and retention of meat inspectors; supporting the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association’s (GVMA’s) efforts to shift veterinarian certification to the Georgia Department of Agriculture; and expanding truck weights to put our state on par with other surrounding states.

While we’ve worked for most of the year on these items, the unexpected will always become a factor. With all of the new faces in the General Assembly this year, we’ll have a lot of work to do to build rapport with these new legislators. Special appointments and special elections will also impact our efforts. We’ll continue to work through these unique efforts, but we should be prepared for the unexpected. One of these unexpected changes is the Governor’s appointment of Sen. Dean Burke as the Chief Medical Officer for the Medical Assistance Plans within the Department of Community Health. With this appointment, Sen. Burke has resigned his Senate seat, which allowed Rep. Sam Watson to resign his representative position to run for this Senate seat. We have been working with Rep. Watson to secure the additional funding for UGA’s Animal and Dairy Science Department; so we hope that he is able to secure this Senate seat, as he is a strong advocate for agriculture and our industry. We’ll be working with the new budget leadership on this issue.

Take a lesson from the White Star Line: When you aren’t prepared, poor performance or even dire consequences are sure to result. Or just follow Kirby Smart’s example in the National Championship game against TCU. He and his staff did a thorough job in preparing his team for the game, and that led to a decisive rout of TCU while bringing another title to UGA.

Consider what you can do to prepare for success on your operation – and what you can do to help GCA keep our industry prepared for success into the future.

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