Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Concludes 2024 Summer Meeting

Jun 26, 2024

Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association concluded its 2024 Summer Meeting Saturday, June 22, gathering the association’s board of directors, executive committee, four policy committees and its political action committee who laid the framework for the future of the association and the beef industry.

“As we approach the 89^th Texas Legislative Session, we must strategically think about what is ahead for our industry,” said Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President Carl Ray Polk, Jr. “This effort must be guided by our membership, who have a vested interest in the future of land and livestock in the Southwest.”

Committee meetings held earlier this spring provided a platform where members presented and drafted policies. These policies were then presented to the board of directors who passed, updated and renewed these policies for issues including property tax, animal health vaccines, groundwater rights, and wildfire prevention, mitigation and response.

“Issues both at the state and federal level have far reaching impacts to ranchers, landowners and wildlife managers,” Polk said. “Working to ensure fundamental private property rights are protected, regulatory overreach is avoided and safeguards are in place to protect the industry are top of mind.”

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.