A large group of producers from North Carolina attended the 1995 Beef Improvement Federation Convention in Sheridan, Wyoming last June. All greatly enjoyed the trip and found the educational program to be outstanding. We expect the same quality program this year for the 1996 BIF Convention to be held Wednesday, May 15, through Saturday, May 18, 1996, at the Sheraton Civic Center Hotel (205/324-5000) in Birmingham, Alabama. Get a group together from your area and attend this event. You will definitely enjoy the meeting and benefit from attending.
An excellent program and tours have been planned. The educational program begins on Wednesday evening with a session entitled “The Information Highway-BIF’s New Trail Drive”. It will feature an introduction to the Internet that you have heard so much about and how cattlemen can use it. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Internet, or the “Information Superhighway”, you will be amazed at the amount of information available. This session should prepare you to use this latest information technology. Thursday’s session will focus on “A Worldwide Genetic Revolution”. As with other industries, success in the cattle business now means competing on a global basis. Topics to be considered are international genetic evaluations, bovine gene maps, and how to use a computer to exploit the latest technologies. The theme for the session on Friday is “An Industry in Revolution”. Topics that will be discussed thoroughly include; reproductive traits as the next era in genetic evaluation, calving interval slippage, the carcass revolution and how it will affect your pocketbook, and the past pitfalls and present promise of ultrasound in evaluating carcass composition.
In addition to these outstanding educational sessions, there will be committee meetings that you are welcome to participate in. These always feature lively and enlightening discussion. Results from these committee meetings form the basis for the future of your breed association’s performance records program as well as future genetic evaluation procedures.
On Saturday, you will have your choice of group tours to northern or southern Alabama. The northern tour will feature the well known and respected Debter Hereford herd, the G. W. Jones herd consisting of about 1,000 cows, and the Huntsville Space Center. Those choosing the southern tour will visit Lovelady Farms, a 600-cow commercial herd, Grey Rock Santa Gertrudis, Autauga Farms, a commercial herd, Twin Valley Farm, a seedstock Angus operation, and the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association building, home of the largest state cattlemen’s association in the country with more than 17,000 members.
Make your plans now to attend. Go ahead and call the hotel directly to reserve your rooms. If you have not received a copy of the printed program, give Ron Bolze, Executive Director of BIF, a call at 913/462-7575 and request a copy.
We look forward to seeing you in Birmingham.