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117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention to be held Sept. 10-12

Margaret Nachtigall Executive Director South Dakota Stockgrowers Association

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.



As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.



We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.

As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.

We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.

As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.

We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.

As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.

We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.

As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.

We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.

Well, here we are right on the threshold of the 117th Annual South Dakota Stockgrowers Convention being held this year in Rapid City at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Last week I talked about some of our great lineup of speakers and I will again today, but first a little bit about some of the fun things we do. For instance, at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, SDSU Dean of Agriculture Gary Lemme and staff will be serving their famous SDSU ice cream. Every vendor has some kind of topping at his or her booth so you can go from vendor to vendor and build any kind of sundae you like.

Also, each vendor has a silent auction item which can be bid on all during the convention until bidding closes at 1:15 sharp on Friday. And of course we have what we call the ‘Live Auction’ following the Friday night banquet. This is always lively and fun with a lot of really great items from new boots to canned meat to hand made tack, with auctioneer Col Tom Landers from Hot Springs at the microphone.

As I said last week our speaker lineup begins on Thursday with the Wildlife Committee and then at 9:30 Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Washington D.C., will speak to the Trade Committee. We look for Patty to have a very interesting presentation since her focus is on food safety, meat inspection, labeling and dairy.

The Cattlewomen, which is an auxiliary group to the Stockgrowers, have always met at the same time and will be doing so again, with their first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, followed by a meeting at 2 p.m. with Lisa Dorschner speaking on Ag in the Classroom.

We are proud to have the Rapid City Central High School Color Guard presenting the colors for us at the Opening Ceremonies Lunch at 12 p.m.

At 2 p.m. in the Ag and Natural Resources Committee meeting, we are pleased to be able to hear Maxine Korman, who along with her husband, ranches near Hinsdale, MT. Maxine is very involved with property rights and especially with water rights and is a member of the R-CALF Property Rights Committee. Maxine is an excellent research person and extremely knowledgeable in many areas.

Later that afternoon we are privileged to hear a presentation by Fred Kelly Grant who I’m sure is no stranger to many of you since he has spoken to many of the Stockgrowers in the past and is an expert on Property Rights and the strengths and rights of local laws and enforcement agencies. Few people know more about local government than Mr. Grant.

On Friday we start of bright and early with our Inspirational Breakfast and a chance to listen to the Rev Ed Coates of Hot Springs, a recently retired minister who became “unretired” and is serving churches in the Oelrichs, Oral, Smithwick and Buffalo Gap areas. So much for retirement! I have heard Ed many times and know his message will be not only inspiring, but very interesting. If you miss this you will have missed a good one.

As you all know, we here in South Dakota are embarking on a new property tax system and I’m sure many of us do not know how it will all come about, so we have asked Kirk Chaffee, Director of Equalization Meade County, to explain this new program.

Kirk will be talking to us at 8:30 on Friday in the Education, Taxation, Legislation Committee. This is an excellent chance to gain an understanding of the new system.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is how, when and mostly why, are we being subjected to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS). So back by popular demand is Ray Cunio, a Franklin County, Missouri cow-calf producer who probably has more knowledge of NAIS than anybody in the country, and is also President of the Missouri based Citizens for Private Property Rights. Ray was one of the folks who was instrumental in passing a law in Missouri opposing NAIS. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing our cattle has always been a high priority, but it seems these days it’s becoming more and more confusing. You have to have age and source verification, or you have to have natural, or you have to have this or that or something else to market your cattle. I don’t know that we have answers, but I do know we have a couple gentlemen coming who certainly have some experience and input into the subject.

At 11 on Friday, Howard Huxtable, a rancher and cattle buyer from the Red Owl area and a very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to, will be speaking to the Marketing Committee in Rooms A-B-C.

We are proud to have Randy Stevenson, R-CALF USA Vice President/Region II Director, as our Friday Lunch speaker. Randy, who is co-author of the Stevenson Report, is also involved in the marketing aspect of our industry, and is Co-Chair of the R-CALF Marketing Committee. Randy, along with wife Charlie and brother Terry and father Jim, run Double S Livestock, a cattle feeding operation near Wheatland, WY.

At 1:30 on Friday, the Brand and Theft Committee will meet to tie up loose ends and to get an update on happenings in the new brand program.

Many of you may have seen a book entitled “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.” You will all be pleased to know that James P. Owen, author of the book, will be our keynote speaker at the recognition banquet on Friday night.

Jim is the managing Director of Austin Capital Management and President of the Center of Cowboy Ethics and Leadership. Being frustrated with the happenings on Wall Street he decided to do something about it and began focusing on the values of the American West where he coined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and listed the “Ten Principles to Live By” from the unspoken “Code of the West.” We are indeed proud to bring you James P. Owen.

South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is a member organization whereby the policies of the organization are set by the members. Therefore, the annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon is probably the one most important meeting of the whole convention. This is where the members set the course for the rest of the year, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I hope you all agree that this is a terrific lineup of speakers and a promise of a fun and interesting convention.