welcome to We Live It the Live A podcast
your source for livestock market
insights management strategies and real
conversations with those who don't just
work in the cattle industry they live it
here are your hosts Ty D Cordova and
Casey Mabry
well welcome once again to the We Live
It podcast here with Live A uh thank
y'all for joining us today we are in uh
Montgomery Alabama at the Alabama Catam
Association headquarters uh we're joined
here today with Aaron Beasley she is the
executive vice president Yeah of the
Alabama Catamas Association um once
again thanks for joining us out there on
social media land if you would hit that
like and that subscribe button once
again there's going to be a day that I
turn a camera around and I record the
stuff that goes on behind what y'all see
and y'all know every time while I come
on here I'm laughing because the things
they do behind that camera it's it's
pretty hilarious so one day we'll swap
this around and y'all can get a shot of
Margot and Katie back there doing what
they do so um Aaron thank you for
joining us absolutely thank you for
hosting us here we have our sale there
today that starts at uh 1:30 on RFDTV
and on
live-ag.com um we have 11 a little over
right at 12,000 cattle on there today
yep um lot of good cattle from the
southeast a lot of big feeder steers and
heers over here that coming off that ry
grass and I mean this is just was a
perfect spot to come and host it and we
just thank y'all a lot this is a
beautiful building threetory building
we're on the third floor anybody that's
coming in to watch the sale today we're
up on the third floor and um sale starts
at 1:30 but tell us kind of a little
history about this building i mean this
is walking through there's a museum here
there's all kinds of pieces so we're
we're unique i want to start Ty and just
thank y'all for giving us an opportunity
to to be the host site for the sale uh
we enjoyed having y'all at the
convention a couple of months ago and so
when we were approached about doing it
here at the headquarter building I I
couldn't think of a any reason to say no
whatsoever um good opportunity for us to
highlight what we have we are unique uh
as an association as you mentioned we've
got a couple things here that you
probably won't see in other states uh
quite honestly uh starting downstairs
with our museum um it is a children's
museum that teaches all about the beef
cattle industry and um it has been in
place since the mid9s and uh was a
vision that our leadership had we've
we've had some tremendous vision uh
since our inception in 1944 uh to that's
kept us unique and uh made us one of the
premier state cattleman's associations
across the country um I'll just kind of
run through the building here i
mentioned the museum downstairs we have
our we're sitting in our office space
here on the second floor and then uh as
you mentioned we have the large space
upstairs which I think people will
probably get a little snapshot of if
they watch the sale today but got a nice
meeting space as I was telling you
earlier not only do we get to host our
own personal events up there but we have
just a slew of different things um one
thing you'll notice about our location I
don't know if you look down the road any
or came past it but we're two blocks
from the capital building drove past it
beautiful capital i mean that's just
it's pretty yep it's it's beautiful so
we're we're located very close to that
behind the cap is the Alabama State
House which is where all the legislative
work takes place in this state we're
very active in that environment and so
uh we are positioned just absolutely
perfectly and so because of that
positioning you can imagine we have a
lot of legislative events that take
place upstairs uh we have um anything
from now feeder calf sales all the way
to we even had somebody that had their
wedding reception upstairs neat so we've
got a lot happening yeah mention in the
capital right here y'all are in session
right now and y'all are um actively over
there I'm sure on a daily basis trying
to push our this industry agenda so kind
of what are y'all working on as far as
bills go and legislation goes kind of
what are we what are we facing here yeah
we're towards the end right now thank
goodness uh the end is in sight with the
session and uh one of our lobbyists is
over there right now we we have myself
and and Kayla Greer on our staff serve
as lobbyists and one of the reasons to
be a member of the association is that
we do do governmental affairs and lobby
on behalf of our producers and members
and so um we uh you know right now with
the session going on um in Alabama they
have 105 calendar days to meet up to 30
days so that's kind of how it runs um
it's in the spring um depending on the
year we're on they they start either in
January February or March uh this year
they started in February and uh we're on
the last five days right now so those
should get done the next couple of weeks
but couple things that we've been
working on we've worked against a couple
of bills uh with a few that we felt like
were going to be negative for our
producers felt like uh it would put our
our folks uh for example we've been
trying to work with the uh Vet Medical
Association and they were trying to
update the Alabama Veterary Practice Act
um felt like there was some language in
there that would be very restrictive for
our producers and also for veterinarians
and so trying to work with them on that
um working uh with the deer breeders
association you wouldn't think that
there'd be work done with them but um
again we have to look out for the safety
and the uh regulatory environment for
our folks make sure that our cattle are
healthy so they can be sold in uh sales
like you guys have so uh we've been
working on some budgetary items to try
to get some more money in in the in the
budgets that are uh positive for the
beef cattle industry one of those
particularly is an increase in um our
general fund budget that will be for our
local soil and water districts and
counties to be able to fund cattle
handling facilities at the local level
so you know young producer trying to get
into the industry you know we want them
to have good facilities and so um that's
something that we feel like is a a good
program that's taking place and so we
ask for some additional money there and
then um you and I were talking about
your daughter being involved in FFA
earlier we uh we work and make sure that
there is money in the education budget
uh for our FFA and our junior cattleman
participants as well that's a that's a
really good deal to get involved in
because that is the future of our
industry oh absolutely it starts right
there so if we don't continue to fund
that and and help that deal grow then
that's just what happens to our industry
so yeah we those are the future of of of
livestock and agriculture industries
couldn't agree more we we put a lot of
emphasis on youth and young producers at
at our association yes that's So the you
said y'all will y'all are doing a budget
deal to to kind of help upcoming people
that want to get in the industry the
livestock industry to the soil and water
deal is that is that just to build the
facilities to handle it and build them
the right way is that how how does that
work yeah they've got a lot of different
programs there it's called their
conservation incentive program CIP uh
they've got a number of approved um uh
practices that producers can do it could
be anything from uh erosion control uh
water systems cross fencing and then in
the last couple of years they actually
added cattle handling systems and so um
with that in place we uh learned that
there are more applications coming in
than money available as you can imagine
we know how much those systems cost and
so uh that was really what drove the
conversation uh from our leadership and
just saying "Hey why why don't we try to
work and get some more money put into
that?" And so it's not a huge bite but
we feel like if we can start here maybe
it's a good starting point and each year
we can maybe work towards that and get a
little bit more money put in that's
awesome that's awesome kind of tell me a
little bit about about yourself and how
did you end up here where did you come
from and you we was talking earlier and
you were saying about you've been here
about 15 years yeah that's that's a long
time and that's it shows your passion
for the industry so I I am passionate
about the industry um I'm a little
unique in that I didn't grow up
entrenched in it in any way shape form i
I grew up in Florida and um thank
goodness I found my way to Auburn
University got me to Alabama and um I've
been here since and uh when I graduated
from Auburn I had an opportunity to get
hired here u my predecessor uh hired me
i I started off in the area that's with
the beef check off and so I did a lot of
promotional activities and consumer
education and whatnot after I got my
animal science degree and um I guess if
you stick around here long enough you
you end up getting to do a lot of
different things but um no I've I've
been blessed to be put in some good
opportunities i I do have a passion for
um the cattle industry i have a passion
for our members and and what they do i I
enjoy advocating on behalf of this
industry and so if you're going to work
for an association that's 99% of what
you do uh it's all about advocacy and
relationships and so um I've I uh you
know we had a change in leadership our
we're one thing that makes us unique
outside of the things we already talked
about we've only had two other executive
vice presidents for the association
since 1944 so Mr ham Wilson was our
first one and he served for over 30
years and then Dr billy Powell was our
second and he was another 30 years and
so uh when he retired I had a chance to
work for him about seven years and upon
his retirement the board decided to
promote me into this position and um
it's it's been fantastic i've Well you
got a lot more than 15 years to go
though i got a few more years to go yeah
i've been here 15 and I'm you know they
keep telling me I have to stay at least
30 and I told them they get tired of me
by then yeah yeah well once again we
can't thank y'all enough this is a
beautiful facility and just thank y'all
for all y'all do advocating for the
industry i mean companies like ours and
and just ranchers and and customers like
ours they need organizations like
yourself uh to go out and advocate us
whether if it's on the legislative lawn
or it's just out talking about what we
do and what we produce um we can't thank
y'all enough for doing that i look I'm
looking over there at them uh car
license plates that says beef on it and
that's I mean that's that's what we're
about is beef i mean so we we appreciate
you again appreciate y'all for hosting
us um anything else you kind of want to
touch on before we go here well I I just
want to relay back to y'all um this is a
unique opportunity for us to to partner
with Live A and Elite Livestock uh Jerry
and Daryl there with with Elite they've
been partners of ours for years back to
when Jerry had McGomery Stockyard and
and uh you know that's his history and
um you know the involvement with
livestock marketing association you know
I I just view all of those as excellent
opportunities for the association to
come alongside and work with our
industry partners um all of us are
trying to accomplish the same thing
which is have a strong cattle industry
and produce high quality beef i I think
you know on on the very basic level
that's what we're trying to do and so
anytime the association can come
alongside uh great groups like yourself
uh we just see it as a real honor and
and thank you very much for the
opportunity to be able to do that yeah
and it's what what what Jaw and Jerry
and and Darl and the group have done for
the for the industry over here as far as
making the quality of the cattle better
i mean they they're not only making the
markets better and getting them brought
you know spread out where more people
can see them but the cattle over here
are not what they were 15 20 years ago
absolutely it's a whole different
program they've got they've got good
genetics in here they got good bull
herds in here they got good cows in here
and it's it's not like you know you you
mentioned Alabama 10 15 years ago you're
taking some bunch of crossbreads which
nothing wrong with that but they have
implemented some really good genetics in
here and it's it's it's showed i mean
the quality of cattle coming down here
and the and the quality of y'all's ry
grass down here and and making a sure
feeder year it's it's pretty neat well
I'm I'm glad to hear you say that
because I I couldn't agree more i'm a
little biased because I'm down here but
you look at our industry top to bottom
we have some of the highest quality seed
stock producers in this state across
multiple breeds and I can't help but
know by going to these sales I know
who's there buying these bulls i know
who's buying these females i know what
they're putting together and I know that
they're producing high quality cattle
that are these feeder calves um like you
said our grass growing ability boy we've
had a good ryrass year second to none
down oh man it's it's been great and so
um the way that the market works
together in the and the sectors work
together we do have an ability to
produce some really nice load lots of
these these heavyweight feeder calves
and it's good to hear that folks that
maybe don't live here they are
recognizing that quality because I think
that it's been implemented and I think
it's really showing in in the type of
cattle that we're sending out of the
southeast yeah this market today will be
really really good on these bigger
feeder steers and heers and they'll go
all across the country they won't just
it's not like there's one one or two
guys will be sering about and that's
that's what was fortunate of us i don't
know if Daryl ever told you the story
about us calling Wesley and and trying
to get a meeting set up oh is Daryl was
mad that he was going to come to Texas
and whoop on us cuz he thought he
thought we was trying to take Wesley
away from him but all he was want to do
is sit down and can't take Wesley no he
was like "Y'all ain't come take my young
i'm going to train this boy i ain't come
taking my young." Yeah wesley's been
there a while yeah but no great group of
guys they do i mean and their their
business is just evolving and growing
steadily every day so uh anybody out
there listening if you're over this way
and you you want to get in contact with
them just you can find them on our
website at live-ashag.com or just
looking up at elite lifestyle marketing
um they're doing a fantastic job for us
and with us and we can't we can't thank
them enough for coming on so we're proud
to see the the progress that's for sure
and the success so congratulations to
all of y'all thank you once again
appreciate you thank y'all for tuning in
with us and watching us once again on
Social Media World once again as Katie
would remind me to say hit like and
subscribe on the buttons up top uh
before I leave I want to do something i
want to be sure to wish my lovely wife a
happy birthday today's her birthday
today i don't want to miss that so happy
birthday i love you um once again God
bless and we live it