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 www.NALF.org North American (303) 220-1693 |
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NALF News The North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) Board of Directors met April 24–26 in Denver, Colo. The first day included long-range planning. Committee discussions dominated the second day, with committee reports and Board actions being the focus on the final day. A summary of approved motions is available via the NALF Web site’s secured, members-only portion (www.nalf.org/members). The Board’s next meeting will be Aug. 21–23. The fiscal year (FY) 2007–2008 budget will be the main topic of discussion. As always, Board members encourage their constituents to suggest agenda items or share thoughts and opinions about current issues facing the breed. See the Board directory in the “Contact NALF” section of the Web site. To enhance the nominations and voting processes for new directors, the NALF Board approved three bylaws changes in June 2006 and put them into effect for a one-year trial. At its April meetings, the Board voted to extend that trial through the next election cycle. The changes address the structure of the Nominating Committee, at-large nominations and absentee ballots. The Board invites ongoing input from NALF members as it evaluates their effectiveness. The NALF Board approved a third round of the Visions Quest (VQ) cattle-feeding and carcass-discovery project at the Colorado State University (CSU) Ag Research, Development and Education Center (ARDEC) north of Fort Collins, Colo. NALF and CSU will need at least 300 head for the trial. Enrollments are due to Bo Sexson in the NALF office by Sept. 1, and cattle owners will get credit on their feed bills for the nonrefundable $20 per head entry fee. NALF will attempt to coordinate trucking so the cattle arrive in early to mid-November. To provide continuous marketing opportunities for its members and their partners in allied industry, NALF is offering three Internet-based sponsorship programs. First, NALF will begin accepting sponsors for the Partners e‑newsletter. Starting in September, each issue will offer three sponsor spots. Two-month blocks for each spot will sell for $250 apiece on a “first come, first served” basis. For more information, contact Brad Parker in the NALF office. Second, NALF will offer sponsorship opportunities on its Web site. Beginning in October, two sponsor spots will be available for four-month blocks, which will sell via a “Country Auction” (similar to eBay) on DVAuction.com. Bidding will run from July 10 to Aug. 9, and bidder syndicates may include up to five entities. For more information, contact Parker. Finally, NALF will secure sponsors for future webcasts on DVAuction.com. For $1,000 per webcast, a sponsor will get recognition on DVAuction’s home page, in its e‑mailed daily announcement, during the webcast itself, in all advanced publicity and in the related materials archived on the NALF Web site. For more information about a webcast sponsorship, contact Frank Padilla in the NALF office. Use the “Marketing Reach” link on NALF’s home page to find complete details. Starting with FY 2006–2007, NALF members have had the option of contributing toward a national Limousin commercial marketing “checkoff” at time of registration. NALF will use the monies collected so far to increase circulation of the Bottom Line newsletter among prospective Limousin customers and to survey the commercial sector. More than 130 NALF members have enrolled in the commercial marketing checkoff. Enrollment is easy – just contact the NALF office. You may change your checkoff-enrollment status at any time. At its April meetings, the NALF Board voted to increase the checkoff to $4 per head at time of registration. The 2007–2008 member service fee notices will provide members with an opportunity to join or re-enroll in the new checkoff. The Board voted to increase the fee for “performance only” recordings to $10 per head effective July 1. The first adjustment to the fee since January 2000 is meant to put performance-only recording on more equitable footing with the Limousin Inventory Management System (LIMS), which encourages reporting all data for all animals all of the time. Breeders can credit their performance-only fees for unregistered animals recorded with NALF toward later registration. The NALF Board designated Amarillo, Texas, as the site for the 2009 National Junior Limousin Show and Congress (NJLSC). The show’s tentative dates are July 9–18. The Ambassador Hotel will be the headquarters hotel, with the show itself at the Tri-State Exposition complex. The NALF Show Committee will vote on nominees for the approved-judges list at its July meeting, which will be in conjunction with the NJLSC in Louisiana. Active annual and lifetime members can send their nominations to Lorrie Taylor in the NALF office via mail, fax or e‑mail. Provide your member number or herd prefix and the nominee’s address and phone number. Sellers usually submit transfer paperwork for sale cattle after the buyers settle their accounts, which normally takes about a month after the sale date. If you need to receive registration papers for specific animals sooner than that, notify the sale managers so they can expedite those transfers. If you need registration papers for a show, please call the NALF office at least one week beforehand so staff members can assist you. Do not wait any longer than that because they usually need at least three working days to get a new paper to you. The heifer-retention reporting tool is available for Limousin Inventory Management System (LIMS) participants via the secured, members-only portion of the NALF Web site. LIMS participants have until Aug. 15 to report heifer-exposure information. The optional reporting will give NALF the data it needs for genetic evaluation of heifer pregnancy. It also will help ensure active LIMS inventories accurately reflect incoming replacement heifers and eliminate the need to report disposal codes for culled heifers later. NALF encourages all breeders and state associations to take full advantage of the cooperative funds available to help them promote Limousin genetics. The key provision to getting NALF assistance with advertising projects is that they communicate directly to commercial producers. Participating breeder groups and state associations need to develop advertising budgets and schedules and submit the completed forms to NALF by Aug. 1 for priority consideration. For guidelines and application forms, call the NALF office or see the Web site’s “Programs” or “State Associations” section (as appropriate). NALF members are finding added convenience in using their Visa or MasterCard credit cards to pay for their association paperwork. If you would like to charge all NALF services to your Visa or MasterCard account automatically, contact Mary Zilk in the home office with your NALF member number or herd prefix, credit-card number, and its expiration date. If both of a Limousin animal’s parents have DNA-test results on file indicating they are homozygous black or homozygous polled, NALF will note “Homo Black (P)” (“homozygous black by pedigree”) or “Homo Polled (P)” (“homozygous polled by pedigree”), respectively, on its registration certificate. Those designations save NALF members time and money when registering calves from two tested-homozygous black or polled parents. NALF encourages its members to participate in the Cattle Industry Summer Conference, July 16–20, in Denver, Colo. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has mailed the preregistration brochure to all of its members, but you do not have to be an NCBA member to participate. If you have questions or would like additional information about the conference or NCBA membership, call (303) 694-0305.
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