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Cattlemen’s Beef Board leadership named

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) has elected leadership for the next year. Jimmy Maxey Fresno, California will serve as chair; Anne Anderson of Austin, Texas is vice chair and Brett Morris of Ninnekah, Oklahoma is secretary/treasurer.  Bios of the three leaders can be found below.

Other Executive Committee members are; Laurie Bryant, an importer representative; Sarah Childs of Florida; Dave Edmiston of Texas; Robert Fountain of Georgia; Barbara Jackson of Arizona; Laurie Munns of Utah; Kent Pruismann of Iowa; and Gary Sharp of South Dakota.

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee members were also named. The 20-person committee includes 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, among them the Board’s three officers and seven others elected directly by Beef Board members. The other 10 members are appointed from the Federation of State Beef Councils.

CBB members elected to the 2015 Beef Promotion Operating Committee during the annual meeting in San Antonio include: Chairman Jimmy Maxey; Vice Chairman Anne Anderson; Secretary/Treasurer Brett Morris; Marty Andersen, Wisconsin; Jeanne Harland, Illinois; Brittany Howell, Kansas; Joe Guthrie, Virginia; Chuck Kiker, Texas; Stacy McClintock, Kansas; and Joan Ruskamp, Nebraska

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board administers the beef checkoff, the Promotion Operating Committee coordinates state and national beef programs.

CBB Officer bios follow:

Newly elected Beef Board Chairman Jimmy Maxey has been highly active in beef industry organizations, including service as vice chairman and secretary/treasurer of the Beef Board, as well as president and chairman of the former National Meat Association and chairman of the California Beef Council. Jimmy grew up on his family’s small cattle ranch and was also very involved in its meat-processing plant. After attending Fresno State University, he returned to the family business, including the packing and processing plant and the cattle-feeding business. Since selling Beef Packers, Inc./Fresno Meat Co. in 2006, he has remained active in cattle feeding and meat processing by working for his sons at Certified Meat Products.

This year’s Beef Board Vice Chairman Anne Anderson is a cow-calf and stocker operator from Austin Texas and the first executive director of the Texas Beef Council. She and her husband, Jim, own a small cattle ranch in Colorado County and a larger one, which Anne manages, in Menard and MuCulloch counties. In addition to ranching, she has spent more than 15 years providing assistance to individuals and groups trying to build new companies – mostly in the beef industry, and all in the food industry. Anne also is a co-founder and former CEO of AgInfoLink Global, one of the largest food-tracking companies in the U.S., with additional international offices in Australia, Canada, Mexico and Argentina.

Newly appointed CBB Secretary/Treasurer Brett Morris is a third-generation dairy farmer and runs a dairy, cow/calf and stocker operation, as well as the Washita Fertilizer Company, in partnership with his father. Theirs is a diversified farm operation, including about 1,000 acres of alfalfa, wheat and grassland, 65 registered Holstein cows for milking, 100-125 beef cows, and 200 stocker calves. Morris served as chairman of the Oklahoma Dairy Commission, vice chairman of the Oklahoma Johne’s Advisory Committee, as a district voting delegate to DFA, a director of the Federation of State Beef Councils, and as vice chairman of the Oklahoma Beef Council.