Building the beef industry: A century of commitment

This book is the remarkable story of the men and women who understood above all else that there had to be a viable national association for the survival of a beef industry. That industry had to take its place in the gigantic American marketplace, subject to all the vicissitudes of supply and demand, shaped and reshaped almost daily by technological developments like hamburger and huge cattle trucks and feed yards. It had to be a weighty voice in constant debate with the political forces in state capitals and in Washington, DC, where regulations ran rampant and all American interests collided with each other.

Building the beef industry was not a ritual without mistakes and not free of rancor as you will see as you journey through these pages. Nor are the arguments over. But here is a drama of strong, caring people who not only wanted to serve this country better beef but wanted to preserve a way of life where families could live on their land and preserve it and claim for themselves the same sense of security and well being that Americans have always sought.

Thus dusty century of roundups, bawling stockyards, environmental precautions and breed refinement may be the easy century. The challenges ahead for the industry are more complex and pervasive than those faced by the 1,200 delegators who gathered in Denver in 1898 to found the National Life Stock Association of the United States, the progenitor of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which now reaches over 200,000 producers. Ranch land continues to succumb to the deep pockets of real estate developers, and regulations on health and slaughter cascade out of every concerned governmental body. The assault on read meat consumption is waged by fringe dietary and animal rights groups.