The Montana Stockgrowers Association is heading east to Miles City for their Mid-Year Meeting. The event will run June 13th through the 15th.
Miles City Rancher and Montana Stockgrowers President Fred Wacker says the event is a true celebration of Montana’s number one industry.
“Well, it’s so important because of policy,” said Wacker. “We have things changing and government agencies, they impact ranching. They’re changing in marketing throughout the world. We have tariff situations talks foreign governments that we are talking to as cattle producers on a daily basis. And so it’s very important that the ranchers and the cattle people get together at a mid-year event to where they can meet face-to-face ask questions.
In addition to the policy meetings, there will be events in entertainment the whole family can enjoy including a concert by country singer Moe Bandy.
“We have the Moe Bandy concert on Thursday the 13th. We will then have a gala dinner on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning we will have an all livestock parade down Old Main Street in Miles City, Montana. We will have Street dances too. There are things going on here and we’re going to have an awful lot of fun. We’re going to have a lot of meetings a lot of good policy set here, but we’re going to have a lot of fun for the ranch and Ranch folks here in Montana,” said Wacker.
The Stockgrowers meetings will be held at the Miles Community College. For a full agenda, information on all the events and to register, visit mtbeef.org.
The ongoing trade disruption with China is impacting all facets of agriculture, including sheep producers here in Montana.
The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) is asking the Trump Administration to consider the market impacts to the nation’s wool and sheepskin producers as they develop a relief strategy for agricultural producers hit hardest by the trade war with China.
“In September of 2018, China imposed tariffs of 10% that may actually go up to as much as 25 percent in just a year’s time,” said ASI President Benny Cox.
Cox added the U.S. wool industry alone has seen a loss of 85 percent of export value for raw wool.
“The economic impact on raw wool in March 2018 totaled about 5.7 million in exports,” said Cox. “As of March 2019, we’re looking at $877,000 that’s kind of an ugly picture.”
ASI says that sheepskin prices have dropped so dramatically in the past year that they are detracting from the value of finished lambs.
-Reported by Lane Nordlund/MTN News
