There are unsung heroes in every walk of life. Every profession, every job, every family, and every place has its heroes no one knows about, but who do a little extra with all that they touch and endeavor; never asking for any reward or need of any recognition. They just do the job and fill every day with their productivity and grit.
Obviously, the readers of this magazine know such people because agriculture has its many uncounted numbers of people who fit this description.
You know them, you might be one. You know young folks raised on farms and ranches, no longer working in agriculture, who put in the extra hours, who go the extra mile until the job is done, and not when the clock says five.
I can see the ranch wives I have known. They raise kids, pull calves, fix fence, feed surprise numbers of guests, wipe noses, start colts and never complain or stop when they are tired. I see a cowboy bringing the last pair into the ranch yard long after dark just because that chore needed to get done that day.
The ranch owner and his visiting friend, after being horseback at dawn, are in the kitchen having a quick lunch when the there is a fire call in the valley. They head to the truck, load shovels, pulaskis and jugs of water and drive to the fire in the hills across the valley. They still wear their riding boots and spurs. The spurs come off and they start walking the fire line until way past dark when along with their neighbors and a cool evening the fire settles down enough for the relief crew to take over. Back at the ranch they climb into their beds and a few hours later, the fire under control, they saddle horses and move cattle well into the early afternoon.
I do not mean to imply these extra efforts don’t occur outside of agriculture because we all know they do. There is the fast food restaurant manager who covers for the employee with a sick child at home and the manager hasn’t had a day off in a month. The young lawyer works to prepare a case for a senior partner on a Saturday and Sunday. There is the truck driver who works on her day off because the boss needs some help and there was no one else. There are those who do these things without complaint and those who don’t. I call the ones who do the unsung heroes.
This is being written on September 11th. We can all remember the images of the Twin Towers and the first responders who ran into the infernos to try and rescue as many victims as they could sacrificing themselves in the process. Most of these heroes’ names are known and we sing their praises. I do not mean to diminish the heroism of these people, but it is the unknown others I am writing about today.
It is no secret to longtime readers of this publication of my involvement in and support of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and as the current Treasurer of NCBA, I am involved at the highest level of decision making and knowledge of the way NCBA conducts its business and is responsive to the needs and desires of its grass roots membership. I have seen many unsung heroes working on your behalf.
Livestock industry organizations such as the Public Lands Council (PLC) and NCBA have dedicated employees working everyday to make sure livestock producers can stay in business. Using producer dues dollars to support their advocacy, these employees watch the U.S. Congress and the agencies across the country to make sure the industry point of view is heard and supported in many respects.
Here are two recent examples of this engagement on behalf of the livestock industry that follow which may not have received much publicity.
There are some 800,000 cattle producers in the United States. Very few of them can pay much attention to the issues affecting this industry being discussed in our nation’s capital. An example is the dietary guidelines which are required by law to be updated every five years. We all know lean beef is an important source of a versatile, affordable, nutrient-dense, and delicious protein for a balanced and healthy diet. However, most people do not know the technical details of this and there are groups of people who want to eliminate animal protein from our diets altogether.
These guidelines are important to ranchers because they are used to base federal health and nutrition policy for congress and the relevant agencies. These federal dietary policies are used by the military, school lunch programs, dietary welfare assistance and nutrition and health care professionals. A statement in these guidelines suggesting beef is not a good part of a balanced diet could have a negative impact on the demand for beef by the public.
Fortunately, there is a dietary expert on NCBA’s staff in Washington who is a part of the discussion about the guidelines and has had a positive influence on the decision for the guidelines keeping criticism of beef in the diet out of the final product.
Another example is NCBA’s work on the hours of service livestock trucking issue. Going back to 2017 the U.S. Department of Transportation has tried to limit the hours that truck drivers can be on the road by promulgating regulations governing those limitations. This is fine for hauling bulk goods such as lumber or perishables in refrigerated trucks with days of cooling capability, but for hauling livestock or other animals a little extra time on the road means less stress for live animals who would have to be unloaded, fed, watered and reloaded to comply with the hours of service applicable to non- animal hauling.
The economic and health impacts of requiring livestock transporters to follow these limitations in hours of service would be profound to the livestock industry. NCBA has successfully lobbied for extensions on the implementation of these rules until a time when a permanent solution can be instituted for these past four years since discussions of this issue first emerged.
This is but another example of the work NCBA is doing for the industry whether a member or not. The quiet unsung heroes are doing their job day in and day out. We should all thank them. As an added note the NCBA Washington D.C. office has been the only agricultural organization still operating full time in the Capital since the beginning of the pandemic.
Be safe out there, Happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you soon.
By Joseph Guild