During the first week of this Spring semester, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 2019 National Cattlemen’s Convention and NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans, Louisiana through the Wyoming Collegiate Cattle Association (WCCA). Between attending Cattleman’s College, working the UW Animal Science booth, and going through the trade show, this trip was truly an incredible experience that I benefitted tremendously from. With this, I’m grateful for the incredible opportunity to make the trip down to New Orleans, alongside the rest of the WCCA officer team, and allowing us to represent the university and club at such a prominent and influential national event.
To start the trip, the officers and I all attended Cattleman’s College, which largely consists of a variety of hour-long classes led by innovative university faculty and industry members from across the country. I attended sessions about managing to reduce disease challenges, fetal programming (which most of their research came from projects here at UW), low-stress cattle handling with Temple Grandin, EPD’s and genomics, crossbreeding, and farming/ranching without the bank. All of these classes provided extremely interesting and practical information that can I can personally use back at the family ranch or in the classroom.
Besides Cattleman’s College, the opening and closing general sessions, along with the CattleFax presentation, were also very interesting and worthwhile to attend. From listening to NFL Hall of Famer, Terry Bradshaw, as a keynote speaker discussing hilarious anecdotes from his personal cattle herd, to hearing from the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, they certainly captivated the audience. Along those lines, simply getting to learn more about NCBA as an organization and various other cattle associations across the country was very worthwhile.
Another important aspect of our trip was to represent UW and the Department of Animal Science at the trade show booth. We helped set up the display and then kept it manned in various shifts throughout the event. It was a tremendous experience meeting with people from across the country who were curious about UW, students and regular event attendees alike. Particularly, people from Wyoming especially appreciated our presence at the trade show and always wanted to talk with our group. Along these lines of meaningful conversations was simply getting a chance to get to know our UW faculty in a more intimate way.
Attending the National Cattlemen’s Conference truly was an incredible experience that I benefitted greatly from. While I had never been before this year, I always pictured this conference to be the quintessential progressive and influential cattle industry event, to which it held up to that expectation. From networking with people at the trade show to attending the Cattlemen’s College sessions, I thoroughly enjoyed learning and gaining new experiences. I’m truly thankful for the College of Ag and Animal Science department for helping make this opportunity a reality for me and the rest of the WCCA officers. Overall, I’m very satisfied with my time in New Orleans, and I’m hoping to continue attending these national conferences in subsequent years.
-Blake Ferris
