Cattle producers Joan Ruskamp of Dodge, Nebraska, Chuck Coffey of Springer, Oklahoma, and Jared Brackett of Filer, Idaho, are the new leadership team for the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion & Research Board, elected unanimously by fellow Beef Board members during the 2018 Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix. Ruskamp will serve as chairman, Coffey will serve as vice chairman and Brackett as secretary/treasurer to lead the national Beef Checkoff Program for the coming year.
Newly elected CBB Chairman Joan Ruskamp and her husband, Steve, operate a feedlot and row-crop farm west of Dodge, Nebraska. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Curtis, where she earned an associate degree in veterinary medicine in 1980. Ruskamp has been very active in the beef industry, with service to numerous producer organizations. In addition, she has been a 4-H leader for about 20 years, an EMT for more than a decade and a religious education teacher for nearly 30 years.
Vice Chairman Chuck Coffey is a fifth-generation rancher who grew up in the hill country of Harper, Texas. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in range science from Texas A&M. Coffey taught agriculture at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, after completing his master’s in 1985. Eventually, he chaired the department until he joined the Noble Foundation as a pasture and range consultant in 1993. He is extremely passionate about ranching and feels blessed to be able to work on the ranch every day.
This year’s Secretary/Treasurer, Jared Brackett, is a fifth-generation cow/calf producer from Filer, Idaho. He graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in agriculture economics and is a diehard Aggie football fan. Brackett is also a past president of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association and continues to serve on a number of other livestock committees and boards.
Executive committee
The 12-member CBB Executive Committee includes the Board’s three officers and eight members elected at-large. The CBB members elected the following members to its 2018 Executive Committee: Amelia Kent of Louisiana; Bill King of New Mexico; Paul Moss of Tennessee; Don Smith of Texas; Jana Malot of Pennsylvania; Jack Parent of Vermont; Irv Petsch of Wyoming and Rob Von Der Lieth of California. CBB Vice Chairman, Chuck Coffey, will serve as chairman of the Executive Committee, and, as immediate past CBB Chairman, Brett Morris of Oklahoma will serve as an advisor to the committee.
The Executive Committee operates under the direction of and within the policies established by the full Board and is responsible for carrying out Beef Board policies and conducting business and making decisions necessary to administer the terms and provisions of the Act and Order between meetings of the full Board.
Operating committee
The Beef Promotion Operating Committee was created by the Beef Promotion Research Act to help coordinate state and national beef checkoff programs. The 20-person committee includes 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, among them the Board’s three officers and seven other members of the Board elected at-large by Beef Board members. The other 10 members are appointed from the Federation of State Beef Councils.
CBB members elected to the 2017 Beef Promotion Operating Committee during the annual meeting in Phoenix include: Michael Smith of California; Robert Mitchell of Wisconsin; Hugh Sanburg of Colorado; Tammy Basel of South Dakota; Janna Stubbs of Texas; Ken Blight of Michigan and Rich Brown on New York.
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