CENTENNIAL, Colo. - (February 13, 2007) - The Cattlemen’s Beef Board seated new board members and elected officers and representatives for its 2007 Executive Committee and Beef Promotion Operating Committee during its annual meeting in Nashville Feb. 3, 2007.

In addition, the Beef Board unanimously elected Paradise, Kansas cattleman Ken Stielow to serve as 2007 chairman of the Board, with outgoing chairman Jay O’Brien of Texas handing over the gavel as he ended his term. Illinois cattleman Dave Bateman was elected vice chairman, and Neil Kayser of Washington was elected to serve as secretary/treasurer of the Beef Board for the year.

After being appointed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in December, a total of 36 Board members were seated for service on the CBB – including 22 reappointments of existing members to a second term and appointment of 14 new members, who accepted the oath of office from USDA representative Kenneth Payne during a CBB meeting on Feb. 1.

New members seated and the states they represent include: Judy Prosser, Arizona; Roger Evans, Colorado; Michelle Gorman, Importer; Jeffrey Clausen and Robert Johnson, Iowa; Jerry Bohn, Kansas; John Schafer, Minnesota; Kristy Lage and David Lamb, Nebraska; Preston Wright, Nevada; Allen Walth and Myron Williams, South Dakota; Robert Reviere, Jr., Tennessee; and Justin Dauer, Texas.

Reappointments and the states they represent include: Jack Cowley and Dick Nock, California; Laurie Bryant and Greg Silpe, Importers; Don Hullman, Kansas; T.B. Porter, Louisiana; Chuck Markley, Michigan; Quilly Ward, Mid-Atlantic Region; Charles Hull, Mississippi; Jerry King, Missouri; Margie McKeen, New Mexico; Lucinda Williams, Northeast Region; Mark Pendleton, North Carolina; David Boyer, Oklahoma; Jenny Senn, Southeast Region; Pete Case, Chuck Kiker III, and Walter Lasley, Texas; Richard Nielson, Utah; Mark Reichers and Nancy Thomas, Wisconsin; and Dianne Kirkbride, Wyoming.

NEW BEEF BOARD OFFICER TEAM

Newly elected Beef Board Chairman Ken Stielow was the 2006 vice chairman of the Board and served as secretary/treasurer in 2005. He is owner of Bar S Ranch, an Angus and Charolais seedstock, cow-calf and backgrounding operation, in Paradise, Kansas. He also owns a minority interest in a commercial feedlot. Stielow was nominated to the Beef Board by a caucus of certified nominating organizations in Kansas – including the Kansas Dairy Farmers of America, Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas CattleWomen, the Kansas Livestock Association, and the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association and was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture in 2003.

Stielow is a past president of the Kansas Livestock Association and has experience in various segments of the beef industry. Stielow also has served as treasurer of the Paradise Township in Russell County, Kansas, as president of Agco Inc., the local cooperative, and on the board of directors of UMB-NBA Bank.

The 2007 Beef Board Vice Chairman Dave Bateman served as secretary/treasurer of the Board in 2006. He was originally nominated to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board by the Illinois Beef Association and appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in 2000. He served on the Board from 2000 to 2003, when Illinois lost a seat due to reapportionment/ reduced cattle numbers. He then was appointed as a replacement to finish another’s unfinished term from 2003 to 2005, and then was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to serve his own term from 2005 to 2008.

Bateman is a farmer/feeder/cow-calf operator on his family’s farm, established more than 100 years ago. Bateman has been a highly active member of the Beef Board during the last seven years, including service on the Beef Board Executive Committee; the Beef Promotion Operating Committee; the CBB Administration Subcommittee; the Joint Food and Nutrition Issues Subcommittee; Joint Public Relations Subcommittee; Joint Information Committee; and the Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee.

Elected as the 2007 Beef Board Secretary/Treasurer is Neil Kayser of Centerville, Washington. Kayser was nominated to the Board by beef organizations in Washington and appointed in 2005. He has served on the CBB Executive Committee, the CBB Administration Subcommittee; and as vice chairman of the Joint Industry & Producer Services Group. He is a fourth-generation cow-calf producer and runs a family operation with his son, Jess, in Centerville. He is a past president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association and the Klickitat County Cattlemen; a past chairman of the Centerville School Board; and a past board member of the Farm Credit Service and the Northwest Livestock ID Pilot Program.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The 12-member CBB Executive Committee includes the board’s three officers and another eight members elected at large. In addition, the immediate past chair of the Beef Board (Jay O’Brien of Texas) serves on the committee in an advisory-only capacity.

Based on recommendations from the Joint Beef Industry Nominating Committee, the CBB elected the following members to its 2007 Executive committee: CBB Vice Chairman Dave Bateman, who will serve as chairman of the Executive Committee; and members Ken Stielow (CBB chairman) of Kansas; Neil Kayser of Washington, (secretary/treasurer); Laurie Bryant, importer; Virginia Coelho, California; Dana Hauck, Kansas; Don Hullman, Kansas; Tom Jones, Arkansas; Charles Miller, Kentucky; Mark Riechers, Wisconsin; and Sugie Sartwelle, Texas.

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 others elected directly by Beef Board members.

CBB members elected to the 2007 Beef Promotion Operating Committee during the annual meeting in Denver include: Chairman Ken Stielow of Kansas; vice Chairman Dave Bateman of Illinois; Secretary/Treasurer Neil Kayser of Washington; Jack Cowley of California; Carl Crabtree of Idaho; Dan Dierschke of Texas; Glenn Eberly of Pennsylvania; Merrill Karlen of South Dakota; Don Steward, importer; and Lucinda Williams, Northeast Region.

The other 10 members of the committee are representatives of state beef councils, including the chair and vice chair of the Federation of State Beef Councils and eight other members elected by state beef councils. Those representatives include Federation Chairman Gary Voogt of Michigan; Vice Chairman Alan Albright of Iowa; David Dick of Missouri; Brian Healey of Oklahoma; Bill Jackson of California; Laura Lickley of Idaho; Sid Sumner of Florida; Craig Uden of Nebraska; Helen Wiese of Iowa; and Jim Wilson of Oregon.