TCFA At Work For You

What are the benefits of being a TCFA member? 

by Burt Rutherford

"You can sum it up in one word-insurance."

That's how Brady Miller looks at the value of the many services that TCFA offers its members.  It's a question he gets asked regularly, he says, as he makes his rounds to TCFA Member Feedyards performing his services as TCFA's quality assurance specialist and talking to members as market analyst.  And while he says it's a question that any association member should regularly ask, it's a question he feels very comfortable in answering.

"You're paying 40 cents per head in dues and indirectly insuring that we're going to keep the feedyard you're feeding in out of trouble," Miller says.  "For example, instead of you paying, say, 53 cents (cost of gain) per head per pound, it may be much higher because the feedyard has to come up with the extra money to go out and do what we can do for them much more efficiently and cheaply."

Nowhere is that example more evident than in TCFA's legislative and regulatory activities. "The goal of many activists organizations or regulatory agencies is to increase the regulatory burden on cattle feeding, with the ultimate intent of forcing us out of business," says Vice President Ross Wilson , TCFA's lead rider on a litany of legislative and regulatory issues that TCFA must address every year.  "So TCFA works aggressively to head off bad legislation and regulations that would choke feedyards with unnecessary burdens.  We must be proactive, not reactive."

TCFA SERVICES

TCFA offers a wide variety of services to its members:

• Legislative Activity

• Beef Safety and Quality Assurance Program^SM

• Beef-Pac

• Liaison with Regulatory Agencies

• Market Information

• Research

• Environmental Activities

• Web Site (www.tcfa.org)

• Cattle Feeders Annual

• Weekly Newsletter

• Video Library

• Group Health and Life Insurance

• Safety Program

• Seminars and Workshops

• Annual Convention

• Employee Referral Service

• Arbitration Program

• Junior Fed Beef Challenge and Team Challenge

Wilson spends his time on the phone and in face-to-face meetings with state and federal elected officials, regulators and others, persistently and persuasively arguing the Association's policy as decided by its Board of Directors.  "This industry is so huge and varied and the complexity and amount of different legislative and regulatory issues facing feedyards is staggering.  Can you imagine what it would cost each of TCFA's Feedyard Members, or its many thousands of Feeder Members, to hire their own lobbyist?" Wilson asks.

That's why many members say they're glad TCFA is much more than a one-issue organization.  If TCFA members didn't have somebody working for them full time in state and federal politics, it's undeniable that the legislative and regulatory burden would be unbearable.

One area where legislation and regulations meet to give cattle feeders a challenge is related to environmental protection.  "As part of rolling out our new Environmental Services Program, we figured out a dollar benefit on the environmental and regulatory issues that we work on," said Ben Weinheimer, TCFA's regulatory manager.  "That amounts to a base value of $4,000 per feedyard, if you divide the staff resources we commit to the issue across our membership."

So very quickly you can tell what kind of impact those types of activities can have, Weinheimer says.  "And automatically, it would be much higher than $4,000 if a feedyard had to get those services from somewhere else-it could run in excess of $10,000."

That cost, Weinheimer says, is what a feedyard would have to pay a private contractor to perform the services that TCFA offers, including answers to regulatory compliance questions and working as a liaison between feedyards and regulatory agencies.

Feedyard managers in Cattle Feeding Country have long turned to the TCFA staff for help in answering a host of regulatory questions and the expertise that the staff has accumulated over the years is impressive.  Weinheimer says that works to everyone's advantage.  "There are issues that come up, and to a certain feedyard manager, it may be a new issue," Weinheimer says.  The manager has only to pick up the phone and call TCFA.

"It may be a question we've already heard half a dozen times," he says.  In nearly every case, TCFA has the answer, whether it's an issue that staff has researched and learned the answer or has paid an attorney or consultant to answer for them.  "We can offset some potentially high expenditures.  And if it's a new question to us, we can save the feedyard, and thus its customers, a lot of hassle and money because we'll go find the right answer by asking the right question to the right person."

The benefit is that TCFA's many services and availability free up the feedyard management and employees to do what they're supposed to do-that's cattle, that's feed, that's treatment of those cattle and ultimately the sale, Weinheimer says.  "It's one more thing that he doesn't have to do that we can do very efficiently."

Cattle feeders need look no further than 2001 to see the profound affect that government intrusion into the business can have.  "When Mandatory Price Reporting was rolled out, we went from a viable and workable voluntary system to a mandatory program that was simply unusable by cattlemen," says Market Director Jim Gill.  Fortunately for TCFA members, however, the TCFA Market Department was able to step in and fill the void, providing critical daily market information as well as helping cattle feeders make some sense of the new government reports.

Market information is one service that TCFA members have long relied on to help them optimize their cattle feeding investment.  "In the fast data exchange world we now live in, market information is even more critical," Gill said.  "So just as we always have, we'll provide the best and most usable information we can to our members, which benefits the feedyard customer directly."

Derrell Havins sees the same thing in his area of expertise-employee safety.  "When an employee has an accident, it comes off the top.  For example, a back injury can run close to $100,000 if it's not handled correctly."

That's why Havins is conducting feedyard safety inspections virtually every day.  During the inspection, Havins can help feedyards identify areas where employee safety can be enhanced, with the goal of obtaining no lost-time accidents.  As part of the TCFA safety program offered to Feedyard Members, Havins teaches CPR and first aid classes, helping train feedyard employees in important life-saving tactics.

In addition, Havins contracts for infrared inspections of feedmills.  This is a preventive procedure, designed to locate electrical hotspots that may be reaching the end of their productive life and prone to breaking down.   "When we find problems in the mill within the electrical system, the feedyard can get it corrected and it keeps the mill and the feedyard from shutting down.  So everything I do saves a feedyard money, and by extension, saves its customers money."

While the benefits of being a TCFA member can be an economic advantage, they extend much beyond pocketbook issues.  "A feedyard safety program can really boost employee morale and help a feedyard keep good employees because employees see that management is very concerned about them and their welfare," Havins said.  "And that is a very direct and very positive benefit to that feedyard's customers."

Havins said that several years ago, a feedyard manager mentioned that having an effective safety program in place did much more than just reduce accidents-it improved the feedyard's efficiency.  The manager said that he could chart the increased feed efficiency of the cattle.  The reason he gave was that a good safety program encourages employees to think about how to do their jobs more safely.  By extension, it also encourages employees how to think about doing their jobs better.  And the results could be seen in black and white.

Just as with safety, another area where TCFA helps feedyards train, motivate and keep the best employees is through its various educational programs.  Seminar topics range from animal health to office personnel to labor law, to name just a few.  "Last year (in 2001), we conducted a series of regulatory management seminars for feedyards," Weinheimer says.  "They were so well received that we're doing similar seminars in 2002."  Just as with every seminar TCFA puts on for its members, the regulatory seminars are designed to give cattle feeers solid take-home information that they need to operate their feedyard as efficiently as possible.  The benefit to their customers?  Costs are kept highly competitive.

Weinheimer agrees, saying the same holds true with TCFA quality assurance programs.  "Cow-calf producers take a lot of pride in the cattle they produce and the calves they have.  So they want to assure, as those calves move into the food chain, that they're handled according to best management practices whether they retain ownership or not."

Weinheimer says in the case of TCFA's Beef Safety and Quality Assurance Program^sm, feedyard customers can take great assurance that the feedyard is working hard to do things right-injections are given properly, withdrawal times are being met, the cattle are being handled humanely and that the facilities are properly designed.

"It gives them a comfort level from that perspective, plus they know that the feedyard had to meet a rigorous set of qualifications to be approved under the program and has to be re-certified annually.  Because quality assurance doesn't yet have a true dollar value, at least the customer knows that the feedyard is trying to put a best foot forward in producing a safe and quality product."

Another service that saves TCFA members money is insurance.  "TCFA Feedyard Members, because of their TCFA membership, automatically qualify for a 10% discount on their workers' comp coverage.  In addition, by pooling resources, Texas-based employers can become part of TCFA's Group Life and Health Insurance plan, saving even more," says Connie Tommerup , TCFA's controller who is responsible for TCFA insurance programs.

Wilson says he's often asked whether TCFA's services benefit only the larger feedyards, leaving smaller operations wanting.  Nothing could be further from the truth, he emphasizes. "We've had smaller yards tell us directly that they would have to hire a staff person to handle some of the environmental, safety and quality assurance programs we offer," he says.  "Well, figure out what an agricultural engineer on every feedyard would cost.  We've got something that benefits everybody."

So your 40 cents a head, combined with the dues from all other TCFA members, buys you an impressive arsenal of services, Wilson says.  "These services offer members information and support necessary for success.  You're paying for an insurance policy that I think you'll use and you'll benefit from every time you put a set of cattle on feed in Cattle Feeding Country."

Editor's Note-Burt Rutherford is TCFA Communications Director