Attendees can apply for a Rancher Resilience Grant to help offset the cost to attend this year’s symposium. The grant is designed to support cattle producer attendance at impactful education events. It is made possible by a partnership between the National Cattlemen’s Foundation and Cargill Protein, and is administered by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. This year’s BIF Symposium qualifies as an educational event. To fill out the application and possibly qualify to be reimbursed your registration and housing costs visit www.ncba.org/producers/rancher-resilience-grant.
The BIF Symposium features two days of educational programming. The first general session — “Sustainability: Rhetoric vs. Reality”— will feature presentations by Ruaraidh Petre, Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef executive director; John Crowley, AbacusBio; and Jason Sawyer, King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management associate professor & research scientist. During the second general session the theme will be “Global Perspectives on Adaptation and Genetic Prediction.” Speakers Friday will include Tony Clayton, Clayton Agri-Marketing; Billy Estrada, Tres Marias Ranch, Mexico: and Phil George, Miratorg Agribusiness Holding production director, beef & lamb operations, Moscow, Russia.
Thursday and Friday afternoon technical breakout sessions will focus on a range of beef-production and genetic-improvement topics.
A highlight of this year’s convention will be the Young Producer Symposium and Pre-Tour on Tuesday afternoon at the Santa Teresa livestock border crossing, the largest crossing facility in the U.S. All attendees are invited to the tour that will include a lunch sponsored by STLA and Asociación Ganadera Local de Juarez.
For more symposium details, including registration information, a complete schedule and hotel information, visit BIFSymposium.com. Prior to and during this year’s symposium, be sure to follow the event on social media channels using the hashtag #BIF2022.
Each year the BIF symposium draws a large group of leading seedstock and commercial beef producers, academics and allied industry partners. The attendance list is a “who’s who” of the beef value chain, offering great networking opportunities and conversations about the issues of the day. Program topics focus on how the beef industry can enhance value through genetic improvement across a range of attributes that affect the value chain.
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The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) is an organization dedicated to coordinating all segments of the beef industry — from researchers and producers to retailers — in an effort to improve the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of beef production. The organization was initiated almost 70 years ago to encourage the use of objective measurements to evaluate beef cattle. Continuing the tradition, BIF is now the clearinghouse for developing standardized programs and methodologies for recording of performance data for all traits, from birth weights to carcass traits. Its three-leaf-clover logo symbolizes the link between industry, extension and research.