Fullblood Simmental Fleckvieh Federation
Amid snow flurries, sleet, ice and wind a respectable amount of FSFF Members arrived at the cozy Little Creek Farm Sale Facility in Starkville, MS. to attend the 2010 General Annual Membership Meeting. Once again, Dr. P. Mikell and Mary Cheek Davis went over and above all expectations in their hospitality and generous help to make people welcome and comfortable for the Meeting. Their staff in the hospitality areas, the cattle barn and the auction ring are above compare. President Nolan took a moment to introduced the Guest Speaker, Dr. Thomas Grupp of Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics and to single out Dr. and Mrs. Davis for their unending support of the Federation. The presentation by Dr. Grupp would be given after the Annual Meeting adjourned. President Nolan also spoke briefly on the dual purpose of the Fleckvieh and pointed out that sales had been brisk in North American during 2009. He suggested that all FSFF breeders need to raise the level of their statistics. The importance of DNA and genomics is coming quickly to the beef side of the equation. The dairy side depends on it greatly already. The snips are 100% accurate. EPD reporting is essential so that there are full compliments of information for the calibration. Fred Schuetze reported that ASA and CSA were asking for semen samples for the 500 snip panels. President Nolan called for a motion to approve the 2010 Meeting Agenda. Dr. Billy S. Moore made the motion. Greg Kemp seconded the motion. Motion carried. Treasurer Kent Dollar reported on the Financial condition of the FSFF for the calendar year 2009. The FSFF net income was $1504.82. The FSFF checking account balance on December 31, 2009, was $5,890.77 – which included $922.01 of NAILE donation balance to be distributed to Larry Maxey, Superintendent of “the Pinnacle” Fullblood Show in Kentucky. The Accounts Receivables were in the amount of $4,447.85. Total amounts deposited for the year 2009 were $36, 003.27. Total expenses for the year 2009 were $36, 303.45. Kent Dollar moved that the Financial Report be approved as presented. Jim Von Behren seconded the motion. Motion carried. President Nolan then asked for Committee Reports. Greg Kemp, Chairman of the Membership Directory Committee, reported that the FSFF made $7,716.10 on advertising in the 2009 Directory after all expenses had been paid.. The cost per copy to print and distribute the Directory this year was down to $ .29. The cost per copy in 2005 was $1.02. It would seem we are in the right direction. Mr. Kemp then asked for a show of hands from Members who advertised in the Directory if they had seen any decrease in sales activity since we did not mail out the Directory with SimTalk. There was only one hand raised. He then asked those present if they wanted to publish a Directory in 2010 along the same line as the 2009 issue. The answer was a verbal positive. The new 2010 Membership Directory Committee will proceed with the publication and the securing of ads. There are 700 remaining Directories (out of 2,000 printed) available for use in the year 2010 to distribute at our events, through the mail to people seeking information, or for the distribution to the Members for their personal use. Jim Ethridge, Chairman of the Membership Committee, reported that we gained 15 new Memberships during 2009. We ended the year with 112 paid Memberships. There are 84 Members in the USA and 28 in Canada. In 2008 we had a total of 113. Mr. Ethridge passed around copies of a state by state Member distribution list. He also mentioned that we had the most requests for information from North Dakota. No new Memberships from that area, however. President Nolan called for any nominations, for the three vacant Board positions, from the floor. There were none. President Nolan then introduced Larry Maxey, FSFF Member and the Superintendent of “the Pinnacle” Fullblood show at the NAILE in Kentucky. Mr. Maxey gave an overall report on the event. There were 18 breeders participating in the event who arrived with 52 head of cattle. It was quite an impressive “first” for the Fullbloods. He expressed a hope that now the initial show was over and in the history books, perhaps the FSFF would sanction it and take part in the building of another group of exhibitors for November, 2010. He also said there was much interest shown at the show for a Fullblood sale at the same venue. He felt the Kentucky Simmental Association would be open to the idea, but the planning would have to start almost immediately to see if the idea was feasible for 2010. He thanked all the exhibitors who were present and invited them to express their suggestions to him in the upcoming weeks so that he could present them to the NAILE committee. President Nolan called again for any Board position nominations from the floor. There were none. Fred Schuetze motioned that the nominations cease. Dr. P. Mikell Davis seconded the motion. The motion was carried. The four nominees for the three FSFF Board positions each spoke to the audience in turn: For those Members who had not submitted a written ballot, a “by hand” vote was taken and those votes then added to the tally of the mailed in ballots. The three new voted in Board Members for three year terms are: President Nolan welcomed the new Board and expressed to the FSFF Membership that the entire Board was excited about the new year and ready to work hard. Following the Annual Meeting there was an in depth Power Point presentation by Dr. Thomas Grupp on Fleckvieh cattle. He began by announcing the formation of his new AI company, Bayern-Genetik, Ltd., in Germany. The presentation continued with his discussion and questions and answers on the following topics:
The audience in attendance had high interest and asked many well thought out questions of Dr. Grupp. His presentation held everyone’s attention and much information was absorbed. |