2nd aNNuaL PNW YounG CaTTLemen's ConferencE

Excitin' news Y'all...the grand inauguration of the Pacific Northwest Young Cattlemen's Conference was such a thriving hit last year.....we are bringin' it BacK!

Save the Date(s)! ...Friday, January 21, 2011 and Saturday, January 22, 2011, be in Pendleton, Oregon Friday mornin' and soon you'll be bound for Boardman & Baker City, OR. See the links below for more tour details which includes stops at Pacific Ethanol, Beef Northwest Boardman Feedlot, Port of Morrow, McKenzie Ranch, and more.

Please find further details below or at Young WA Cattlemen and be sure to register prior to January 14th!



2010 PNW YCC Attendees

RFD-TV short segment feauturing interviews from last year's attendees: Ben Carpenter, Ryan Rademacher, & Jenna Feusner as well as highlights of the two days!

GoD is fOr YoU

The following was taken from a daily Purpose Driven Life email. I love that this "Christmas" message goes beyond the manger, star, and shepherds. Those things are such crucial pieces to Christ's birth and ultimately his life on earth. However, often I feel the details of Christ's birth have become more symbolic and decorative than grabbing our hearts and reminding us why we have Christmas...because God IS for US. Personally, a Christmas message that focuses on God "having my back" is what I need at this time in my life. So many people do not countdown the days and hours until they celebrate...they countdown the days and hours til the holidays pass. I encourage us all to be mindful of those who don't have a place to travel to, a tree to put up, family to buy for or to even see. There are millions of people who are stripped of joy when these months roll around rather than are filled with joy. I pray someone out there is able to show them with love & generosity that Christ is For ThEM...

But the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people." Luke 2:10 (NLT)

Knowing God is for you will change your whole perspective on life. You'll stop thinking of God as someone looking down from heaven, ready to yell, "Gotcha!" anytime you mess up.
Instead, you'll realize God loves you; God is with you; and God is for you! God is for your success in life; he created you for a purpose and he wants you to succeed. It is God, your Creator, who will measure your success in life, and no one else.
This is extremely good news!
It means you don't need to be afraid of God because God is for you. Yet, some people are so afraid of God they get nervous just talking about him. Do you know why? They feel guilty, and then they start thinking, "If I get close to God, he's going to lecture me. He's going to remind me of all the things I've done wrong, and then I'll feel even worse!"
Nothing could be further from the truth of God. Jesus said, "I did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it." In effect, Jesus is saying, "I didn't come to scold you, I came to save you."
And if God is for us, who can be against us?
Jesus came to save us, not to scare us.  That's why when the angel was telling the shepherds about the birth of Jesus, the first thing he says is: "Don't be afraid!"
In fact, when God sends a message to people in the Bible, it's not unusual for the first words to be: "Don't be afraid." There are 365 messages from God in the Bible that begin with a phrase like, "Fear not!" In other words, every single day of the year you can read a message from God that says, in effect, "You don't need to be afraid. I am for you; I am with you; I love you."
We celebrate Christmas because of this good news from God!
(devotional by Rick Warren)

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Don’t let Capitol Hill strangle free trade

Interesting Editorial by Christopher Gillis of American Shipper News ...would love to hear some opinions raised from y'all on this delicate topic. Remember..without opinions or thoughts of our own...well, we might as well just be a socialist!;)

American Shipper   12/22/2010

When a free trade agreement is right for American shippers, like the one recently concluded between the United States and South Korea, then our elected officials on Capitol Hill must make every effort to expeditiously ratify it.
However, as so often goes in Washington, there will be a group of isolationist politicians — both Republican and Democrat — who will do their best to stymie the ratification process, further demonstrating their inherent ignorance in the value of free trade to U.S. industries now and in the long term.
Simply put, free trade agreements are about ending tariff and non-tariff barriers between two countries’ imports and exports. Why should protectionist barriers prevent high quality U.S. products from reaching overseas consumers?
Some lawmakers, as well as labor unions, would argue that these trade deals result in domestic job losses, or don’t do enough to hold trading partners accountable on human rights, labor and environmental standards. While these impacts are arguable, the result of doing nothing to achieve free trade with our closest economic and political allies may spell lost jobs anyway, as U.S. companies’ products fail to be competitive in these overseas markets.
One of the most important U.S. industries — agriculture — has already reaped the benefits from existing free trade agreements between the United States and other countries, such as Mexico, Canada, Chile, Australia, Peru, Morocco and the Central American region.

According to a recent study by a group of U.S. agricultural industry analysts (the 2010 Analysis of the Effects of Trade Agreements on U.S. Agricultural Exports and U.S. Market Development Programs), the North American Free Trade Agreement, from 1994 to 2008, resulted in a boost in U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico and Canada of more than 300 percent or more than $12 billion.


...finish reading more about the US-Korea FTA and the remainder of this editorial jump over to American Shipper