PCA's Mission

 2025 Award Applications now available

We all know people who have helped move our Pennsylvania cattle industry ahead - through hard work, promotion, mentoring and more! Now's the time to nominate and recognize those awesome folks who, many times, are comfortable in the background just doing what they can! Our PCA Annual Meeting & Banquet will be held February 22, 2025 in Altoona, PA, where we will recognize several BQA award winners, an Environmental Steward winner and our scholarship winners. We need your help with nominations! Please see the attached forms, fill them out and send them in by November 15th! Let's make this a true celebration of our fellow cattle enthusiasts and recognize them at the Annual Banquet!

 Here are the award categories:
-Environmental Steward of the Year
-Feeder of the Year
-Cow/Calf Producer of the Year
-Educator/Industry Service Person of the Year
-Marketer of the Year
-Dairy of the Year
-Two, $1500 scholarships

The Goals of PCA

• Lobby with affiliate input on local, regional, state and national issues;

• Supporting partner with Beef Quality Assurance;

• Quarterly Keystone Cattlemen magazine and Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association (“PCA”) website to serve as a communication hub; and

• Conduct youth oriented events.

Word on the DC Street...
Thanks to our friends at the Nebraska Cattlemen's Association for sharing some DC insights this week!

Ag officials are closely watching for President Trump’s ag priorities as he has said on the campaign trail that he would consider a universal tariff up to 20% on imports from China. Trump has claimed these would decrease food prices for consumers and support U.S. ag.

Politico recently reported that Trump could also “rescind billions of dollars meant for green farming practices, while cutting regulations on pesticides and other wide swaths of the agriculture sector. But internal GOP politics could stall such efforts.”

Many have probably seen the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” which is from RFK Jr. who Trump has said he greatly respects, and would like to have involved in his administration. Everyone will be closely watching to see who Trump picks for USDA secretary and additional senior ag roles.  Politico also reported that  “Trump promised to get rid of “artificial foods” -- which could turn the current food industry upside down given that would seemingly include all packaged foods. He's also said he wants to get rid of “pesticides” -- which many agriculture lawmakers, especially Republicans, argue are key crop management tools. He’d face intense backlash from his own party, which represents a majority of the farmers in the country, should he pursue that agenda.”

On the Senate side, with republicans taking back the majority, Arkansas Republican John Boozman is on track to become chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee in the next Congress. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is expected to take over as the lead Democrat on the committee.

With a republican president and a republican majority in the Senate, lame-duck farm bill talks are about to look a lot different. Boozman has stated in the past that he believes in a farm bill extension to make sure the process is done correctly and truly support agriculture producers. This is a sentiment Senator Fischer shared throughout her time speaking on the campaign trail to various NC affiliates.