Cattle Raisers name new executive vice president

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 25, 2007—Eldon J. White was introduced March 25 as the new executive vice president of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association during the group’s 130th annual convention in Fort Worth. He is expected to assume his new duties in May.
      Currently, White is the executive vice president of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) based in Overland Park, Kan. He has 28 years of agriculture related association management experience, including nearly 16 years serving as the chief staff officer for up to six associations concurrently.
      “We conducted a comprehensive search to come up with the right individual to lead this association to the next level,” reported TSCRA President C.R. “Dick” Sherron. “Eldon White has extensive association experience, he was raised on a cattle ranch and he’s worked for the National Cattlemen’s Association and the American Sheep Industry Association.”
      White was raised on a stocker operation outside of Ogden, Utah. His dad was an order-buyer for a commission company, and White learned the business early by going with him to sort cattle. The family ranch also bred registered Quarter Horses for racing and during his high school years, Eldon worked as a jockey.
      The ranch expanded into the sheep business, when Eldon’s older brother decided to raise sheep for his 4-H project. Eldon chose purebred Angus for his project and showed primarily in the Intermountain West area. He was also active in FFA and served as Utah state FFA president in 1969.
      “My claim to fame is that during the national convention that year, there were three of us who are still in the ag circles now that voted to accept girls into the FFA,” White remembers. He told that story at a national Ag Day luncheon last week to the great delight of the current national FFA secretary, who is a young lady.
      White earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Utah State University. He has a B.S. in animal science with minors in agriculture business and international agriculture and an M.S. in agricultural economics.
      His first job after graduation was working as a county agent specializing in 4-H and livestock. From there he went to the National Cattlemen’s Association (now the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association) in Denver as director of marketing and transportation programs.
     “While I was at NCA, I gained an appreciation for the rich tradition of the Texas cattle industry,” White says. “I got to know some of the elder statesmen of the industry, and I respected them a lot.”
      White left NCA in 1983 to become director of producer services for the American Sheep Producers Council, which was the checkoff program organization for lamb and wool promotions. He was charged to create a “Cattle-Fax”-type group for the sheep industry, providing market information and analysis.
      In 1989, the American Sheep Producers Council and the National Wool Growers Association merged to become the American Sheep Industry Association. White was named vice president for policy and government affairs and chief operating officer. He served in that position until 1991 when he joined NAMA.
      For his new position as TSCRA executive vice president, White and his wife Val will move to the Fort Worth area. They have two daughters, Kristen, 23, and Kelly, 21.
      White was initially contacted by TSCRA’s search team as a source to suggest possible candidates for the executive vice president position. It soon became clear, however, that his qualifications and experience made him the prime candidate.
      “When people ask me what I bring to the organization, first of all, it’s the love of the cattle industry,” says White. “Second is my strong association management experience.
      “People who haven’t worked for an association don’t understand how it’s really different from a for-profit environment. You have a different set of bosses–in NAMA they change every year.” (TSCRA elects new officers every two years.)
      “You need to be flexible to leadership styles and meet the interests of the members in a way that’s achievable and realistic.
      “I was really encouraged by the strategic plan that TSCRA has and the opportunity to work with a leadership that has a pretty clear vision of what they want to accomplish,” White emphasized.
      “The other thing that I’ve really been impressed with in terms of the cattle industry and the people that I’ve met here at the convention is that they’re in the business of raising cattle, but more so, they’re in the business of raising families. This is a business for them, but they want to pass that business on to their children.”
      White described seeing a rancher at TSCRA’s convention with his five-year-old son all decked out in new Levis, starched shirt and cowboy hat.
      “He was excited about going to the cattlemen’s convention. That’s the future of what we have as an organization–the excitement of the next generation. And that’s one of the challenges that we will have as an organization.”

         Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is a 130-year-old trade organization whose 14,500 members manage approximately 5.4 million cattle on 70.3 million acres of range and pasture land, primarily in Texas and Oklahoma.

 TSCRA–9–2007