HUNGTINGBURG, Ind. — A provider of feeder calves from Indiana now has a voice in the industry at the state and national levels.

Edmund Hildenbrand of Huntingburg is representing Indiana on the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board headquartered in Denver, Colorado. He’s replacing outgoing board member Norman Voyles, Jr, who reached the end of his two, three-year term limit. Voyles of Martinsville spent his last year as chairman of the organization’s Beef Promotion and Operating Committee.

The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which oversees the checkoff program nationwide, has 101 members from 42 states. Each member is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Hildenbrand, who has about 30 head of cattle on his 320-acre family farm in the southwest part of the state, called his appointment an honor and felt privileged to be able to serve. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.

Hildenbrand owns the farm he and his late father grew up on. There were some feeder calves and hogs on the farm back then along with corn and soybeans. Hildenbrand said he helped with the operation and worked at a number of surrounding dairy farms while in high school.

“I did everything from milking cows to pitching hay,” he said.

After graduating from Purdue University in 2001 with a degree in agricultural education, he returned home and went back to farming related employment. 

He and his wife started their own beef herd 15-years ago. Currently, many of their Angus calves go to the Evansville area for finishing. 

“That’s where we’ve been sending a lot of calves the last couple of years,” he said.

He presently employed full time as a flock supervisor at Farbest Farms, Inc., a turkey processor in nearby Jasper. 

Hildenbrand said he’s already learned a lot from his appointment by attending classes during the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board annual convention from late January to early February in New Orleans.

He said he was amazed at the amount of work going on behind the scenes with the $1 per head collected from every cattle rancher in the U.S. at the point of sale.  The check off dollars go primarily toward promoting beef and educating the public about the work involved in raising cattle.

“I’ve kind of gotten a little bit better taste of it.  It kind of surprised me on most of it,” he said.

Hildenbrand was nominated for seat by the Indiana Beef Cattle Association. He’s been a member of IBCA for about 10-years. Currently, he serves on the IBCA membership committee doing things like promoting beef during the Indiana Stair Fair.

As a member of the CBPRB board, Hildenbrand said he hopes to play a role in the ongoing task of making sure correct information gets out to the public about the positive work performed by ranchers in areas like the environment, sustainability and animal welfare.

“We got to tell our story before somebody else does,” he said.

Some states have more than one member on the CBPRB board depending on production.

According to the CBPRB, a state with 500,000 head of cattle receives one board member then it’s one million head of cattle for each additional member. The board is also responsible for approving the annual budget for its national checkoff-funded programs.                                                                                                          Indiana ranks No. 33 in the U.S. with 790,000 head of cattle.  “In the total industry, we’re pretty small but we raise a lot of good cattle in our part of the country,” Hildenbrand said.

Kentucky is ranked No. 14 with 1.9 million head while Tennessee is No. 16 with more than 1.6 million head of cattle.                                                                                                           Ohio, Michigan and Illinois were 24th, 28th and 30th respectively in the cattle population, according to USDA.                                                                                                                       

Texas leads the nation with 1.5 million head of cattle followed by Nebraska, Kansas, California and Oklahoma, whose numbers range from 6.5 million to 4.6 million.