For the third time in its extended existence dating back to 1898, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA, previously the National Cattlemen’s Association) will be led by a woman.
Currently the President-Elect, Jennifer Houston, will take over the reins of NCBA in February 2019. The two previous women presidents before Houston were Jan Lyons, who served as president in 2004-2005, and JoAnn Smith, who served as president in 1985-1986.
Houston has always been involved with ranching. She grew up on a cattle and hog farm in west Tennessee and showed cattle in her youth. But she told WLJ that, back when she was a kid, her then 13-year-old brother told her, “If you want to farm, Daddy’s going to have to buy another one because this one’s mine.”
“We had that attitude across the nation,” she said of the time. “The boys would go home to farm and the girls, if they wanted to be involved with agriculture, would be involved in a support role.”
Despite that attitude, Houston got involved in leadership roles early on. In addition to getting a degree in animal science and working in her husband Mark’s family livestock auction market business, she began pursuing leadership positions in local and then national organizations. For instance, she served as chairman of the Tennessee Beef Industry Council twice since its inception in 1986 and has represented Tennessee on the Beef Industry Council of the National Live Stock and Meat Board. She joined NCBA as a board member in 1996 and has chaired several committees since then.
“There were many times that I was not only the youngest, but the only woman on the board,” she recalled. “A lot of times, especially in my early years on the Meat Board, just because I was female, they would always assume I was staff rather than a volunteer leader.”
With a wry chuckle, she added that, “Every now and then, it still happens.”
There were not many prominent female leaders in agriculture while Houston was a young woman.
“There were a few, most notably JoAnn Smith who was president of what was then the National Cattlemen’s Association in 1985. She’s always been a hero of mine and a good friend,” Houston said, adding that Smith was an energizing exception to the rule.
“Just watching her and realizing, as I was in my 20s, ‘Hey, you know, maybe someday, if I work hard and stay involved, I could do that too.’ Because obviously people were taking her seriously and she was a strong, outgoing woman who was not afraid to speak up and speak out.”
Houston opined that women in agriculture have traditionally taken support roles—working behind the scenes on ranches, or in chemicals, feed, marketing, or other agribusinesses rather than taking on leadership or primary positions on their production ranch—for so long that it is second nature and some might have simply not spoken up in wider cattle industry groups.
“But that’s changing a lot more, especially with our younger women,” she observed, pointing out that there are three women on NCBA’s officer team as an example. In the past, there has almost always been one at most.
“It’s exciting to see—both on our college campuses and in the association—the young women who are excited about agriculture and being in the beef industry.”
“It’s exciting to see—both on our college campuses and in the association—the young women who are excited about agriculture and being in the beef industry.” — Jennifer Houston
When asked what she sees as having drawn more women to leadership roles within the industry, Houston said it was likely the combination of the evolution of society as a whole, and greater levels of representation of women in leadership.
“People my daughter’s age grew up, not necessarily in the ag industry seeing women role models, but they saw strong women on TV, strong women speaking their mind. I think that led to them thinking, ‘Well, why not?’”
When asked if women bring anything unique to the table within ranching organizations, she said she had thought about it a lot.
“I don’t want to characterize that women are all the same, because we’re certainly not, but I do think there are different perspectives, … and I think that having a well-rounded board or officer team is important.”
Houston had much the same to say about the cattle and beef industry overall.
“I think we always have to remember that everyone in the industry has a voice and an opinion, as well as everyone else.” She added that her plans for NCBA are to strengthen the state and national partnerships, seeing the local-level, grassroots generation of ideas getting funneled up to the national level as a strength of the group.
“We all do things pretty differently depending on our environment, but we all end up with a very healthful, nutrient dense, sustainable product,” she said of all producers.
“We have a whole lot more that unites us than divides us, and I try to remind people of that. There’s a lot of people out there who want to put us out of business and want to take meat—and certainly beef—off the plate. We have to work together to keep that from happening.” — Kerry Halladay, WLJ editor
