This month’s “News & Notes” features a new American Angus Association regional manager named for Region 6, the female headlining the 2025 Angus Foundation Heifer Package, 2025 Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame inductees, Senate passage of the Beagle Brigade Act and USDA initiatives to close out the year.

Swanson named Angus regional manager for three-state area

The American Angus Association recently hired Andrew Swanson as the newest member of its regional manager team. Swanson will cover the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, helping commercial cattlemen and Association members with their needs.

“Andrew is no stranger to the area or the world of Angus sales,” says Levi Landers, director of field and member services for the Association. “He has spent the last 10 years serving cattlemen, and I’m looking forward to introducing him to breeders in his area.”

A native of Ivanhoe, Minn., Swanson joins Angus from Select Sires, where he served as a beef business manager, overseeing the beef market sector in North Dakota and Minnesota. He also held other roles with Select Sires and worked with seedstock and commercial producers, representing Lee Agri-Media at production sales during the last five years.

Swanson is one of 13 regional managers serving across the United States as full-time staff members of the Association. They work with cattle breeders in their designated regions to promote Angus cattle, help commercial cattlemen utilize Angus programs and assist Angus breeders who want to get started in the Angus business.

Regional managers also work with breeders to ensure their advertising needs are being met through the Angus Journal and Angus Beef Bulletin. They can often be found working at Angus sales and shows, representing the Association at livestock conventions and serving as a liaison between the organization, its membership, users of Angus genetics, industry partners and academia.

“In my final year of college, I remember thinking the Angus regional manager job was my dream job,” Swanson says. “I look forward to engaging with cattlemen at a number of industry events, making herd visits and helping answer as many questions as I can about the Angus business,” he says.

Swanson and his wife, Bridgette, and their two young sons, Owen and Brooks, own a small, registered Angus cow herd. They are the fourth generation to farm their family’s land.

“That firsthand knowledge will be a huge benefit to cattlemen — both seedstock breeders and commercial cattlemen,” Landers says.

Swanson began his duties Dec. 1. He can be reached at aswanson@angus.org or 507-829-4133.

Pollard Rita 4012 to headline 2025 Foundation Heifer Package

Pollard Rita 4012 has earned the coveted spot as the female headlining the 2025 Angus Foundation Heifer Package. The package will sell at the National Angus Bull Sale Jan. 10 during the 2025 Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma City. Showcasing top-tier genetics, the sale of the package also benefits the Angus Fund, supporting programs that shape the future of the breed, including the Beef Leaders Institute (BLI), the Leaders Engaged in Angus Development (LEAD) conference and Angus University.

“Pollard Farms has donated an exceptional female,” says Jaclyn Boester, Angus Foundation executive director. “This female will be a great asset to anyone’s herd, whether they are looking for phenotype or genomic enhancements, and while supporting the Angus Fund.”

Pollard Rita 4012 is a daughter of EXAR Cover the Bases 0819B and a productive 2-year-old cow “on her way to the donor pen,” says former Association Board President Barry Pollard of Pollard Farms, Waukomis, Okla. She stems from PF W34 Rita 4139, a longtime donor in the Pollard Farms program. Rita is an elite donor prospect that exemplifies the phenotypic and numerical balance Pollard and his crew strive for.

Her sire, EXAR Cover the Bases 0819B, jointly owned by Pollard Farms and Express Ranches, is valued at $400,000. His first calf crop was headlined by the record-setting $240,000 half-interest female at the 2023 Big Event production sale hosted by Express Ranches.

“His first calf crop was phenomenal,” says Pollard. “He is a high-carcass and high-marbling bull with a great foot structure and great bone. As Jarold [Callahan] always said, ‘He is a different kind of marbling bull.’”

The dam of Rita 4012 comes from a long line of maternal genetics in the Pollard herd. PF W34 Rita 4139 is a direct daughter of EXAR Rita U049, who came to Pollard Farms as the $62,000 half-interest Lot 1 from a past Big Event.

“I am honored to donate the Angus Foundation Heifer Package this year,” says Pollard. “Her dam exemplifies what the goals of our operation are. … I think people will be pleased with her look and genetic abilities.”

For more information about the package, contact Boester at jboester@angus.org or visit www.angus.org/foundation.

Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame announces 2025 inductees

Established in 2009, the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame honors the exceptional visionary men and women who have made lasting contributions to the cattle-feeding industry. 2025 Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame honorees will be recognized during the 16th annual banquet Feb. 5, 2025, during CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.

Hall of Fame inductees for 2025 include Joe Morgan of Poky Feeders, Scott City, Kan., and Dan May of 4M Feeders, Stratton, Colo. Tom Jensen of Nebraska will receive the Industry Leadership Award for his decades of banking experience and service to the cattle industry, and George “Frank” Littrell Jr. of Midwest Feeders Inc., Kansas, will receive the Arturo Armendariz Distinguished Service Award.

Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame banquet attendees are invited to participate in CattleCon 2025, the largest cattle and beef industry event of the year. The annual convention features industry meetings, inspirational speakers, education, entertainment, a trade show, producer recognition and much more. Proceeds from banquet corporate sponsorships benefit future Hall of Fame initiatives.

For more information about CattleCon 2025 and to register, visit https://convention.ncba.org. For more information about the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame and 2025 inductees, visit www.cattlefeeders.org.

NPPC celebrates Senate passage of Beagle Brigade Act, urges House passage

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) celebrated the U.S. Senate’s unanimous passage of S.759, the Beagle Brigade Act, which provides statutory authority and reliable funding to the National Detector Dog Training Center.

“American agriculture relies on the National Detector Dog Training Center to prevent the introduction of foreign animal and plant diseases that would cripple our food supply,” says Lori Stevermer, NPPC president and pork producer from Easton, Minn. “For the pork industry, the ‘Beagle Brigade’ is the first line of defense for keeping threats from foreign animal diseases, like African swine fever, out of the United States. America’s pork producers greatly appreciate Senator Joni Ernst and our Senate champions and urge the House to take this up before the end of the year.”