News Update
Dec. 16, 2008

California will host BIF symposium

Sacramento, Calif., will provide the backdrop for the 2009 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Annual Research Symposium and Annual Meeting April 30-May 3. The California Cattlemen’s Association and the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association will host the event, themed “Beef Rush ’09.”

Registration opens at noon Wednesday, April 29.

Events Thursday include the East Tour, the opening reception and the biennial National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) Symposium.

Families can participate in the Family/Spouse Tour Friday as meeting attendees attend the general sessions in the morning and committee meetings in the afternoon. Friday evening features a dinner and reception at the Railroad Museum.

Saturday morning’s general sessions will be followed by presentation of BIF awards, including the commercial and seedstock producer of the year awards, along with lunch and a luncheon speaker. The meeting portion of Beef Rush ’09 will wrap up with committee meetings Saturday afternoon.

Participants can stay Sunday for the West Tour.

The East Tour will begin with a California ranch breakfast at Five Star Land and Livestock, home of Mark and Abbie Nelson. It will be followed by a cutting horse demonstration at the Rancho Murietta equine facility, host to two national cutting futurities. Lunch will be at the Trinchero Family Estates Winery in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, renowned for its zinfandel wines. The final stop on this tour will be at the ranch of Duane Martin, one of the top 10 cow-calf operators in the United States.

The West Tour will visit Drake’s Bay Family Farm, which raises grass-fed beef and oysters. The tour includes lunch at the scenic Bodega Bay Marine lab, and concludes with wine tasting on the beach. Coastal California can get rather cold, so meeting hosts recommend bringing a coat for this tour.
The Family/Spouse Tour is Friday, May 1, and will encompass Sutter’s Fort, built in 1839; the State Capitol Building, which underwent a $68 million renovation; the International Gardens of the Capitol Park; and visits to the Firefighter’s Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, the International World Peace Gardens and the Historic Governor’s Mansion.

General meeting registration is $295 if received by April 3 and includes all sessions, breakfasts, noon meals/receptions, the railroad dinner and proceedings. Spouse registration is $250, and student registration is $90 if received by April 3. Tours are an additional fee of $70 each. Single-day and single-event registrations are also available.

The Sheraton Grand Hotel at 1230 J St. in Sacramento will serve as the headquarters hotel. Book your reservation before April 3 to receive the group rate of $139.99 per night. The hotel phone number is 916-447-1700.

Visit www.bifconference.com for a link to more information about the 2009 conference, including online registration. The site currently features coverage of last year’s meeting, but we will be converting to the 2009 site soon.

Trouble Paying Bills? Web Site Offers Guidance

“I could be laid off in a few months, cutting our household income by half. What should we do if we can’t pay the bills?”

That’s a good question to be asking now, before unpaid bills and an empty bank account are staring you in the face. When someone loses a job, the emotional impact can cause just as many problems as financial ones: Fear and uncertainty can slow decision-making and affect your judgment. So, it’s wise to take a few steps today to plan for the worst, just in case.

A good place to start is http://www.eXtension.org, a web site that brings together experts from land-grant universities from across the nation on a variety of topics, including family finance. You’ll find lots of information on “Managing Money in Tough Times.” In particular, “Deciding Which Bills to Pay First” (http://www.extension.org/pages/Deciding_Which_Bills_to_Pay_First) offers great advice, including:

• Gather the facts. Know what you make and what you owe, and how much money is needed to cover your family’s essential monthly living expenses. Determine if you have assets you can sell or if you have items you can return that would erase your debt on them. The web site offers a one-page form to download and print to list all of your creditors, including the interest rate you’re paying and the balance owed on each debt to give you an at-a-glance look at how much you owe.
  
• Determine which of your creditors need to be paid first. To do this, you’ll need to ask yourself several questions, including what affects your family’s health and security the most (usually the mortgage or rent, utilities, food, transportation, and medical insurance); what you’ll lose if certain bills are not paid (your home, car, furniture, appliances, other items?); what interest rates you are paying on your debts; and how your credit record will be affected.
  
• Decide on a repayment plan. The web site offers a number of tools that can help, including a link to PowerPay (https://powerpay.org). This free, protected site allows you to input information (creditor, amount owed, interest rate) for all of your debts and helps determine a repayment plan that will save you the most money in interest charges.
  

As soon as you realize you’ll have trouble paying the bills, set up a realistic household budget and figure out what you can pay to creditors. Then don’t hesitate to contact your creditors to explain your situation. The web site offers advice for those conversations, including a sample letter you can personalize to mail or use as a guideline for person-to-person conversations.

A credit counselor could be a big help in your situation. To find a reputable one, contact American Consumer Credit Counseling at 1-800-769-3571 or see the National Foundation for Credit Counseling web site at: http://www.nfcc.org. The counseling service is free, but a nominal fee may be charged when the service prepares a debt repayment plan for you.

Family Fundamentals is a monthly column on family issues. It is a service of Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Send questions to Family Fundamentals, c/o Martha Filipic, 2021 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210-1044, or filipic.3@cfaes.osu.edu.

— compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.