The Arizona Cattle Growers' Association - Highlights
Background:

The ACGA is dedicated to the ranching families of the state of Arizona. Our purpose is to strive for a quality of life for those families without harming the land which we all depend upon.

As time goes on and knowledge, opportunities and alternate ways an individual has to feed, clothe and shelter themselves increases, the general population gets further from the agrarian roots which our forefathers understood.

It becomes more challenging to convey to the general population the basic truths of food production. Within that food production knowledge gap, the understanding of how livestock husbandry occurs, and how it affects the ever changing landscape becomes more and more of a challenge. People of today quite often do not know where their food comes from. In fact they have no concept of the complexity of what raw material production entails. The idea that a day's work is built around the animals needs, not the human desires is alien to most of the population of Arizona.

With Arizona being the most urbanized state in the nation, (more of the population lives in urban areas by percentage, than anywhere in the nation). The rest of the state is viewed as "public land" or "vacant land" by most of our residents. When they think of the land outside the cities they most often think of it as a recreational area.

The background above is what builds and holds together the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association. We have to try continuously to convey the realities of beef production from forage conversion to animal protein to steak on the dinner plate.

A few of those messages and means of conveyance are what follow...

ACGA from 1997 through 2007:

Early 1990's an effort was made to adjudicate the water laws in Arizona. The adjudication has been on going for over 20 years, but an attempt was made to fix some of the water laws to make the adjudication less complex. One of the "fixes" was the clarification of who owned the water rights on state land. If the water right was established prior to the state selecting the land they belonged to the lessee, if they were established after the state acquired the land in trust then the water belongs to the lessee in the name of the state. In the mid 1990's – there were several attempts to have competitive bids on state leases where one party did not want run cattle. We have successfully fought off all but one of those. The one that was lost was over 160ac and the lessee was unable and/or unwilling to contest it. Throughout the last 10 years – There have been numerous attempts to have School Trust land sold at a discount or outright given away to various environmental groups that "preserve" the land. The latest attempt was called the Fox Group. This was an attempt to get the Schools, Developers, Environmental Groups, and Cattlemen to agree on "state land reform." Despite 4 years' worth of meetings and many concessions on the part of the state trust, the agreement ultimately fell apart because the environmental groups wanted free land (1,000,000ac) and wanted ranches to be heavily regulated by the state.

Litigation:

In the early 1990's, the Board of Directors of ACGA understood that they were going to have to intervene in lawsuits filed by environmental groups against the federal agencies who regulate our ranches. The State land lawsuits were also occurring. One of them saying all leases had to have competitive bidding.

The Board soon realized that ACGA was going to have to initiate lawsuits against the same agencies, because these agencies were too willing give into lawsuits from the environmental groups. We won three major victories with those suits. One against the BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service, one against the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, and finally the appeal by the agencies to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The victories established a major precedent in that previously the agencies had guessed at species presence by saying it looks like they should be here so we will treat it as if they are, and force many regulatory requirements on this area. The lawsuit outcome was the courts saying unless the species was there, you (agencies) can't force the regulatory burden on everyone.

ACGA has had to hire attorneys for water adjudication, state land and federal land suits. We have spent well over $700,000 and it has all been donated by members, who couldn't have done it alone.

An Appeal:

ACGA current members cannot continue to carry the load for everyone. If you are not a member, or if you have let your membership lapse, remember you have intentionally shifted your part of the load to someone else. When you have a problem and you want help, are you going to just join until everyone else fixes your problem, then drop again? If you do ACGA will not be here to help anyone, including you.

Join us, your fellow ranchers, in protecting all our livelihoods, way of life, and heritage.

In advance, we, the members of ACGA, thank you for joining us and know you will contribute your time, money and effort to make ranching viable into the future.
1401 N 24th St Ste 4 - Phoenix AZ 85008 - (602) 267-1129
© 2006-2008 Arizona Cattlemens' Association.  All rights reserved.