Rob Adams — 2025 Angus Board Candidate

Rob Adams — 2025 Angus Board Candidate

Rob Adams, Union Springs, Ala., is seeking a second term on the American Angus Association Board of Directors.

The elected delegates will choose five directors; a president and chairman of the Board; and a vice president and vice chairman of the Board during the Association’s 142nd Annual Convention of Delegates, which will convene at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) Sunday, Nov. 2 in Kansas City, Mo.

Visit AngusJournal.net to learn more about each candidate.

To register for Angus Convention, visit AngusConvention.com.

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Transcript

Miranda Reiman (00:03):

Good leadership, honors history, while promoting progress. There are 10 candidates running for five open spots on the American Angus Association Board of Directors. I'm Miranda Reiman with the Angus Journal team, and I'm introducing you to each of them before November's annual meeting. I've got Rob Adams here with me from Union Springs, Alabama, and we are going to just visit a little bit today. You can tell me about yourself, your history in the breed and your current involvement.

Rob Adams (00:32):

Sure. Thanks Miranda. Thanks for having me on today. As you know, I've been on the board the last three years, so you know my background a little bit, but for those that don't know, I grew up in Union Springs, Alabama, which is southeast portion of Alabama. I'm a third generation Angus breeder. My grandfather started the farm in 1939, so we've been in the business for 86 years now. And now my son is full-time on the farm and his children are coming along. So we have the fifth generation here with us now as well. It used to be a row crop and cattle farm, but now it's purely, everything is Angus and the only other thing we do on the farm is some timber. But I came back to the farm after college going to Auburn University, getting an animal science degree. I came back to the farm full-time for a couple of years and realized pretty quickly that there wasn't enough here back in the late seventies, early eighties for two families to make a living. So for many of the years I have worked off the farm as well as on, but I've lived here the entire time. And so I've had a second business in the investment management and financial planning for the last 35 years. But it's been a privilege to serve on the board for the last three and look forward to another three if the membership chooses to elect me.

Miranda Reiman (01:55):

Well, with that vantage point, why don't you tell me some of the association and the breed's biggest strengths that we can build upon?

Rob Adams (02:04):

Oh, everybody knows the Angus breed has kind of taken over the cattle business in many ways with 80 to 85% of the cow herd out there being black now, I mean we have so many strengths between the cattle themselves being so adaptable to so many different regions of the country. We have so many different types of breeders. We have breeders that select purely on the numbers. We have breeders that select purely on phenotype and many, many, many in between. And so that really is a strength for the breed itself that we have so much diversity within the breed and within the membership. But when I think of the breed, I also think of the strengths of Certified Angus Beef and AGI and the National Junior Angus Association and the Foundation. I mean, our leaders from the past a hundred years have really built a program with a lot of success and we have a great staff in place in Saint Joe now. And I just think there's so much to be thankful for and positive about. I mean, sure, there's always challenges and there's always things that we all question at times about how do we go to the next phase. I mean, when you're at the top of the pyramid, it's hard to stay there because everybody just wants to batten down the hatches and just stay right where we are and just hold on to that top position. But if we're not always looking to improve, I feel like that could be a real challenge for us down the road.

Miranda Reiman (03:38):

So it's fun to talk about opportunities and strengths, but let's zoom out a little bit from the Association to the greater beef industry. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges or changes you see facing the beef industry in the next five to 10 years?

Rob Adams (03:52):

Oh, there's many, many challenges. As I just said, part of it's just being at the top of the commercial market and the Angus breed and staying there. How do we fight to stay there? How do we always adapt to improve and plan for what's coming down the road? Because we all know there will be many challenges from financial challenges to environmental challenges to just the next generation and how are they going to survive and how are they going to sustain? How are we going to keep this going for them? Because even with cattle prices as good as they are right now, I tell people all the time, there's no way you could go buy the cattle, buy the land, buy the equipment, buy all the inputs and think you can pay that note with the income that we're getting even now. But so it is a time to take advantage of the success of the market that we're in.

(04:45):

It's a time to build for the future and really train that next generation and hopefully bring more young people in because we all see our neighbors retiring. We see many of the kids not wanting to come back to the farm because it's hard work and it's never ending and it's seven days a week and there's a lot of people out there that don't want to do that anymore. They don't have to do that anymore. But I also think my glass is always half full. I tend to be the optimist in the crowd in the sense of I don't fear the future. I don't fear what's coming down the road.

(05:24):

That's just not the way I live my life. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity for the next generation to really step in and make a difference. The world keeps getting bigger and bigger in terms of the number of people, and I think there'll be a lot of challenges for us to even feed the world in the next 25 or 30 years. But as long as we keep working at and keep plugging ahead and keep trying to be that progressive breed that's gotten us to where we are today, I think that's where we have to be and that's what we have to do. I know there's some people that probably don't like that. They want to just batten down the hatches and take, this is the way it is and this is the way it should be, and we don't need to make change. We need to just stay right where we are and just hold on. But that's not the way I see it, and that's not the way I view the future.

Miranda Reiman (06:12):

Well, as you think about some of those changes, what do you feel the association needs to be doing today to position the breed and our members for success in the face of those?

Rob Adams (06:23):

Oh, that's a great question, Miranda. Probably one of the more difficult questions because we sit in that boardroom every quarter and try to determine what is the future and how can we be relative. Because I used to think other breeds were our competition in the cattle industry. And I'm not sure it's the other breeds that are really our competition anymore. I think it's the other major large corporate genetic companies that will end up being our biggest challenge down the road because they're going to spend what they need to spend. They have the resources, they have the money, they're going to do all the research, and they're going to put forth an effort to take business from us in the coming years that they don't care whether these cattle are registered. They don't care if they're purebred, they don't care anything about all of that. They just are trying to put forth the best genetics that are available out there. Whereas within the Angus breed, we want it to stay in the purebred lines of cattle. And yet, I know as a breed, we've got to continue to challenge ourself to be on that genetic forefront, to be able to compete with these large corporations that have unlimited resources and that that's our biggest challenge in my view, going down the road.

Miranda Reiman (07:51):

And so to shift just a little bit from talking about the industry to talking about you, why are you running for the board and what do you hope you can contribute?

Rob Adams (08:00):

Oh, it's no different than it was three years ago. I mean, the Angus breed has been very good to my family from the last three generations and hopefully the next two that you can already see. It's been my life and it has meant a lot to all of us. I mean, my kids grew up in the National Junior Angus Association going to junior nationals and showing at local and state shows, and the Angus Association has meant so much to us that I just felt like I wanted to give back some of my time. And the only reason I can do that now is because of my stage of life with my son back on the farm full time. I do have the flexibility and time to do it, and I know we need leadership that is just as a friend of mine puts it, has a lot of good old country common sense on the board and just bringing that common sense to the board and to the leadership is what it's about, I think. And I just wanted to use this opportunity to give back is the main thing.

Miranda Reiman (09:11):

Well, we thank you for your service and your willingness to put your name on that ballot for perhaps another three years. Is there anything else that you would like people to know before November's annual meeting?

Rob Adams (09:24):

Sure. I mean, as we all know, there's been a lot of challenges within the breed here, especially lately. And there's been a lot of conflict and a lot of things said about leadership within the organization. And it is, it's difficult. It's difficult to know sometimes what is best for the organization, but just know that I feel like for myself and for the other members of the Board and the staff, I think we are doing what we think is best for the organization long term. That is the leadership style of almost everybody on the Board. They're there to serve. They're not there with an agenda. We just are trying to preserve what we have built over the last hundred years. And my leadership style is more of a sit back and listen and watch and educate myself and learn and make input where it's necessary.

(10:22):

But we have to remember the 22,000 members that are out there. There's a lot of people and there's a lot of diversity within the breed, and that's hard sometimes to turn off the noise and really just focus on what we think is the right direction. Are we going to make mistakes? Absolutely. I know I will. But I would ask for your support. I've really enjoyed the last three years. I've learned a lot in the last three years. It's extremely challenging to get on board and understand what is really going on within the organization. I think in a lot of ways it takes those first three years to be able to be a good leader in the organization, because there's just so much to learn. So I would just ask the membership that they continue to support me for the next three years and I would love to accept that if it is in their choosing, I should say, I guess. Well, thanks for your time.

Miranda Reiman (11:22):

Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time to visit with me today and we'll look forward to folks getting to know you better in Kansas City.

Rob Adams (11:29):

Alright, thank you, Miranda. See you soon.

Miranda Reiman (11:32):

Yeah, thank you.

Rob Adams (11:33):

Bye.

Miranda Reiman (11:34):

Elections will take place at the 142nd annual Convention of Delegates during the annual meeting on Sunday, November 2nd in Kansas City, Missouri. Not registered? There's still time. Visit angusconvention.com to learn more. To read full biographies, and for the latest news and stories from the breed, visit angusjournal.net. And while you're there, subscribe to the monthly Angus Journal magazine. You'll get ongoing Angus convention coverage in the latest news, Association updates, stories of fellow breeders and more. Visit angusjournal.net to subscribe today.