To educate the public about the nutritional benefits of beef and the importance of preserving our western heritage!
The Copper CowBelles installed our 2024 officers at a dinner meeting last Friday! Thank you for your commitment to service to Cyndi Donovan as Treasurer, Carol Crosley as Secretary, Leslie Crumbly as Vice President and Pat Hunt as President.
The Copper CowBelles have honored Leslie Crumbly with the 2023 CowBelle of the Year award.
Leslie has been a member for many years and is the scholarship committee chair as well as the newly elected CCB Vice President.
Congratulations, Leslie.
Congratulations to Crystal Hunter on winning our 2023 Scholarship Bucket drawing. CowBelle Kathy Davis sold the winning ticket.
The Grant County Cattle Growers using member donations and through fundraising efforts were able to donate funds to help purchase a steer at the Gila Cliff Grant County Fair Junior Livestock sale from Kash Albrecht, a local 4-H member and purchase an additional beef to be donated to five area schools. The Grant County Copper Cowbelles assisted with this effort by providing funds needed to process, cut, and wrap the beef. The meat will be used for students in home economics and culinary arts classes. Students learn to prepare foods using beef. These skills are used by the students at home cooking for their families, in cooking competitions, as well as being able to use them in a working environment.
Representing the Copper CowBelles in the photos are Pat Hunt and Leslie Crumbly.
Copper CowBelles had a great year. Our 2022 Christmas Party was postponed to January 6, 2023, and included the installation of our 2023 officers (Pat Hunt, President; Michelle Greeman, VP; Cyndi Donovan, Treasurer and Carol Crosley, Secretary), we had a wonderful potluck supper with 24 in attendance. Kim Clark, retiring President did the installation ceremony and announced Pat Hunt as CowBelle of the Year.
The February meeting included a decision to award a scholarship to Sabrina Thuerauf, a Silver High School graduate now in her final year of Veterinary School. Before the end of the year, we also awarded scholarships to two other applicants: Hattie Dobrinski who was awarded a Copper scholarship and also recommended to State for a Pat Nowlin Scholarship. Kolby Taylor, an Animal Science major at NMSU, was also given a scholarship.
Our March meeting was held on National Agriculture Day and 2 members, Lori Nell Reed and Mary Jo Hooker cooked a delicious lunch for attending members. Michelle Greeman caught us up on the Legislative Session and Bills important to agriculture were discussed.
April was busy as we again participated for 2 days at McKeen Ranch Days in Alma which is supported by Catron County’s Frisco CowBelles. We provided a demonstration on Beef By-products and making butter. Member Lauren Baker represented our club at the Silver City Museum’s “Community Conversations” which was held downtown.
For a change of pace the May meeting was held in Deming with 6 members attending. We toured the Deming/Luna County Museum and had lunch at the Customs House Kitchen.
In June, Kathy Davis and Cyndi Donovan reported on the Mid-Year Meeting in Ruidoso which they attended. We voted to sponsor an award buckle for the Southwest Horsemen’s Youth Rodeo Association. Several members donated cakes to the Silver City Museum’s July 4th celebration, in memory of Bobbie Neal.
September found us at the Grant County Fair and our booth again promoted Beef and sold license plates. We had a candy guess for kids and a drawing for Beef all three days. The Beef is worth $50 and is presented frozen to the winners in a thermal bag. It is a very popular event. In addition to manning our booth we participated in the new Ag Days on Friday, when the school kids are bussed out from town. There were booths from USDA and Farm Bureau and our booth was on the History of Brands. Kids were given choices on which brand they wanted stamped on their hands. This new event is the effort of our member Autumn Robertson and her Farm Bureau office. We are so proud of her for pushing this forward and getting the support of the Fair Board. Copper CowBelles also agreed to once again cover the processing expenses for the steer purchased by the Grant County Cattle Growers. The meat is divided 5 ways among the Home Ec and Culinary Class teachers in Grant County for use in their cooking programs.
The November meeting was postponed until early December due to the Thanksgiving holidays. The agenda includes election of officers for 2024. Installation will again be in January.
Submitted by Patricia Hunt, President
The October 17 meeting was called to order by President Pat Hunt. 10 members were present. The Pledge of Alliegance, Prayer, CowBelle Creed, minutes and treasurer’s report were taken care of.
Rose Ann Eby and her husband have retired and moved to Arizona. We wish them well. Neline Dominguez, Joyce Biebelle, Hazel Donaldson and Joan Woodward are unable to attend meetings due to health issues.
We had a spirited recap of the Grant County Fair and AG Days. The event was a success! Vivian Myers did a great job selling the NM Beef license plates and more had to be ordered! Raffle tickets on the scholarship basket sold well. Drawing will be held in November. Our booth at Friday’s Ag Day was a success and Pat thanked Cyndi and Alene for covering the brands display. Pat Hunt attended the Fair Board meeting following the Fair and was impressed with how all of the committees came together for the good of the event.
Michelle Greeman gave a report on upcoming NMCB events. The annual meeting will be held at the Hotel Albuquerque Dec 13th – 16th. The CowBelles Breakfast is on the morning of Dec 15th. Our own Michelle Greeman will be installed as incoming President! Monthly NMCB Zoom meetings are the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7PM.
The ANCW Region VI meeting will be held in Las Cruces April 11-13th and NM CowBelles are the hosts.
Kathy Davis agreed to chair the nominating committee and has already gathered help. It is hoped that someone will agree to run for Vice President with the intention of being in training for the President position for the following year.
Our CowBelle highway signs were discussed and Kathy Davis volunteered to chair getting the Cliff sign rebuilt and improved. She is hoping to get ranchers to pay to have their brands displayed, which will help fund the work. Kim Clark is also working on the US 180 sign toward Faywood.
With the 30 day House Session approaching, we were encouraged to remain vigilant and educate ourselves on important matters. Vote early! Make note of districting changes, some of which effect Grant County directly.
Next meeting will be held November 21, 2023. Our hostess for this meeting was Pat Hunt, who put us in a Halloween mood: Treats without any Tricks. Thanks Pat.
By Carol Crosley
The Grant County Copper CowBelles August 15, 2023 meeting started late at 12:15 as not many members were in attendance. We skipped the pledge, creed and prayer to make up time. Hostesses were Kim Clark and Pat Hunt. Guest was Liz Gardner.
Caren Cowan has informed the State Officers that many copies of the NM Stockman are being returned because of incorrect addresses. Someone is manipulating the State Officer email addresses by sending out emails requesting money. Do not respond in any way to these Phishing efforts, ignore and delete. They are working on security issues to stop this problem.
It is still possible to volunteer to help at the Happy Hour promotion at the State Fair but you need to let them know immediately if you are interested.
Autumn gave us an update about the County Fair AG Day she is organizing. She has several very good exhibitors coming including the cannulated cow and a drone demonstration. Her office will have a booth on Beef By-Products. Copper decided to give a demonstration on brands. Pat emphasized that we need to sign up for covering both our booth in the exhibit hall and the AG Day booth. A motion was approved to help cover expense for the cut and wrap processing of the steer to be purchased by the Grant County Cattle Growers. The Cattle Growers will be informed that this may be the last year we can help with this expense. A motion was approved to raise our local dues from $10 to $15 annually, the State dues remaining at $20 with the new total being $35. The change goes into effect for the dues to be paid by October 1st.
There was some discussion on whether to have our regularly scheduled meeting on the 19th as it is just a day before the Fair. No final decision was made.
Pat Hunt
The Flying A Ranch and Dusty Hunt are the subject of an article in the Summer 2023 issue of Range Magazine. Pat Hunt, 2023 President of Copper CowBelles, is married to Dusty.
If you are interested in reading a print copy of the magazine you can find it at the Silver City Public Library. Here is a digital copy of the article.
Congratulations Dusty and Pat!
The Copper CowBelles are once again selling raffle tickets for a “goodies bucket” to replenish funds in our annual scholarship account.
Reach out to a member today, or tickets will be sold at our booth during the Grant County Fair from September 20-23. The drawing will be held after the Fair.
The June 30 meeting was called to order at noon by President Pat Hunt. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Carol Crosley read the prayer and Leslie Crumbley read the CowBelle Creed. There were 7 members present, along with 3 guests: Sylvia Ramos McLaughlin, Mackey Irwin and Daniel Melendrez.
Due to time constraints on their part, Mackey Irwin introduced Daniel Melendrez, who is now County Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency for Grant, Luna and Hidalgo counties. Daniel gave a brief overview of his job and expressed his willingness to be of assistance to ag producers in this area.
Members were encouraged to get our $30 yearly membership dues in early. $20 of that will be forwarded on to NMCCB. Early payment will keep us from being tardy in our payment to the state organization.
CowBelles received a note of thanks from Hattie Dobrinski. Hattie is grateful for the (CowBelle Scholarship) that will help her reach her educational goals. A thank you note was also received from Sabrina Theurauf, who also received a scholarship toward her college loans. She will soon graduate vet school. Our other scholarship recipient is Kolby Taylor.
Kathy Davis and Cyndi Donovan attended the Mid-Year Meeting in Ruidoso. They reported that the USDA has approved a new processing plant at NMSU. This will help to clear the processing bottleneck that producers in our state have been experiencing. The combo luncheon had a very good speaker. They felt the meeting was educational and lots of fun.
New Mexico will host the NACW in 2024, showcasing NMSU and other highlights available in our state.
We discussed ideas for a fundraiser to support our scholarships and other needs. Lots of ideas were shared and members have been tasked with gathering relevant information to bring to the next meeting.
Pat Hunt reported that BLM is proposing opening public land up for “multiple use.” This could create quite a mess. Comment period for our response to this proposal has been extended to July 5th. Pat said that our response is extremely important.
Some of our members are investing much time and energy into promoting Heritage Waters, educating the public of the dangers hidden in the innocent appearing “Wild and Scenic” bill. Thanks to these ladies for their dedication on our behalf. We must all do our part in getting the word out.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:05pm. Our next meeting will take place on August 15, 2023.
Respectfully submitted by Carol Crosley, Secretary
Dates to remember: Grant County Fair, September 20-23
Grant County Copper CowBelles 