Contact:          Bundy Plyler              (NCCA)       919-552-9111     bundy@nccattle.com

                      Renee Lloyd              (NCBA)       303-850-3373      rlloyd@beef.org

National, State Cattlemen’s Associations to Present Risk Management Sessions in North Carolina

“Marketing Your Way to Profitability” to be held in Clinton Nov. 29, Statesville Nov. 30

(October 24, 2006) - The North Carolina Cattlemen’s Association (NCCA) is teaming up with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to present a risk management workshop, Marketing Your Way to Profitability.  The sessions will be held on Nov. 29 at the George Upton Livestock Arena in Clinton, N.C., and on Nov. 30 at the Iredell County Ag Center in Statesville, N.C.

The workshop features hands-on training for using futures and options, and how to these marketing tools can assist an operation.  Errol Baxter, CME associate director of commodity products, and Tom Clark, CME manager of commodity products, will teach the course. It also features a special presentation by Dr. Geoff Benson, extension economist, North Carolina State University.  The CME staff will present a beginning-level course that includes instruction on the mechanics of futures with hedging, and the basics of forward pricing with options.

“Educational activities are just one way your associations are providing service to you,” says Beecher Allison, NCCA president.

“The risk management sessions are designed to help cattlemen obtain tools that can help them to be more profitable,” adds Bundy Plyler, NCCA executive director.

Registration is required for this event.   Meals and breaks will be provided with your registration fee.  For the two-day event, the registration fee is $15 for members of NCCA, NCBA or any of its state affiliates.  Non-member registration fee is $35.  For more information on the sessions and to register, contact Bundy Plyler, NCCA, at 919-552-9111 or bundy@nccattle.com, or Renee Lloyd, NCBA, at 303-850-3373 or rlloyd@beef.org.

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Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.

CME (www.cme.com) is the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange.  As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on the CME Globex^® electronic trading platform and on its trading floors.  CME offers futures and options on futures in these product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and alternative investment products such as weather, real estate and economic derivatives.  CME is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000^® Index and the S&P 500^® Index.