South Carolina Cattlemen

Name: Billy Abercrombie

County/State: Laurens County, South Carolina

Association: South Carolina Cattlemen's Association

Type of farming operation:  200 Cow-calf operation

Billy Abercrombie, of Abercrombie Farm, in Laurens County, is the current president of SC Cattlemen’s Association. Abercrombie manages a 150-200 cow-calf operation with his wife and ties in with neighbors and sell load lots via video auction. He sees the primary role of the South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association as one of advocacy and education:

“The primary role is to provide a forum for the cattleman to have a voice in Columbia in state legislative matters and in Washington for national issues. We also try to support individual cattleman with information, education. We have a foundation that provides scholarships.”
 

The South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association also welcomes the state’s dairy industry:
 

“We certainly include dairy cattle farmers in the association.”
 

Abercrombie sees input costs as the biggest immediate challenge in the cattle business:
 

“We need to figure how to deal with the price situation that is occurring as a result of the drought. Feed prices are defiantly an issue. All of the input costs are a challenge to manage along with the sale price of beef.”

As far as his goals for the SC Cattlemen’s Association, Abercrombie would like to see the association grow:
 

“We are staring to work on growing our membership. I want to visit each of the thirty county associations (broken up into single county, multi-county and one collegiate association) and see if we can reach those individuals and bring them into the greater state association.”
 

For more profiles of association presidents from North and South Carolina, click here.
 

Billy Abercrombie, president of the South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association.