After decades of working on the family ranch and a career in teaching, Sharon Livingston of Long Creek has embarked on a new venture. In November she was voted the president-elect of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, the statewide professional organization of cattle ranchers. In 2005 she will step into a two-year term as president.

She is following in some well-trodden family footsteps. Her grandfather, John L. Carter, once sat on the board of directors of the Grant County Stock Growers. Founded in 1906, the Stock Growers later became a chapter of the OCA, which began in 1913 in Baker.

“I love history,” Livingston said, “but I’m pretty much a person who lives today.”

Her love of history shows in the creation of a box of Grant County Stock Growers memorabilia for the organization’s centennial in 2006. Her ability to live in the present comes through as she talks about the issues facing Oregon’s cattle producers today.

Oregon’s ranchers face stiff competition from producers in other countries, Livingston said. The OCA works to give its members a level playing field for marketing beef so they can pay their bills and contribute to the economy of the state.

Livingston listed imports from countries that pay lower wages than the United States, subsidize beef production, or have lower health and inspection standards as issues that concern the OCA.

“It’s a very volatile market,” Livingston said. The price ranchers receive for their product depends on many factors beyond their control, including the international market.

On the political front, Livingston sees grazing, water and protection from predators as issues that always bring out opposing sides.

“Grazing has been so maligned,” she said. “We live in an era of people who feel the production of livestock is not important to the U.S.A. and that grazing on public land is not good for the environment.”

Her main focus is on natural resource issues.

She is working with OCA members affected by litigation over grazing leases on the Malheur National Forest. She tries to operate on a middle ground, she said, so that she keeps doors open but doesn’t go back on the principles she thinks are important.

One of those is the belief that the production of food is an honorable profession. Livingston comes from a family of early settlers who have raised cattle in the Long Creek area for the past 100 years.

“The continuity of the family ranch is an emotional issue for me,” she said. “I’ve lived in the same spot since I was 6 years old. I’m fortunate to have grown up in a family that believed in education and in speaking up for yourself.”

Livingston expects to have plenty of opportunity to speak up for herself and other ranchers in her new position. She bought a new pickup last fall, and has put 7,700 miles on it so far in her travels, including a trip to Arizona for the annual meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

“I think that anyone in an industry owes a certain amount of time,” Livingston said. “If you want to see it continue you need to dedicate some time to helping it move forward.”

Besides, she added, “the people who show up run the show, and I like being involved.”

Before becoming president-elect, Livingston served a two-year term as treasurer. Both the president and president-elect serve without pay, though the OCA covers their mileage costs.

Her biggest reward, Livingston said, has been the friends she has made among the intelligent, industrious people in the cattle production business.