About Us

Download the SACPA membership application

What is SACPA ?

The Southern Arizona Cattlemen’s Protective Association (SACPA) represents member ranching families from Pinal, Pima and Santa Cruz Counties.  SACPA was originally organized in 1955 to assist law enforcement agencies in the successful prosecution of vandalism, theft and livestock welfare crimes committed against our members and their property. Today, our primary mission remains unchanged but has expanded to include representing our membership in contentious issues emanating from litigation and government regulation; engaging our members in continuing education in diverse areas such as ranch management and livestock health, range management and ecology, wildlife issues, mining, water and environmental quality; as well as keeping the membership informed about border-related crime problems. To accomplish this, SACPA actively interfaces with numerous governmental and non-governmental entities.

Membership in SACPA is open to ranchers and their families in Pinal, Pima and Santa Cruz Counties and to our non-rancher friends and affiliated businesses. New members must be approved by the Board of Directors. If you are interested in becoming a member, click on the Membership button and download the application form. Email or mail it back  for review by the SACPA Board of Directors.

Board of Directors 2021-2023

President: Clay Parsons: Pima or Pinal County

Vice President: Katie Cline: Pima or Pinal County

2nd Vice President: Juan Lopez: Pima County

Secretary – Andrew McGibbon

Treasurer –  Micaela McGibbon

Past President: Dr. Dean Fish, Santa Cruz County

ACGA Board Representatives: In the past, SACPA held three of the 15 county positions on the ACGA Board of Directors. Currently, to protect SACPA and its individual board members from potential legal liability, SACPA is not represented on the ACGA Board of Directors. This is subject to change pending the resolution of current issues internal to ACGA; and a vote of SACPA’s Board of Directors.

  • Pima BOD Representative – N/A
  • Pinal BOD Representative – N/A
  • Santa Cruz BOD Representative – N/A

Board Member representing SACPA as a Board Member of Arizona Farm and Ranch Group – Dan Bell

Website and Social Media – Cindy Coping

Other Board members:

Ted Noon

Robert Noon

Bill Dunn

Jim Chilton

Catherine Mann

Beef Cattle Ranching in Arizona provides 8,758 jobs and contributes $1.7 Billion to the Arizona economy.

Beef cattle ranching in Pinal, Pima and Santa Cruz Counties combined contributes more than $490 million to the economy and provides 982 jobs.

Click here to read the summary of a 2014 University of Arizona analysis of the economic contributions of beef cattle ranching in Arizona, with county-by-county profiles.

 

FOUR WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

1.  JOIN SACPA!  (CLICK) Our dues are minimal and your membership will give us the opportunity to keep you informed on all sorts of topics relevant to your cattle ranching operation through our newsletter, this website, Twitter and our semi-annual luncheon meetings.

SACPA dues are just $50 per year because we try to keep membership as affordable as possible. How many trade organizations as active and effective as SACPA set their dues as low?

2. PLEASE DONATE TO SACPA GENEROUSLY. (CLICK)

SACPA holds an organizational membership and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arizona Farm and Ranch Group (AFRG).  The membership fee is $5,000 per year. In return, AFRG employs a full-time professional lobbyist to ensure agriculture cattle ranching issues are well understood by our increasingly urbanized and politically “purple” Arizona State Legislature. Our membership fees alone cannot fund this vitally important investment in our present and future well-being as an industry. SACPA members in good standing (dues are current) receive weekly Capitol updates from AFRG when the Legislature is in session.

SACPA has spent thousands of dollars making sure sound science is documented and junk science is debunked in the Administrative Record for all sorts of new proposed rules related to the Endangered Species Act, federal lands planning, EPA regulations and anything else that may threaten the future of ranching in southern Arizona.  We do this to provide legal standing and an accurate record in court to SACPA members whose future well being is threatened by third party lawsuits and regulations that are based on junk science and other myths. Having accurate science in the Administrative Record has often spelled the difference between victory and defeat in court. That’s worth a lot more than our $50 membership fee! Membership fees do not even begin to pay these expenses. They are funded almost entirely by your generous donations!

SACPA also spent thousands of dollars to bring you this website, and continues to spend hundreds annually for the web hosting, backup and firewall products necessary to maintain it. The website is funded almost entirely by generous voluntary contributions from our members like you that are far above and beyond our dues revenues.

Ways YOU can contribute:

  • Donate generously to SACPA benefit calf rollover auctions
  • If you are a supplier to the cattle industry, sponsor the luncheon or the pastries and coffee for one of SACPA’s semi-annual general membership meetings.
  • Send a contribution to our Treasurer.

SACPA is a 501(c)4 organization that is allowed to engage in political activity. Your contributions are NOT tax deductible, but they greatly benefit the industry.

3. RUN A HIGH QUALITY RANCH. No matter if you own just a few head of cattle or a major operation, SACPA will help you do it smarter, better, and more profitably. We frequently feature speakers and programs at our semi-annual luncheons who will give you the latest information on cattle production, beef quality, genetic improvement, new technology and a host of other topics. These informative sessions are intended to help you produce better quality beef, produce better forage, and learn new ways to generate higher profits for your ranching business and raise the entire industry. The quality of what you produce and your integrity in doing it contributes to the well being of the entire industry.

Visit our News and Information page to learn more about issues related to your cattle operation.

4. STAY INFORMED AND COMMENT ON PROPOSED REGULATIONS.

SACPA will keep you informed of all kinds of relevant information through this website, our newsletters, our semi-annual luncheon meetings and continuously through our Twitter account-www.twitter.com/sacpaaz. (At $50/ year that’s a ganga!!!)

Click here to view comments SACPA has submitted on behalf of our members in response to proposed regulations.

Whenever a new regulation is proposed that may affect you, we strongly advise that you submit your own comments telling the agency how each new regulation will impact you, your livelihood and your family. Attend public hearings and respectfully present your point of view. (You may not feel comfortable speaking in public at first, but the more you do it, the more self assurance you will gain, and for the rest of your life.) That helps you tell your story to many other members of the public who otherwise may not understand your point of view or who may have forgotten that regulations can have a devastating impact on real families not unlike their own. SACPA often hires professionals to submit comments but attorneys and biologists  cannot possibly put your face or your personal experience in front of a regulator or represent you in the court of public opinion. Only YOU can do that, and it makes a huge difference.