Photo Album From Summer Conference

Many of the pictures in this online Flickr Photo Album were used on Beef Board Meeting.com this past week but by no means all. These are untouched versions of all the pictures I took during the event in Reno.

You can see them by visiting this link: Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

You can view photos individually or as a slide show.

Beef Board Approves FY07 Budget

During today’s Board meeting, members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board approved a CBB budget for checkoff programs to be carried out in Fiscal 2007, which begins Oct. 1. CBB Secretary/Treasurer Dave Bateman, a producer from Illinois, presented the proposed budget to the Board for a vote.

The budget, which still must be approved by USDA, relfects a slight increase from the $52 million budget for Fiscal 2006. It includes projected revenue of $45.6 million for Fiscal 2007, plus money to be available from program budgets costing less than originally estimated.

The breakdown of the budget recommendation includes the following budget elements: promotion ($27.5 million); research ($7.4 million); consumer information ($6.6 million); industry information ($1.5 million); foreign marketing ($4.9 million); producer communications ($2.5 million); evaluation ($230,000); program development ($125,000); USDA oversight ($210,000); and administration ($2.1 million). The 2007 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2006.

Next in the budgeting process, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee will review specific project proposals for Fiscal 2007 checkoff funding when it meets in Denver in September.

Reminder About Meeting Reports

We’re nearing the end of the Cattle Industry Summer Conference here in Reno. It’s been a pleasure to be your Beef Board Blogger once again.

The final board meeting is still in progress but I’ll be heading out soon. We’ll still have some more information posted here by myself or Diane Henderson as we get it.

I also just want to remind you that we have a Committee Page. This page has links to individual pages for each committee. On those pages you’ll find agendas, meeting updates and minutes. It’s a growing database of activity that we hope will make it easier for producers to keep up to date on what takes place at each meeting during the year. We’d love your feedback too so please feel free to use the comment feature on any post or page of this website.

Report From Monte Reese

Beef Board Chief Operating Officer Monte Reese was on the program at this morning’s board meeting to give a management report about the activities of the checkoff.

Monte started out talking about how much has been accomplished in the 20 years of the checkoff. He says producers have created a solid science-based research foundation, which has, time after time, prevented severe consumer confidence crises.

Monte also made a point of letting producers know how many expressions of appreciation he has received from other commodity groups for the Beef Checkoff’s perseverance in the face of constitutionality challenges at the Supreme Court. Since that final Supreme Court decision, he says, most challenges to other groups have been dismissed.

You can listen to Monte’s remarks here: Monte Reese Report (10 min. MP3 File)

Opening Remarks From The Chairman

Beef Board Chairman Jay O’Brien got things started at today’s board meeting with some opening remarks.

To start with he reported that there is a quorum so they can get business done.

He thanked the Federation of State Beef Councils for making a contribution earlier this year for promotion when it was seriously needed. He spoke about how research has presented some great opportunities.

You can listen to Jay’s remarks here: Jay O’Brien Opening Remarks (6 min. MP3 File)

Board Meeting

The last thing to get done here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is the board meeting. This is a combined meeting of the Beef Board and NCBA, although the official meetings are held separately.

However, there are a number of joint committees which have to give reports so it works out very well.

I’ve got audio from opening remarks and reports for you and we’ll have summary information on things like the budget as it becomes available too.

Beef Board Chairman Duties

The things a Beef Board Chairman has to do.

You know it’s Jay O’Brien because of the bow tie.

Actually I think it enhances the costume don’t you think?

Jay kept his costume on for remarks after Amanda’s speech at dinner last night.

I’m sure these pictures will have multiple uses over the coming year.

Beef Board Dinner Fun

There’s always a light-hearted moment or two here at a Cattle Industry Meeting. Take last night’s Beef Board dinner. Attendees heard Beef Ambassador, Amanda Nolz, give her speech from when she was in competition.

To enhance it she got a group of volunteers to wear cow masks and each visually represented a different component of her speech.

I do have close-up pictures of each of them which will be in the online photo album I’ll post after the meeting with all my photos.

Besides an excellent meal and speech by Amanda, we got to watch a video presentation of the Beef Board tv commercials from over the years. You probably know that the Checkoff will be celebrating 20 years before the next meeting at the annual convention which will be in Nashville next year. It was a great visual tour through the years with advertisements for beef.

Creative Beef Cooking

Laurie Bryant (right) and Brian Healey (center) are being interviewed in this picture by Ken Rahjes, Rural Radio Network. They serve on the Joint Foodservice Committee.

Just recently their committee hosted two culinary educational seminars at Greystone, a west coast campus of the Culinary Institute of America. Chefs from a variety of different types of restaurants and foodservice companies were able to “play” with beef. That means cooking up some creative recipes.

They describe the program and why it’s important. For one thing they say that outreach to these chefs is vital when you consider the large volume of beef going to foodservice. You can listen my interview with them here: Bryant-Healey Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

Ambassadors For Beef

Two of our Beef Ambassadors are Melissa Green (left) and Amanda Nolz.

Melissa describes the purpose and function of the Beef Ambassador program and Amanda describes what they do during the year that they serve.

According to Melissa this program is worth the investment to have young people out in the public who are passionate about the beef industry. She says the reception they get is always positive. You can listen my interview with them here: Green-Nolz Interview (3 min. MP3 File)

Retail Committee Action

Don Stewart is Vice Chairman of the Retail Committee and Virginia Coelho is the Chairman. They visited the media room today to discuss the recent success of the summer grilling campaign.

They kind of tagged teamed on the interview. Don says that state beef councils provided an emergency $2 million of which a large portion was dedicated to this promotional campaign and that the more aggressive than normal push has shown results.

Virginia describes what the Retail Committee does and says that reaching out to consumers is vital to the success of her beef operation. You can listen my interview with them here: Stewart-Coelho Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

Vice Chairman And Executive Committee Chairman

Ken Stielow is the Vice Chairman of the Beef Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee. He says that he’s learned a lot about the Executive Committee like how much information has to flow through it.

Ken says that one of the things that strikes him since he’s become involved at this level is the “time lag” between when a program is discussed and when it’s implemented. For example, he says that there’s been a lot of discussion here about new efforts to reach out to young people but that it’s been discussed and in development for a long time.

Like other board members, Ken is also impressed with the care that’s taken to make sure that all the activity of the Checkoff is being conducted according to the rules. You can listen my interview with Ken here: Stielow Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

Committees In Action

Here’s what today is all about here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. It’s committee time. This is the Producer Communications Committee in progress. This is the grass roots in action as producers get together to discuss and make recommendations to the full board.

 Meetings will be taking place all day. Our plan is to bring you updates from each meeting as soon as we can. We do that by posting the updates onto individual pages that have been created for each committee. You’ll find those pages using the “Committees” button in the left sidebar of this website. On that page is a link to a page for each committee. Additionally, we’ll post the minutes from the committee meetings later as they get approved. Those pages represent an ongoing database of the activities of the Beef Board and are a great resource for anyone who wants to know more about the activities of the organization.

One Voice Makes A Difference

David Bateman is the Secretary/Treasurer for the Beef Board this year. He gave a financial report at the Beef Board Update Session.

Dave says he considers it a rare privilege to serve on the Board. He also wants producers to know that one voice in a committee meeting can make a big difference. In fact, he says that some of the best ideas often come from one person speaking up and offering a new perspective or suggestion.

David also says that since he’s served as an officer he’s impressed with the extreme care and control with which money is handled by the Beef Board. You can listen my interview with David here: Bateman Interview (5 min. MP3 File)

State Beef Council Perspective

David Dick is a cattle producer from Missouri who’s currently serving as the Chairman of the Missouri Beef Industry Council. He’s also serving on the Federation of State Beef Councils and the Joint Operating Committee.

The Missouri Beef Industry Council produces a weekly radio program that’s published on their website at http://www.missouribeefcouncil.com and sent out to a number of radio stations around the state.

In this week’s program David talks about the activities going on here in Reno from the perspective of the Checkoff. You can listen the report here: MBIC Report With David Dick (4 min. MP3 File)

Beefmobile Wrangler

Tracey Orsburn is one of the Beefmobile Wranglers and is here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. She puts in a lot of miles travelling around the country and making sure producers better understand the Checkoff. Her vehicle is also a travelling billboard for beef.

Tracey says she’s personally driven over 100,000 miles for the Checkoff since she started and has been through 43 states.

You can learn more about the Beefmobile by listening to my interview with her in which she explains the program and describes the kind of producer feedback she receives. You can listen to my interview with Tracey here: Orsburn Interview (4 min. MP3 File)

Beef Board Chief Operating Officer

Monte Reese is the Chief Operating Officer for the Beef Board. He has to be in all the meetings. I don’t know how he continues to do it year in and year out but he does. It’s been a challenge to find a few minutes of his time to do a short interview but we finally got that done.

Monte says the mood of producers here is surprisingly upbeat. I asked him to touch on the the important things that need to be accomplished by the Beef Board here in Reno. Of course the budget is big and then the committee process which gets started here this morning.

You can listen to my interview with Monte here: Reese Interview (6 min. MP3 File)

Federation of State Beef Councils Forum

Submitted by: Polly Ruhland

Producer directors, reional vice presidents and interested state beef council staff attended the Federation of State Beef Councils divisional forum this afternoon. The Federation of State Beef Councils, the checkoff division of NCBA, met separately for the first time at the January 2006 Cattle Industry Convention, so this was just the second time this division convened to discuss Federation business.

During this meeting, Federation (checkoff)-funded initiatives discussed and reported included the Beef Supply Initiative: Summer of 2006; the public relations/activist efforts; and the Federation Initiative to Support High Population States.

One interesting note: The Federation Initiative, a special pilot project started by the Federation of State Beef Councils to assist high-population, low checkoff-collection states market beef to areas with larger consumer populations, was discussed. This Initiative receives oversight from the Federation regional vice presidents, who held a meetin a few weeks ago to vote on which proposals from state beef councils would receive funding.

Gary Voogt, vice chair of the Federation, reported that the Federation awarded just over $92,000 to eight state beef councils to extend national initiatives. This new initiative should really help those states make national checkoff dollars work even harder for producers.

The summer beef supply initiative, which the Federation board voted to fund from Federation reserves to the tune of $2 million, is a massive effort to sell beef this summer through a period of oversupply. Producer leaders commented that the market reports and the beef movement data from the July 4 holiday indicate that this effort seems to be making a difference in moving supply this summer. 

Presentation From The Boss

Barry Carpenter, USDA, has been described here as the “boss.” During the Beef Board Update session Beef Board Chairman, Jay O’Brien made it clear who the members work for.

Barry was here to make a presentation on behalf of USDA and remind CBB members of what their job is. For example, he said that they are expected to leave their special interests behind and represent the interests of all the people who are contributing to the Checkoff.

Barry says that USDA is about a month ahead of the regular schedule of receiving nominations for new Beef Board members. You can listen to Barry’s presentation here: Carpenter Remarks (6 min. MP3 File)

Litigation Update

This afternoon there was a very well-attended Beef Board Update session.

One of the presenters was Wayne Watkinson, giving a litigation update. He says he may not have to do so at the next meeting.

However, Wayne does say that he’s keeping an eye on some legal activities involving other commodity organizations. You can listen to Wayne’s presentation here: Watkinson Remarks (3 min. MP3 File)