Summer Conference in Denver July 15-19

Dear Fellow Beef Producers,

The 2008 Cattle Industry Summer Conference is just around the corner, and we invite you to join us at Beef Board meetings during the conference or, if you can’t be in Denver, visit this site throughout the July 15-19 conference for details about what’s going at the meetings. We’ll post a brief overview of Beef Board meeting highlights below.

This summer conference provides us the opportunity to work together to guide investment of our beef checkoff dollars through the coming year. Our industry continues to face its share of challenges, but our checkoff has been there for us in the form of our only national self-help program. It has helped us through challenges from anti-meat groups, roadblocks to reopening export markets, the call for development of new products for changing consumer needs, and aggressive marketing of our end product amidst every-increasing competition.

When it’s all said and done, though, it’s thanks to your passion for the beef industry and your desire in maintaining it for generations to come that we have these opportunities. It’s your participation in this conference and on checkoff boards and committees that turn those opportunities into success stories.

As most of you are probably aware by now, the biggest challenge we face as we review proposals for investing our checkoff dollars in the coming year lies in our constricting budget. With about 6.6 percent less to budget in Fiscal Year 2009 than we had for 2008, it will be more critical than ever that we coordinate our efforts across not just beef checkoff committees but the entire beef industry.

Checkoff meetings are open to all producers who want to attend and see their checkoff process in action. In our joint checkoff committees this week, we’ll be reviewing project proposals, or “Authorization Requests,” for Fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1, 2008. For certain, there are more worthy proposals than we have budget to invest, so our job here will not be easy. It will be important that we identify those programs that can help us work toward our goal of building demand for beef and increasing profit opportunities for producers during the coming year. As we do this, we need to stay tightly focused on our end user – the global consumer – who is always in the driver’s seat when it comes to our bottom lines.

So as we attend our many meetings at summer conference, let’s remember to listen to each other, to open our minds to new ideas, and to work together to create a strong future for our children and grandchildren. I look forward to working with you on just that.

Sincerely,

Dave Bateman

2008 Chairman, Cattlemen’s Beef Board

Oregon, Illinois

Joint Meeting CBB & NCBA, July 19, 2008 – Meeting Agenda

CBB Update Session, July 17, 2008 - Meeting Agenda

(Individual committee meeting agendas are available by clicking on the “Committees” tab near the top left of the page.)