Saddle Up for San Antonio

Mark the dates on your calendar now and make plans to attend the 2010 Cattle Industry Annual Convention, January 27-30 in San Antonio, Texas.

Why should you attend? Here are just a few good reasons:

* You have a stake in the future of this industry.
* It is one of the best investments you can make in your operation!
* To have your voice heard in the decisions that will shape your industry.
* To discover new products and services at the NCBA Trade Show.
* Convention is the place to form new business relationships by providing the networking opportunities for fellow producers.
* To help establish checkoff and policy priorities for the coming year.
* Bring the entire family and take a well deserved break from the winter weather!

Keep an eye out for registration information coming soon and we’ll see YOU in San Antonio!

That’s A Wrap!

After a full week of meetings, discussion, recommendations, approvals and hard work, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board wrapped up its agenda at the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, Colo.  In the final meeting at the Saturday session, Lucinda Williams adjourned the meeting and challenged members to get out there and share the checkoff story.  The CBB will meet at the 2010 Cattle Industry Trade Show and Convention in San Antonio, TX.  Hope to see you all there!

Don’t Argue Over Shades of Green

Cattlemen’s Beef Board CEO Tom Ramey presented his management report this morning at the CBB Meeting.  He discussed declining numbers, down cattle inventory and decreased revenues available to the Checkoff Program.  He challenged the CBB members and the rest of the audience to continue to work hard to increase beef demand and producer profitability.  Ramey is cautiously optimistic about revenue projections for the future, and he discussed how to leverage Checkoff dollars best.  

In his conclusion, Ramey recalled a story about choosing paint colors with his wife.  When asked to select the best shade of green to complement their brick wall, Ramey was presented four very similar shades of green by his wife for approval.  Not being able to tell the difference, Ramey told his wife that all the shades were good.  His point?  Don’t argue over shades of green.  Focus on the big picture, and together, producers can work for a better future for the beef industry

Listen to Ramey’s state of the industry report here:�

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Download here: tom-ramey-report

Checkoff Assessment Breakdown with Tom Jones

This morning, the CBB met in full, joint meeting with NCBA. Lucinda Williams opened the meeting by explaining the voting process to members and approving the agenda as read.  Next, she invited Tom Jones up to the microphone to discuss revenue projections, checkoff assessments, budget concerns and evaluating the effectiveness of dollars invested in Checkoff driven programs.  Later on in the meeting, Dave Bateman discussed the efforts of the evaluation committee, as well as the econometric model that shows a $5.50 return for every $1 invested in the program.

Listen to Tom’s full explanation of the Beef Checkoff Program:

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Download here:tom-jones-report1

Listen to Dave’s report on the evaluation committee and the econometric model:

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Download here:dave-bateman-report

Using Social Media for Outreach

It’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s a way to communicate one to one with people who might not otherwise hear your message. Those are three good reasons for beef cattle producers to use social media like Twitter and Facebook to reach out in ways they have never been able to before, according to David Dick of Sedalia, Missouri who serves on the Federation of State Beef Councils.

David is group chair for the Joint Public Opinion and Issues Management Committee, a meeting that was all a’twitter with talk about how the industry can use social media to combat misinformation and activism. “There are a lot of different issues – food safety issues, animal welfare issues, environmental issues – there are many things that come up every day,” David says. “You always kind of knew who was shooting at you and know you don’t know who’s shooting at you or where they’re shooting from so you have to cover all the bases.”

David says using Twitter and Facebook helps producers extend their reach to the general public. “We’re looking at getting our producers out there and getting them to carry the message forward,” he said. “They need to be telling the story because it comes from them and people trust that.”

Listen to my interview with David here:

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Download David’s interview here: David Dick

2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photos

International Market Priorities

Missouri cattleman Charles Bassett wishes that every beef producer in the country would take the time to attend the meetings at the summer conference to find out just how hard the members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board work to leverage every dollar and get the most out of it.

Charles has served on the CBB for four years now and as a member of the International Markets committee he says they have had to make some hard decisions in the last two years. “One of the toughest jobs I have had in the last two beef board meetings is to decide where we cut our budget,” he says. “Because I like every market-driven proposal that we have.”

Charles says the industry needs to keep working as hard as it can “to make American beef the protein choice of our customers outside of our borders.” They see the biggest market opportunities now in Mexico, Japan and Korea.

Listen to my interview with Charles here:

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Download Charles’ interview here: Charles Bassett

2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photos

Teaming Up With Dairy Producers

Taking a break from the Joint Public Relations meeting this afternoon, I talked with CBB member Jenny Senn about her role as a dairy producer and member of both the Joint Public Relations Committee and the CBB Executive Committee.  

Jenny Senn helps manage “Senn-Sational Jerseys,” the dairy farm where the Senn family has been breeding and developing a fully registered herd of award-winning Jersey Cattle for more than 30 years.  Jenny has been active with the American Jersey Cattle Association, the South Carolina and Saluda County Jersey Cattle associations, and the South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association. She is a former recipient of the Young Jersey Breeder Award from the American Jersey Cattle Association.  Jenny is keeping busy with her leadership roles at the summer conference, and she is dedicated to using Checkoff dollars to effectively promote beef products to consumers.

Listen to my interview with Jenny here:

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Download the interview here: Jenny Senn

2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photos

Young Producers Take Part in Summer Conference

According to the last agriculture census, the average age of a farmer is 57 years old, and often, participants at these cattle industry events tend to follow the same trend.  However, when young people decide to stand up and get involved at national functions, they tend to get noticed.  Robert Laux, Mich. is a perfect example of a dynamic young person who is dedicated to the agriculture industry.  Laux received a $5,000 scholarship today from Fort Dodge Animal Health, and he believes in the value of attending these conventions so producers can voice their concerns and take action on the big issues facing agriculture today.

Laux has served internships with NCBA and a cattle operation near Montana.  He will graduate in December of 2010.  His future certainly looks very bright; the beef industry is lucky to have him.

Listen to my interview with Robert here:

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Download Robert’s interview robert-laux.

Changes in Nominating Process

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board voted 64-5 yesterday to make changes in the Joint Nominating Committee so that only checkoff representatives (CBB and Federation of State Beef Councils) are in the room when the Joint Nominating Committee interviews and discusses candidates for checkoff elected positions. Those positions include CBB chairman, vice chairman, and secretary/treasurer, as well as CBB Executive Committee and the Beef Promotion Operating Committee. What that means is that no NCBA policy reps will be present for selection of nominees for checkoff elected positions when that committee meets at the 2010 Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio.

I talked about this change, what it means, and why it is important with CBB Vice Chair Dan Dierschke of Texas. Dan gave me a history of the nomination process, which originally had a separate committee for the CBB. After 1996, it became a joint process between CBB, the Federation of State Beef Councils and NCBA, with all taking part in the interview and discussion process, but the final vote has always been CBB members only. “Interestingly enough, the beef checkoff is the only one of the 18 (commodity) checkoffs that has that kind of arrangement,” Dan says. “Every other checkoff has a separate nominating process.”

Listen to my interview with Dan here:

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Download Dan’s interview here: Dan Dierschke

A Few Words From the Chair

It has been a busy week already here at the Cattle Industry Summer conference and the real work of full committee meetings is just getting started today!

Cattlemen’s Beef Board Chairman Lucinda Williams, a dairy producer from Massachusetts, brings a unique perspective to the CBB. I talked with her about some of the issues the Board has been dealing with this week, including the nomination process for CBB elected positions, the national checkoff budget, good news about the return on investment of checkoff dollars, and just what her year has been like so far as CBB chair.

Listen to my interview with Lucinda here:

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Download Lucinda’s interview here: Lucinda Williams

The second general session of the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference this morning was a team effort hosted by the NCBA and the CBB. After presentations by the CEOs of both organizations, Lucinda shared the stage with NCBA President Gary Voogt and both of them stressed the importance of being involved in the committee process today to help set the stage for decisions to be made during the joint Board meeting tomorrow and the Beef Promotion Operating Committee in September.

“Now the real work begins,” Lucinda said. “Each one of you needs to be fully engaged in this process. Once our committees have established their direction, the essence of what the checkoff and the organizations will do for the upcoming year has been established. That means that as individuals, each one of us has a lot of responsibility. You are the representative beef producers, not just in your states, but nationwide. Their voices are heard through your voices.”

“Dollars and Sense” of the Checkoff

Today’s beef industry is constantly changing. Cattle inventory is down and many producers have exited the business.  Those that are left are fighting escalating input costs, strict regulations and low prices.  Because cattle inventory is down, there are less Checkoff dollars to be used for programs in research, education and promotion.  Today, committee members are meeting to discuss their program goals with available dollars.  

CBB Secretary/Treasurer Tom Jones says that instead of worrying about a declining budget (that has been reduced by nearly 25% in the last few years), we  need to do the best we can with what we have.  Listen to my interview with Tom on budgets, program effectiveness, consumer trends and goals for the future.

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Download Tom’s interview here: Tom Jones

What Consumers Want

Consumers want more than ever before, according to the latest research presented at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference general session on Friday morning.

Cattlemen’s Beef Board CEO Tom Ramey says they found consumers are looking for “the total package,” not just individual pieces like flavor or safety, and there are 16 different priorities that consumers have when it comes to their purchasing decisions. “These top 16 items show you just how difficult it is to impact what consumers are thinking as they decide what it is they want to purchase. The top 16 items range from 88 percent to 60 percent in importance, so it’s not like you can just focus on two or three and think you have the battle won,” he said.

Taste and product quality attributes are among the most important. “And that’s the good news, because we have a product that is of the highest quality and the best taste out there, so we really need to make sure we play on that as we go through our planning process.”

Listen to Tom’s presentation to the general session here:

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Download Tom’s presentation audio here: Tom Ramey at General Session

I also had the opportunity to interview Tom about some of the points he made in his presentation. For the “Readers Digest” condensed version, listen to that interview here:

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Download Tom’s interview here: Tom Ramey interview

2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photos

Check Out the Flickr Photos from Convention

See your favorite faces featured in the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Flickr Album.  Cindy and I have worked hard to capture the ins and outs of convention and all of the great individuals involved. Check out the highlights of the lasting memories made during this summer industry meeting.   

USDA and the Beef Checkoff

David Shipman from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Livestock and Seed Program spoke today at the CBB Update Session. Shipman was just appointed as associate administrator of the agency in April, but has worked for USDA in other capacities since 1974.

Shipman acknowledged the challenges facing the beef board with decreased funding and encouraged CBB to explore new and innovative ways to get information out to consumers. He also brought up the issue about content placement and timing of promotions that could be perceived as “lobbying” and he related an example of an educational campaign by the American Egg Board about buying local products. “It featured local farmers and local communities and had no mention whatsoever of production practices related to animal agriculture,” he said. Because a similar campaign was running in California in opposition to Proposition 2, an animal welfare group sued over the Egg Board ads. “Ultimately, the court prohibited the American Egg Board ads from being run in California and I just encourage you to learn from this lesson and don’t get yourself caught where Cattlemen’s Beef Board activities are hampered by unnecessary legal challenges.”

Shipman also discussed some of the major goals of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, including: 1) Support rural communities so they can be self-sustaining; 2) Push forward climate change legislation, including cap and trade regulations; 3) Build a modern workplace with a modern workforce at the USDA office in D.C.

Cindy met up with David earlier today to discuss the role of USDA in overseeing the Beef Checkoff Program. You can listen to her interview here:

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Download David’s interview here: David Shipman

Beef Checkoff Return on Investment

The Beef Checkoff Program returns about $5.55 in value to beef producers for every dollar they invest, according to the latest economic study, which looked at the ROI for the program from 2003 to 2008.

Dr. Ron Ward, professor emeritus for the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, did the study, which measured the impact of the Beef Checkoff Program as a demand driver. Dr. Ward says they measured both attracting consumers to the market and increasing consumption. “What we find is that it has a positive impact on both,” he said.

The study determined that the 78.8 percent of U.S. households which purchased beef in any given two-week shopping period would have been about three percentage points lower between 2003 and 2008 without beef checkoff-funded programs.

Dr. Ward says the 5.5 to 1 return on the checkoff investment shows that it has a positive impact. “That’s been a very robust number for several years now,” he said. Dr. Ward presented his study results already this week to the checkoff’s Joint Industry Evaluation Advisory Committee at the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver and he will also present them at the general session on Friday.

The study includes some very complex economic modeling and has been thoroughly peer reviewed for research accountability. The study is available in pdf form here on the Beef Board website.

Listen to Dr. Ward’s summary of the study here:

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Download Dr. Ward’s interview here: Dr. Ron Ward

CBB Presented with 2010 Budget

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board was presented with a FY2010 budget of just under $41.6 million as recommended by the Operating and Executive Committees during Thursday afternoon’s meeting.

CBB Secretary/Treasurer Tom Jones presented the budget, which is only slightly less than the current year. “That is $110,000 lower than the 2009 budget, due to a decrease in projected funds available,” Tom told the meeting.

The budget includes a two percent decrease in the promotion budget, with less funding for the National Beef Cook Off (which was moved to a different budget category), advertising and retail, but slight increases in new product development, veal and food service. The research budget overall decreased by one percent, but increased funding for market research. The Consumer Information Budget took a four percent hit and the Foreign Marketing budget is down three percent. On the up side, the budget for Industry Information was increased 24%.

The full board will vote on the budget Saturday morning.

“Middle Meat Mania”

The Beef Checkoff Program funded the Middle Meat Mania campaign launched in June to encourage retailers to capitalize on lower-than-average wholesale middle-meat prices.  I sat down with NCBA Director of Retail Marketing, Randy Irion and CBB member and vice chair of the checkoff’s Joint Retail Committee, Margie Hande, to discuss middle meats, market trends and checkoff return on investments for producers.

Here are a few interesting statistics on this subject that weren’t mentioned in the interview:

1. From January to May 2009, pound sales of steaks from the rib increased 7.7 percent while dollar sales increased 2.1 percent.

2. In the same time period, steak sales from the loin increased 8.1 percent per pound, while dollar sales increased 3.4 percent.

3. Total ads for beef were up 12.4 percent in the week leading up to this year’s Memorial Day holiday compared to the same period last year.  

Listen to my interview with Randy and Margie here:

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Download the interview here: Randy Irion and Margie Hande

Producer Communication Materials for CBB Members

Richard Nielson was the last item on the agenda at the CBB Update Session in discussing outreach methods for educating fellow producers about the work of the checkoff dollars.  Nielson encouraged CBB members to get out and share information about their checkoff program with their fellow producers and importers.  He distributed “My Beef Checkoff Can” caps and educational materials for members to use in their efforts.  Nielson even had a couple of CBB members stand up and speak about their experiences talking about the checkoff out in the country.  

Richard Nielson is a lifetime cattleman and Ephraim, Utah resident and is co-owner of Nielson Farm, Inc. He believes in the mantra that “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” and that’s why he has gotten involved in boards administering the checkoff and other beef industry interests. Richard is a past chairman of the Utah Beef Council, past president of the Utah Cattlemen’s Association and a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Nebraska Cattlemen, Kansas Livestock Association, Texas Cattle Feeders, and Western Ag Credit. 

“Keep these materials out of your CBB folder at your desk,” Nielson told CBB members. “Put these things in your truck and talk about checkoff items instead of the markets once in awhile.”

Listen to a clip of Richard’s presentation here:�

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Download Richard’s audio here: Richard Nielson

Priorities of the Education Committee

Nancy Thomas from Cobb, Wisc. serves on the Joint Education Committee, and she discussed the goals and activities of this committee during their meetings at this year’s summer conference.  

Download Nancy’s interview here: Nancy Thomas

Stretching Advertising Dollars

Weldon Wynn of Star City, Arkansas owns and operates Wynn Beefmaster Farms and is a member of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Executive Committee as well as the advertising committee. Like any beef cattle producer and independent business operator, he knows what it’s like to stretch dollars and cut costs when income is tight, and that business mind is something he brings to the table when he serves on the CBB.

“As a member of the CBB board, we have to watch every dollar today, because collections are down and we are trying to stretch it as far as we possibly can to continue on with the programs we got going,” Weldon says.

As collections decrease that means there are less dollars for advertising, which means the budget for expensive television advertising has been cut. But, Weldon says this means they are being very targeted in their approach and doing more magazine and radio advertising.

Listen to my interview with Weldon here:

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Download Weldon’s interview here: Weldon Wynn