Time to Roll Up Our Sleeves

Dear Fellow Beef Producers and Importers,

I am looking forward to the 2012 Cattle Industry Annual Convention in Nashville Feb. 1-4. I hope to see many of you there and look foward to working with you to help continue creating opportunities for a bright future for our industry. I don’t think that anyone would argue with the fact that we’ve had a rather difficult year, but this convention marks tremendous opportunity for us to come together and plan for smoother times ahead. 

The good news is that our Beef Checkoff Program has remained on track throughout the industry challenges of the last year or so, and we’ve seen some terrific results for all of us who invest our hard-earned dollars into the program. Our promotion, research, education and information programs are doing as intended, keeping beef center-of-plate with consumers worldwide.

As we gather in Nashville, those of you who volunteer your service on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Federation of State Beef Councils will meet jointly in checkoff committees to learn about ongoing program results for the current year, and will begin setting priorities for next year. As most of you are aware, we already know to expect tight checkoff budgets for at least the next several years, so it will be critical to focus on the most important priorities for our checkoff investments.

As individual producers and checkoff committee members, each of us must be prepared both to discuss the issues and – maybe most important – to listen and be open to others’ ideas, even if they are different from ours. As Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

With that in mind, I suggest that we all dig deep for our courage, keeping in mind that our fellow cattle producers and importers across the country have entrusted us with their checkoff investments, and we owe them our best. And while we may be volunteers in terms of our service on checkoff boards and committees, the work we do at our convention is directly tied to the success of our personal operations, our industry – and our very ability to keep our heritage alive for our children and our grandchildren. We owe them our best, too. 

So we have a lot of work to do, but we have tremendous opportunity, too. Let’s make our fellow producers – and the future generations who are counting on us – proud of what we are building for them. I’ll look forward to working with those of you in attendance toward that goal. 

And if you can’t be on site for the convention, stay tuned right here to this MyBeefCheckoff Meeting Blog to get updates on the goings-on at the convention and to add your own comments and questions wherever you see fit.

Sincerely, 

Wesley Grau
Chairman
Cattlemen’s Beef Board