August 2009
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Look for Beef Briefs to be delivered the first of each month -- your snapshot of beef checkoff news affecting the dairy and beef industries. Editor’s note: please feel free to use these beef “blurbs” as space allows in your publication or online content. If you would like to expand on a certain topic, please e-mail Melissa Slagle at mslagle@beefboard.org.
In case you missed it…
… The checkoff-funded Veal Retail Marketing initiative just concluded its first consumer promotion, a “Free Groceries for a Year” sweepstakes and the winner, Kathy Coons of Ohio, will receive $5,000 worth of Free Groceries Gift Cards from her local Kroger supermarkets.
… Full 2009 Summer Cattle Industry Conference reports and producer interviews are now available on the Beef Board meeting blog, MyBeefCheckoffMeeting.Com.
… U.S. beef exports revise marketing strategy due to global recession.
Project Will Study Beef Flavor Enhancement
A research project funded by the beef checkoff will try to ascertain how fat is deposited both inside and outside muscle tissue. Scientists at Texas A&M University, the University of Idaho and Texas Tech University submitted the proposal, titled “Regulation of Marbling Development in Beef Cattle by Specific Fatty Acids.”
The study will determine if concentrations of proven healthful fatty acids can be increased. Texas A&M’s Stephen Smith, the project leader, said applying the findings could increase consumer perceptions and acceptance of beef as a natural source of protein, vitamins and healthful fatty acids.
Summer Conference Updates
Whether you were able to attend the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference or not, there may have been a number of meetings that you want to follow. With that in mind, the checkoff maintains a meeting blog, at www.MyBeefCheckoffMeeting.com, that serves as a tool to allow "virtual" participation in the checkoff process -- providing meeting agendas before the meeting, various producer interviews and meeting reports during the conference, and joint committee reports and minutes post-conference. The purpose of the blog is to provide transparency to the checkoff process and to provide an opportunity for producers to comment about the process or particular checkoff meetings or topics, as each entry includes a “comment” option at the end. Be sure to get the latest conference information and updates.
Asian Market Access
U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng says cattlemen are interested in a number of global market access issues. A particular topic of interest is whether the U.S. beef industry will be receiving relief anytime soon from Japan’s 20-month cattle age limit on imports of U.S beef. Seng added that most Asian trading partners prefer a phased approach to reopening their market to U.S. beef. The U.S. government, however, has been more focused on agreements that fully reopen markets to beef from cattle of all ages. Click here to listen to Seng’s report from the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.
Checkoff Returns $5.55
The Beef Checkoff Program returned about $5.55 in value to beef producers for every dollar they invested into it between 2003 and 2008. That’s the overall conclusion of a new economic study completed by Dr. Ron Ward, professor emeritus for the Food and Resource Economics Department of the University of Florida. Ward’s research addresses beef consumption patterns, estimation of the impact of the checkoff on market penetration or the probability of consuming beef within a defined period, and the impact on the level of consumption among beef consumers. The end product is the determination of the rate-of-return from beef producers’ and importers’ national checkoff investments.
Dave Bateman, immediate past Cattlemen’s Beef Board chairman and producer from Illinois, says the checkoff can’t singlehandedly turn around a bad market, but farmers and ranchers have to stop and imagine if our checkoff dollars are returning $5.55 for every dollar we invest, just where we might be without the checkoff programs we have in place. This study is telling us that because of our checkoff programs – even when times are bad for our industry – we are significantly better off than we would be without those programs.
Click here to read the full Dr. Ward report.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Funded by the Beef Checkoff.
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