Three-Year Plan Set For Beef Industry
Contact: , 303-867-6302;
Suggested Lead: In October 2010, a group of 23 industry leaders convened to begin developing a long range plan for the beef industry. They gathered information from various sources, examined and prioritized the industry’s most urgent needs, and began to put together a vision, mission statement and tactics to answer those needs. Charles Miller, co-chair of the Long Range Plan Task Force and a cattleman from Nicholasville, Ky., says there is a sincere and committed effort to do everything possible to take the beef industry forward in a positive manner, to make it an industry we can be even more proud of in the future.
Miller 1: “I think the necessity is dictated by those changes. There is such a tremendous amount of challenge and change in our society and in our economy and that dictates things that are taking place in our industry. We’ve got a lot of things to do, we’ve got a lot of things to address, but we need to have some directional focus in doing that and that’s what this plan does. That’s what the plans in the past have done, and they have directed the focus of research, they’ve directed the focus of how checkoff dollars are spent and those type of things.” (33 seconds)
One of the six core strategies the group identified as vital to achieving the goal and mission of the long range plan is to capitalize on global growth opportunities. Miller explains why this is a key to success.
Miller 2: “Some of the key factors that we have looked at – one is our foreign market opportunities and the things we need to do to maintain those opportunities and increase those along the way, as well as domestic opportunities. And the things that consumers are concerned and aware of, and unaware of as well. We want to make sure that consumers feel good about us and they don’t necessarily do that now. So this plan goes to a great deal of effort to try to put in place some things that can create more openness and transparency so that folks can like us and like what we do if you will.” (37 seconds)
Miller says the plan also involves developing and investing in programs that attract talent and capital into the beef industry to help position the U.S. cow herd for growth. (The checkoff may not be involved in all of the goals, such as growing the herd, but the checkoff can help position the industry to take advantage of the growth when it comes.)
Miller 3: “There’s a concern in the industry about our diminished cow herd. We’re at a historic low as far as cow numbers are concerned. We feel like there is a real possibility, and based on the information that we have received from our Meat Export Federation as well as domestic, we could very well approach a point we might not be able to meet the demand that we have for export and domestic consumption. Now, once that happens, we’re not going to run out of beef, but we might lose some market share. And once that market share is gone, then it’s hard to get it back if you ever get all of it back. So that’s a concern – the decreased cow numbers and what we can do to try to stabilize our production as to where it is today, yet begin to build those cow numbers up to a point that we can maintain our beef supply.” (53 seconds)
This long range plan was written with the key understanding that markets change, societal concerns shift, and that the beef industry, therefore, has to be nimble enough to react. Miller says the task force took that into consideration.
Miller 4: “This plan is a little bit different because it has built into it a yearly update if you will, or review that’s going to take place annually. If there are things in there that need to be tweaked, if there are challenges that face the industry that are really going to affect the industry going forward from that point, then we have the opportunity to go in that plan and address those issues at that point in time.” (21 seconds)
So what does that mean to cattlemen and women across the country?
Miller 5: “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it that the investment that the checkoff and the Federation have made into putting this plan together will reap tremendous benefit because of the way that it will address our consumer needs, the way that it will address our consumer demands as far as – they want to know where their food comes from and they want to know how it’s produced. And we’re going to be able to try to put those answers together for them through direction from this plan. I think that to ensure those foreign markets are stable – a lot of us don’t realize the impact that foreign market has on that one animal we sell. And there’s a tremendous impact there. Today, I think it’s about $145-$150 a head. This plan has a goal of $185 a head which would be a 25% increase over the next three years and we feel like that’s doable based on the information that we’ve received and the access availability we have to markets. So all of this goes back to the bottom line of we as producers. It’s an investment. We have invested a dollar but from that dollar, we’re getting a major return because of the way it’s being reinvested if you will into the industry to try to answer these questions and push these initiatives forward.” (1:21 seconds)
During its recent meeting in Denver, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board endorsed checkoff-only portions of the long range plan.
To learn more about efforts being funded with your beef checkoff investment, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
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.
SOCIAL MEDIA