December Beef Briefs
Date: Monday, December 01, 2008Editor’s note: Look for Beef Briefs to be delivered the first of each month - your snapshot of beef checkoff news affecting the dairy and beef industries. 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 or Diane Henderson at dhenderson@beefboard.org. And remember to visit www.MyBeefCheckoff.com regularly to help your audience ‘get to know their checkoff.’
Checkoff Leaders Spread the Word
Beef Board Chairman Dave Bateman of Illinois and CEO Tom Ramey were interviewed more than two dozen times by radio and television broadcasters from across the country at the annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) in Kansas City in November. The Beef Board also sponsored the lunch at the event’s trade show, introducing participants to a beef brisket recipe from the checkoff’s “Healthy Beef Cookbook.” To read about the NAFB meeting, visit ZimmComm’s blog at http://agwired.com/.
Beef Board Vice Chairman Lucinda Williams of Massachusetts has also been active spreading the word. She made a presentation to the New England Dairy Promotion Board about the structure of the beef checkoff and the importance of it to dairy producers, and has plans to speak to members of the Missouri Beef Council, the New York Holstein Association and the New York Beef Industry Council. For more information about Williams and other Beef Board leadership, go to CBB Leadership.
Beef Backer Broadens Band of Believers
The beef checkoff-funded Beef Backer Program is creating beef believers throughout the country, finding those restaurants and supermarkets that do the best job of marketing beef. Judging for the checkoff’s 2008 Retail Beef Backer Award program was conducted in Chicago in November and revealed a highly competitive field.
The supermarket retailers were judged based on their use of beef checkoff promotions and programs, as well as their own creative beef marketing campaigns. Winners will be announced at the 2009 Cattle Industry Annual Convention in Phoenix in January. For more information and a look at 2007 Beef Backer Award winners, visit Beef Backers.
Speaking of Beef Backer winners, Golden Corral restaurant, a 2005 National Beef Backer, is running a 10-week “Beef Lovers Promotion” through Dec. 31. In partnership with the beef checkoff, the dinner-hour promotion features bacon-wrapped sirloin, awesome pot roast, Italian meatballs, carved roast beef, and “mom’s meatloaf.” The checkoff is acknowledged on in-store signage, buffet labels, television commercials, and Web site promotions featuring the “Beef It’s What’s For Dinner” logo. Golden Corral has 480 restaurants located in 38 states. For details and graphics, go to Golden Corral.
Cook-Off Expands Support
The checkoff-funded National Beef Cook-Off team is developing state-national partnerships to help fund the 2009 Cook-Off. Non-checkoff partners and sponsors include Raley’s Bel Air Nob Hill Foods, and Kenwood and Kunde vineyards.
Raley’s has agreed to link its customers to the Cook-Off Web site during the contest’s entry generation phase, place full-page color ads in its Something Extra magazine, and distribute entry brochures in its 138 northern California stores. Kenwood and Kunde will be in-kind wine sponsors for the chef event, welcome event and gala awards banquet.
The American National CattleWomen (ANCW) manages the program and is raising non-checkoff funds for the event’s ground transportation, chef event and some other event activities not covered by the 2009 checkoff budget. For more about the Cook-Off, visit National Beef Cook-Off.
Dairy Beef Producers Treated to Recipes
More than 400 dairy beef producers attending Dairy Today Magazine’s November Elite Producers Business Conference in Las Vegas were treated to three new beef checkoff-developed recipes. Featured were pulled beef, the Flat Iron and Petite Tender cuts, demonstrating how the checkoff works to add value to the beef carcass. Attendees received copies of “Understanding Your Beef Checkoff Program,” and “Your Beef Checkoff Investment – Helping You Maximize Dairy Market Cow Value,” a brochure recently developed for dairy producers. See the recipe cards and brochures online in the producer communications section of MyBeefCheckoff.com.
Checkoff Continues Focus on International Markets
In late November three of South Korea’s major discount retailers, E-Mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, resumed sales of U.S. beef in Seoul. Part of their reasoning for opening their nearly 600 combined stores to U.S. beef was that there is no longer any reason for them not to carry the price-competitive product. The beef checkoff has helped fund programs to educate Korean consumers about the safety and quality of U.S. beef, correct misinformation about it and reassure Korean buyers of the value it presents. Get more information the decision of these retailers to begin promoting U.S. beef, or for general news about the export of U.S. beef internationally go to the U.S. Meat Export Federation site at www.usmef.org.
Plan Now for 2009 Cattle Industry Convention
Don’t forget to make plans for this year’s Cattle Industry Annual Convention Jan. 28-31, 2009 at the Phoenix, Ariz., Convention Center. The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) invites all producers to be a part of the decision-making process for the beef checkoff. At their meetings, CBB members will review and evaluate checkoff-funded programs to increase demand for beef, and begin setting priorities for Fiscal Year 2010. They also will review recommendations from their CBB Executive Committee for possible improvements to the checkoff, and elect new officers, Operating Committee and Executive Committee members for 2009. For more information about the beef checkoff, visit www.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.