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MBIC Report

The MBIC Report is the weekly podcast program of the Missouri Beef Industry Council. You can listen to the report on radio stations around Missouri and on our website. You can also subscribe to the report with your favorite podcast software:
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In this week’s Missouri Beef Industry Council report, a cattle producer from northwest Missouri answers some questions about his views on the beef checkoff as part of a series to be used on the national level.

You can hear the report here: MBIC Report 7-23-08 (4 min MP3)

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board has rolled out a fabulous new website for cattle producers:
www.mybeefcheckoff.com

I’m impressed by how easy it is to navigate- and how much information it shares about how checkoff funded programs are working behind the scenes with educators, consumers, retail outlets and more to ensure a positive beef message is reaching our customers.

Check it out- and as always, drop us a line here at the Missouri Beef Council if you have questions about the beef promotion programs in our state!

Missouri cattle producers were well represented at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. Here’s our delegation getting ready for the joint board meeting of the CBB and NCBA.

You can find out all about what was happening as it relates to the Beef Checkoff on the CBB blog at BeefBoardMeeting.com. On it you’ll find pictures and interviews from throughout the annual meeting.

Additionally, there is a page on the site for every committee and they’re being updated with the minutes from each meeting. It’s a great resource and is part of the new Beef Board website: MyBeefCheckoff.com.

I just stepped out of the International marketing committee meeting and I have to say that if there is any area in agriculture that looks positive, it has to be overseas demand for protein. While demand for protein continues to grow, we are noticing a decline in the world wide cow herd, meaning supply of beef is getting smaller. in the United States, our cow herd is decreasing due to a number of factors including the weak dollar and lack of imported lean trim to blend with our domestic trim. As a result, we should be seeing higher cattle values in the near future and on into the 2010’s. Growing income and desire for higher quality protien provides us with our best marketing opportunity in addition to maintaining our domestic demand.

As with any meeting, there is a lot of listening and discussing to be had. I really enjoyed the Federation Forum yesterday morning. Beef producers representing the state beef councils across the nation gathered along with state staff to talk about research, promotion and education efforts within our states. John Houston shared a history of how the checkoff orginated, noting that the original beef checkoff started in 1922 with a collection of 5 cents per carload and a refund provision. Why did producer leaders implement the checkoff idea in those days? To fight the same battles we face today: Providing scientific research based diet, health and nutrition information to the American public. He noted that consumers in the early 1920’s were being told red meat consumption led to rheumatism! Later I’ll elaborate further from the notes I took, but it’s good for us all to know our past, especially so we don’t repeat the mistakes.

We also learned more about the “food and health” involved target audience we are focusing our efforts on today. The biggest take away for me is that these people are thought leaders and influencers in their communities. That is important to note, given that people tend to trust the opinions of friends and family more so than what they gather from media and alot of other communications these day.

Missouri Beef Industry Council staff members enjoyed learning more about crisis preparedness, marketing the beef brand and having the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with our peers in other states as well.

Today, committee work is ongoing. Missouri is represented on the Beef Safety committee, Public Relations committee, advertising committee, international marketing committee and we have staff monitors floating between the foodservice, retail, youth education, issues managment and producer communications committees. There will be alot of discussion in those meetings as producers are updated on topics of interest to those specific areas and then make funding recommendations for projects that will then go on to the operating committee to be fit into the national budget.

Speaking of the budget, national checkoff revenue is projected to be down $6 million next year, primarily due to losses in cow numbers due to everything from weather to increasing operating costs to higher valued cull cows. How to most effectively tighten our belt while maintaining effective research, promotion and education efforts is the challenge of the day!

Missouri beef producers are well represented at the committee meetings of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board taking place in Denver, CO. MBIC Executive Director, John Kleiboeker, talks about the main topics being focused on in the meetings at the conference. One of the main issues is the start of a process to analyze the Checkoff for the formulation of recommendations to make improvements.

You can hear the report here: MBIC Report 7-16-08 (5 min MP3)

The beef-dairy symposium yesterday was full of great information that we should all be taking into consideration. We started with an update from the Nutrient Rich Foods coalition, of which beef and dairy have beef leaders since inception. The goal is to help consumers identify which foods are naturally full of great nutrients and to what degree. More work has been done to try to help consumers put together meal plans and make informed decisions when grocery shopping, buying a meal at a restaurant, etc. I’m thrilled to see beef and dairy producers working together to help consumers be sure they enough protien into their diets.

The second part of the session looked at animal welfare and we were updated on existing animal welfare education and best practices along with what anti-animal agriculture groups have been doing to counter progress. Now is certainly the time for all cattle producers, beef and dairy, to be stepping up their level of quality assurance. It makes sense on multiple levels.

Today we will learn who has received scholarships, and then Federation of State Beef Council directors will meet to learn about checkoff history, discuss a potential name change for the Federation and consider who our target consumer really is. Stay posted for further updates as the meetings unfold!

We’re here in Denver at the NCBA summer meeting. I sat in on the Executive Committee meeting this morning learning what national leadership is thinking. While check off revenue is down, producers are dilligently trying to prioritize spending that will continue to yield effective beef demand improvement. I continue to be impressed with the opportunities in foreign countries including Russia, Egypt, Korea and Japan. I’m heading to a four hour symposium focusing on dairy and beef in relation to animal welfare. I’ll fill you in later.

In this week’s Missouri Beef Industry Council report, we talk with Marketing Director Dawn Thurnau about upcoming elections for representatives on the board and the July 28 deadline for registration to vote or to submit a candidate’s name for consideration.

You can hear the report here: MBIC Report 7-9-08 (5 min MP3)

This photo was supposed to go with the MBIC report about Matt a few weeks ago, but I forgot to add it and didn’t want to bury it back with the previous post.

So, here it is - young Matt Kahrs, MBIC summer intern - being interviewed by me for the MBIC report, which you can listen to here. Matt is a junior at the University of Missouri from Hughesville, studying agricultural economics. He says the best part about interning with MBIC is traveling and getting to speak with groups ranging from young children to older adults. He has also been playing an active role in the “Lunch and Learn” programs which he calls “one of the most beneficial things the agriculture industry in the state can do.”