CHECKOFF BUILDS BRIDGES
THROUGHOUT INDUSTRY SEGMENTS

            "This is not the United Way ."

            That, said Mark Thomas, is an important distinction-the $1-per-head beef checkoff isn't in business to serve as a charity organization for packers and retailers.  "We are in business with the checkoff to maintain and enhance beef demand and, at the end of the day, grow the production side of the beef industry."

            Thomas, vice president, Center for Consumer Marketing at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver , delivered an "accountability report" to cattle feeders on the beef checkoff during the Texas Cattle Feeders Association Annual Convention this weekend in Dallas . 

            However, Thomas emphasized that cattle producers and the organizations that work for them at the state and national level must work shoulder-to-shoulder with all segments of the beef marketing system if the goal of growing the production side of the beef industry is to be met. 

            "You will not have an opportunity for profit unless there is real consumer demand," he told cattle feeders, reminding them that every dollar that winds up in their pockets started when a consumer purchased their product.  

 "In order to maintain, increase and stimulate consumer demand, there have to be products in the marketplace that fit consumer needs and wants.  The whole purpose of the checkoff, going back to its inception in 1922, is to build consumer demand for beef so there could be an opportunity for profit throughout the beef system."

            There is a long and very successful list of how the beef checkoff has done exactly that.  For example, Thomas described beef crumbles, a new beef product that hit grocery shelves recently with the help of checkoff dollars.  These crumbles are pre-cooked ground beef in three different flavors that allow a time-harried mom to quickly and conveniently prepare a ground beef meal.

            "On the retail side, we're approaching 11,000 stores that have implemented Beef Made Easy."  This is a program that encourages stores to organize their beef shelves according to how different cuts are cooked and then, among other things, to put preparation instructions on individual beef packages. 

And attitudes about beef are showing marked improvement.  "We've seen significantly improved attitudes by moms about beef's nutrient benefits."  That's key because it's moms who buy the food their families eat, and they won't buy anything they don't trust and believe in. 

In addition, checkoff dollars are used to work with the major news media to communicate messages about beef safety issues such as BSE, foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax.  "We have been successful in maintaining consumer confidence in the safety of beef." 

All this benefits cattle producers and none of it would happen without industry segments working together.  "The checkoff didn't do it all, but through the checkoff, producers have been at the table in helping some things take place that never would have taken place without the checkoff.

            Thomas told cattle feeders that there's an old adage in any industry that holds, "He who puts in the most value will reap the most reward."  The checkoff is trying to stimulate packers, other beef manufacturers and retailers to look at the opportunity beef provides them to enhance value to consumers, so that demand pull will create higher bidding for raw materials.  "If a manufacturer has to bid higher for the raw materials he or she needs, that's going to create higher prices at the raw material level."

Thomas said that he's sensitive to the fact that a cattle producer, whether a cow-calf, stocker or feeder, often doesn't think of the consumer in the daily struggle to make an operation profitable.  "I understand that and appreciate that."  But that fact alone makes the beef checkoff an essential part of the beef industry.

            "The fact of the matter is, our job is to work for those men and women and to create the demand pull with private industry so that cattle producers have an opportunity for profit and can stay in business.  We have a very vested interest in why we do what we do." 

-end-

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