Agricultural News
Clay Burtrum Helps Direct Beef Checkoff Funds in 2016- Updated With Video- In the Field
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 06:16:39 CDT
The national beef checkoff's plans and programs are determined by beef producers on an annual basis. Oklahoma Beef Council Chairman and cattle producer Clay Burtrum of Stillwater is one of two Oklahoma cattlemen that are a part of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee. (Dairy producer Brett Morris of Ninekah currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Cattlemen's Beef Board and has a seat on the Operating Committee as well.) In setting out a plan for 2016, the committee met in Denver in September. The group of beef producers spent a full day listening to proposals, Burtrum said committee members reviewed and scored each proposal. The committee consists of ten members of the Federation of State Beef Councils and ten members from the Cattlemen's Beef Board that are elected each year at the Cattle Industry Convention. Burtrum said those members decide how the half dollar sent to the CBB by each state is spent annually on behalf of cattle producers across the United States.
In recent years- As the U.S. beef herd shrank due to the ongoing drought, so did the funding to the nation's beef checkoff. For fiscal year 2016, the beef checkoff will spend $42 million dollars, an uptick in spending of $3 million dollars from last year. All beef checkoff funded programs are centered on research, education and promotion.
In recent years, the beef checkoff has changed its promotion efforts, in switching from traditional media to a digital platform. The shift has come in reaching a younger demographic.
"Our audience has changed, we're in a millennial generation in the social media age," Burtrum said. "People aren't planning meals for a week now, they are planning a meal at 4:30 in the afternoon. So, we have to be in that social media environment, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and those areas right now. So we've really upped the campaign to a digital media platform."
The beef checkoff also allocates funding to reach key-influencers. As the cochairman of the nutrition and health committee, Burtrum said they are focusing on those people that influence consumer's eating habits, such as bloggers, nurses, doctors and nutritional-people that interact with the public. Efforts focus on communicating the results of the Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet (BOLD) study and the DASH diet. Read more about the budget below the video box.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays talked with Clay Burtrum this past Saturday morning during his In the Field segment. Click on the PLAY button in the Video box to see their on camera conversation. Their OFF camera conversation can be heard by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.
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Broken out by budget component, the Fiscal Year 2016 Plan of Work for the Cattlemen's Beef Board budget includes:
$9 million for promotion programs, including continuation of the checkoff's consumer digital advertising program, as well as veal promotion.
$10.3 million for research programs, focusing on a variety of critical issues, including pre- and post-harvest beef safety research, product quality research, human nutrition research and scientific affairs, market research, and beef and culinary innovations.
$8.1 million for consumer information programs, including a Northeast public relations initiative, national consumer public relations, including, nutrition-influencer relations, and work with primary- and secondary-school curriculum directors nationwide to get accurate information about the beef industry into classrooms of today's youth.
$4.7 million for industry information programs, comprising dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter misinformation from anti-beef groups and others, as well as funding for checkoff participation in a fifth annual national industrywide symposium focused on discussion and dissemination of information about antibiotic use.
$8.4 million for foreign marketing and education in some 80 countries in the following: ASEAN region; Caribbean; Central America/Dominican Republic; China/Hong Kong; Europe; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Middle East; Russia/Greater Russian Region; South America; Taiwan; and new markets.
$1.5 million for producer communications, which includes investor outreach using national communications and direct communications to producers and importers about checkoff results; as well as development and utilization of information conduits, such as auction markets; maintenance of a seamless partnership with state beef council producer-communication efforts; and producer attitude research to determine producer attitudes about and desires of their checkoff program.
Separate from the authorization requests, other expenses funded through the total $44.8 million 2016 CBB budget include $221,000 for evaluation, $303,000 for program development, $325,000 for USDA oversight; and about $2 million for administration, which includes costs for Board meetings, legal fees, travel costs, office rental, supplies, equipment, and administrative staff compensation. Fiscal Year 2016 begins Oct. 1, 2015.
The Oklahoma Beef Council will be finalizing their plan of work for the new fiscal year at their next meeting on October 16th. Burtum sees the vast majority of the state's funding being spent out-of-state or in the overseas markets, because that brings a bigger return on investment for beef producers. He said the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) has determined that each dollar invested in foreign markets from the beef checkoff returns $43 to American beef producers.
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays interviewed Clay Burtrum. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
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