At the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to catch up with the President and CEO of CattleFax, Randy Blach, and Chairman of the Cattleman’s Beef Promotion Board Andy Bishop to see their reactions to the recent Beef Checkoff Return On Investment (ROI) study.
Coverage from the 2024 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.
“It’s been very evident over time to see the demand growth and the value of the [Beef Checkoff] in our industry,” Blach said. “It has added hundreds of dollars to the value of all of these cattle in our production systems. Export markets have boomed. Domestic markets have boomed.”
Blach emphasized that it isn’t just demand growth that has helped. It is changing the focus on the quality of products being produced to the consistency of the product.
“Consumers like our product now, but they didn’t like our product back in the eighties and nineties. It was inconsistent, didn’t have any marbling, or much taste to it. Now that we’ve gotten focused and know what we’re doing, we can measure it because of things like the quality audits through the checkoff. That has been very valuable to our industry,” he said.
The Beef Checkoff Markets work as is seen in the value propositions offered, the increase of grid premiums, and by watching feeder cattle and calf auctions, you can see the value separation on the cattle that will provide the best quality beef.
“A $13.41 return on investment, which is up from $11.91 in the last study, speaks volumes,” Bishop added. “Anytime, in your own operation, you can get a thirteen-dollar return on your investment, you would double down and try to do more things to continue to get that return.”
Bishop believes that increase is a testament to what the Beef Checkoff’s contractors are doing and the laser-focus of the Checkoff itself over the past ten to fifteen years in promoting beef. He has confidence in the entire framework of the program that build demand for beef, consumer satisfaction, and confidence in the product being delivered.
Due to growing inflation, the ROI amount was expected to be reduced. “When you look at the original 1985 dollar, it had a buying power today of thirty-two cents. We are getting pretty lean with what we can do with that dollar, but we are being very efficient,” Bishop said. “When you see a return on investment like this, you see that we’ve got to be really laser-focused on what we’re doing and the programs that we are approving because those dollars are going down, plus their buying power is going down.”
Bishop also mentioned that producer herds have gotten smaller, so Checkoff receipts are lower so they have to be extremely creative with their programs while always keeping the consumer and the end goal in mind. The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
