National Beef Checkoff ROI Study Proves Value, Provides Benchmark for Programs

Beef Country is in my blood. My wife and I live in Amarillo now, but I grew up near Benjamin in North Central Texas on my grandfather’s cow-calf and stocker operation. After graduating from Texas A&M in 1998, I went to work in the feedyards just to learn more about the beef industry and ended up making a career with Five Rivers Cattle Feeding. Today, in addition to working at Five Rivers, I also manage my portion of the family’s dryland wheat and grass stocker operation with a business partner.

One thing I’ve learned over my years in this industry is that there is a need for producers to stand up and let their voices be heard. As the current vice chair of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB), I’m able to help represent all phases of the industry, from cow-calf to cattle feeder, using my experience to help promote beef. I try to talk with producers all over the country – generational or new to the business – and understand their points of view.

When those producers learn about my role on the CBB, we often end up discussing the Beef Checkoff. We ask you to invest your hard-earned money to advance the entire beef industry, so many of you want to share your opinions about the Checkoff and its value. Lately, I’ve been referring producers to the results of the recent independent, third-party return on investment (ROI) study.

Every five years, all U.S. commodity boards commission an independent study to evaluate their programs’ effectiveness, a requirement of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) oversight of these programs. Even if the CBB wasn’t required to commission this study, this information is essential. You wouldn’t invest money without expecting – and deserving – updates on your investment’s performance. Checkoff investments should be no different.

Released in early July, the latest ROI study, conducted by Dr. Harry Kaiser of Cornell University, found that each dollar invested in national Beef Checkoff demand-driving activities from 2019 to 2023 positively impacted domestic beef demand and U.S. beef exports. In fact, it created a total financial benefit of $13.41 for producers and importers who paid into the program.

Dr. Kaiser’s analysis also examined what beef demand would have been over the past five years without investments in the national Beef Checkoff. The study found that total domestic beef demand would have been 8.5% lower per year, steer prices would have been 7.8% lower per year and U.S. export beef demand would have been 11.5% lower. All in all, the national Beef Checkoff added an incremental $3.3 billion to the beef industry in 2023 alone. That $3.3 billion also had positive indirect effects by adding $4.1 billion to the U.S. economy and generating a nearly $9.5 billion increase in the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

CBB’s hope is that the study’s findings will give more producers confidence in the Beef Checkoff and help you all trust that we’re spending your money wisely. We want producers to know that by investing our national Checkoff dollars into bigger and better demand-driving promotional, research and educational programs, we’re creating opportunities to increase overall revenue for those who pay into the program, which can lead to greater financial benefits for everyone involved over time.

But the value of the ROI study doesn’t end there. The CBB takes this data very seriously, and while a return of $13.41 sounds great, we want to do even better. The ROI study isn’t simply a platform for the CBB and the national Beef Checkoff to rest upon. It gives us information that we can use, in coordination with organizational long-term goals and the strategic initiatives of the Beef Industry Long Range Plan (LRP), to help shape current and future national Beef Checkoff programs.

As we move into the last month of FY 2024 and begin allocating national Beef Checkoff program funds for FY 2025, the ROI study’s data will be a tool to help make the best possible decisions on behalf of beef producers and importers – with the goal that those decisions will continue to propel the industry forward.