Jo Ann Smith of Wacahoota, Florida was presented with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s first-ever Beef Checkoff Visionary Award during the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention’s Opening General Session in Nashville, Tennessee. This honor recognizes an individual in the beef industry who has demonstrated exemplary support of and commitment to the Checkoff’s goals and vision.
“Jo Ann Smith has been a tireless advocate for the beef industry for decades,” said Hugh Sanburg, 2021 Chair of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). “When national trends and fad diets tarnished beef’s image in the late 1970s and early 1980s, demand fell sharply. That’s when Jo Ann and other beef industry stakeholders worked diligently to win approval for a national Beef Checkoff program. Without Jo Ann’s efforts, the beef industry might look very different today.”
More than 40 years ago, as cattle prices were plummeting, a group of cattlemen and ranchers came to Smith, asking how the beef industry could help itself and address flagging consumer demand. The question, “What could we accomplish with a national checkoff?” came up during those discussions.
“As a group, we tried to put together a program that would pass so we would have a checkoff,” Smith said. “That was our ultimate goal. We needed enough money to pull together as an industry and get beef’s message out because new consumers are out there every day – and it’s our responsibility to educate them about why they should choose beef.”
In 1986, Smith became the first chair of the newly formed Cattlemen’s Beef Board. Thanks to the strong foundation that Smith and others established during those early days, Beef Checkoff programs have diligently communicated beef’s great taste, value and nutrition to consumers here in the U.S. and around the world for 35 years.
“Jo Ann’s tenacity, hard work and leadership turned the dream of a Beef Checkoff into reality,” said Greg Hanes, CEO of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “She has truly been a trailblazer, and all of us in the beef industry are grateful for what she has accomplished – not just in her role with the CBB, but also with the many other local, state and national beef industry organizations she’s been involved with over the years. Truly, there’s no one more deserving of our first Checkoff Visionary Award.”
There are a lot of famous quotes about history. A great one by Teddy Roosevelt says: The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.
Today, there’s plenty of misinformation zooming around about the Beef Checkoff. To combat this, it’s important to prepare yourself and know the “ins & outs” of your producer-led program. Equally important is why it is the way it is and what got us here to begin with.
One authority on the what, why and how of the Beef Checkoff is Wayne Watkinson, legal counsel for the CBB and U.S. Dairy Export Council. Watkinson was instrumental in creating the country’s Checkoff programs. He helped draft the legislation that created the Beef Checkoff and has deep knowledge about the program’s rocky road to adoption.
Check out Wayne Watkinson’s “History of the Beef Checkoff”, a new CBB audio-video presentation that just may fill in some blanks when it comes to your Checkoff knowledge. Class dismissed!
Every year, eligible Beef Checkoff contractors submit program funding requests, called authorization requests or ARs, to the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC). But long before things get to that stage, they put on their thinking caps, brainstorm ways to drive demand for beef, and prepare their fledgling AR for the ride of its life. Oh, and here’s an interesting tidbit: if the contractor is already conducting a current-year AR, the proposal prep work and existing AR work happen at the same time! It’s a whole lot to juggle and shows contractors’ true dedication to producers and the industry!
Based on the current state of the beef industry, contractors create promotion, research, or education proposals (ARs) to drive demand for beef.
Contractors present draft ARs to the six Beef Checkoff producer committees, which, in turn, determine whether the ARs are aligned with strategies in the current Beef Industry Long Range Plan (LRP). The committees also offer feedback and “score” the ARs, giving contractors the chance to do some tweaking before their final submissions.
Comprised of producers with national and state perspectives—10 from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 from the Federation of State Beef Councils—the influential BPOC reviews each finalized AR to determine how it will impact demand. Then, it decides which ARs to approve, how much funding to grant, and submits a final budget to USDA.
Ensuring each AR program is effective happens through evaluation reporting throughout the year. Results and feedback are communicated to producer committees to guarantee dollars are being spent efficiently and lawfully.
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Oklahoma Beef Council have collaborated on a series of entertaining videos that explains how the Beef Checkoff works. Each of the five videos is designed to be a resource that will help cattle producers and other members of the beef community better understand the program and how their Checkoff dollars are used to drive demand for beef through promotion, education, and research efforts.
“We want cattlemen to have a sound understanding of their Beef Checkoff program, and we’ve created these videos to help reach that goal,” said Heather Buckmaster, Oklahoma Beef Council Executive Director “We hope all cattlemen will take a moment to watch these videos and then share them with others in the beef community.”
The short, animated videos explain the somewhat complex Checkoff system in a simple way. They present facts about how the Beef Checkoff works, what the program does, who decides what projects the Checkoff funds, and answer key questions producers often ask about their Beef Checkoff dollars.
“These videos are proof that Checkoff education can be fun and entertaining,” said Libby Stauder, Checkoff Communications & Education Manager at the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “Plus, we’re so excited to have broadcast legend Ron Hays as the voice of the project. It really was a great collaborative effort, and we look forward to rolling these out across the country so that producers and importers everywhere can better understand their Beef Checkoff program.”
What Does the Beef Checkoff Do?
Key Questions About the Beef Checkoff
How Does the Beef Checkoff Work?
When consumers think about veal, they likely think that fancy, Italian, white-tablecloth restaurants are the only places that serve veal nowadays. The Beef Checkoff is changing that narrative and promoting veal as a nutritious, delicious option for any consumer.
The Checkoff-funded National Veal Program, executed by the New York Beef Council and the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) developed a new brand and website to invite consumers to “Discover Delicious” in veal.
Veal – Discover Delicious, integrates the former vealmadeeasy.com and vealfarm.com platforms and was developed with veal stakeholders’ input. The website features upcoming events, blog articles and cooking school information. Veal producers and other industry stakeholders can use the site to see extensive consumer outreach efforts. This website also shows consumers where to buy veal online, in butcher shops or at grocery stores.
Along with this website launch, the brand has several other ongoing campaigns and events. Here’s a program snapshot:
Family Features Campaign Highlights Veal’s Versatility – This social media and digital-focused campaign with Culinary.net uses veal as a popular and trending recipe ingredient for families. One new recipe was a buffalo baked veal cutlet sandwich. To date, this campaign has 725 total placements across the country in print media, online and social media networks, totaling 68,183,494 impressions.
Veal Wins Big on Chicory Promotion – An important goal of veal’s outreach is to touch different and new consumers, making them aware of veal as a protein option and how it can fit into their weekly meal choices. One way this was accomplished was through a campaign with Chicory, a digital shopper marketing platform that turns recipes into a retail environment and reaches consumers through an online recipe network. Consumers had the opportunity to add veal directly to their virtual shopping carts with the click of a button. Beef Checkoff dollars invested in this campaign were doubled by contributions from other brand partners, such as Victoria’s Pasta Sauce. Brand partners were complementary to veal, allowing consumers to see veal in a cooked application. The overall campaign was then supported by the Florida and Wisconsin State Beef Councils. This campaign ran from mid-February to mid-March, and at the second performance report in early March, there were more than one million impressions and 2,531 veal orders were added to baskets.
Consumers Gather for the ‘Love of Veal’ – Nine consumers joined both in-person and virtually from around the nation to take part in a veal cooking experience with Chef Patrick Rae and a wine tasting with Laurie Forster. The class taught consumers how to make two veal recipes with a romantic theme for Valentine’s Day. There was a 45 percent increase in comfort level among the participants in cooking veal following this class. Overall, participants gave the class 4.5 stars. More consumer cooking classes are planned for the rest of the year.
“SO enjoyed your For the Love of Veal virtual cooking class last night! I appreciate you taking the time to ‘de-mystify’ beef industry practices regarding veal, and I followed along with Chef Patrick’s instructions to make veal marsala, green beans and fingerling potatoes.” – Participant feedback.
National Collegiate Veal Cooking Competition – State Beef Councils in Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Arizona and Florida connected with their culinary institutes and students to extend the opportunity to be a part of the State and National Collegiate Cooking Competition. Students take the time to learn about veal production and then create a recipe of their own design for a consumer audience. One winner from each state will receive a scholarship prize and compete at the national level for additional scholarship money. There has been a 125 percent increase in State Beef Council participation in this program since 2019.
Major metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. in the Northeast are home to 72 million residents. With so many consumers in one region, the Beef Checkoff actively promotes beef in these cities along the I-95 corridor.
Checkoff-funded promotion to grow consumer trust in beef is executed through the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI), a subcontractor to the Beef Checkoff. NEBPI extends nationally developed Beef Checkoff messaging in the country’s heavily populated Northeast region, where there are only three active State Beef Councils and only 3.8 percent of all Beef Checkoff dollars are collected.
This gap between limited Checkoff dollar resources and a growing population of consumers in the Northeast created a clear opportunity to channel nationally collected Checkoff dollars into this region. NEBPI began in 2004 when representatives from various State Beef Councils and industry organizations in the Northeast region discussed the opportunity to initiate a program specifically for that purpose. In the fall of 2005, an authorization request to fund and initiate the NEBPI program was presented and approved by the Beef Promotion Operating Committee. Sixteen years later, NEBPI has seven State Beef Council funding partners – Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, Kentucky, South Dakota, Montana and Delaware – helping to promote beef in the northeast.
On February 3-5, cattlemen and women from across the U.S. gathered for the 2021 Cattle Industry Winter Business Meetings, held virtually this year. Here, the cattle industry discussed current issues as a group and reviewed how the Beef Checkoff will adjust messaging and programs over the past several months to follow the newly adopted 2021-2025 Beef Industry Long Range Plan.
Beef Checkoff committee members from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Federation of State Beef Councils in each of the six different program committees – Consumer Trust, Domestic Marketing, International Marketing, Nutrition and Health, Safety and Product Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement – heard presentations during the Checkoff Highlight Session. These presentations explained how programs, research and education have creatively changed to drive beef demand.
A video of the full presentation can be viewed below.
