Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with Oklahoma rancher and Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion Board, Jimmy Taylor.
The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion Board is responsible for collecting and investing the dollar/head at beef checkoff. Taylor has been Chairman of the board for nearly a year.
Taylor said his favorite part of Beef Checkoff leadership has been the people.
“We have got 101 board members, and they are all volunteers,” Taylor said. “When we have meetings, they have hay to bale back home and they have cattle to work, but they are willing to set that aside and give it their own time to help the industry and try to figure out how to promote and have research programs and educate consumers and health professionals about beef…”
Aside from the volunteers who sacrifice valuable time for the well-being of the beef industry, Taylor said the staff does a great job with the resources and limited funding they have available.
“In September we met and selected which projects we could do this year,” Taylor said. “There were a lot of projects that didn’t get funded that were certainly worthy. We had to cut back on some others because we had 49 million dollars in projects and only 38 million dollars to work with.”
One area that offers a significant return on investoment that Taylor talked about is exports, as many cuts sell well in the international markets, whereas they would not have the same success in the U.S.
“Last year was a record year,” Taylor said. “For every fat animal that was sold, the export markets added 447 dollars to each head.”
While some may not feel that they are seeing the impacts of the export markets, Taylor said without them, there would be a negative impact seen on cattle producers’ bottom lines.
Taylor also talked about the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, where dollars are taken from high-population cattle states and are shipped to the Northeast, where there are more people, and used to promote beef to a bigger audience.
“There are 14 people for every cow in that area, and I think there are 72 or 73 million people in that area,” Taylor said.
The Checkoff is a valuable tool for cattle producers, Taylor said, because while one producer may not make a huge difference with their dollar/head, larger moves can be made when those dollars from producers all over the U.S. are combined.
“Every year, I pay approximately 400 dollars into the Checkoff,” Taylor said. “If I try to do something with that 400 dollars myself to promote, educate or have research for beef, I wouldn’t get very far.”
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 for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
