At the 2024 CattleCon held in Orlando, Florida, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to catch up with Oklahoma rancher and Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion Board, Jimmy Taylor.
Our coverage from the 2024 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Orlando is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.
Regarding Checkoff dollars, Taylor said a significant area of growth he has seen is the export demand.
“In my first year as a board member, they set an all-time record in 2018 with a little over 8 billion dollars,” Taylor said. “Since that time, the last two years have been over 10 billion dollars.”
While there have been headwinds in the export market this past year, causing volume and value percentages to fall behind, Taylor said numbers are still high above years in the past.
“Our value this year(Calendar year 2023) at 11 months is 9.11 billion dollars,” Taylor said. “That blows that year in 2018 out of the water.”
Taylor recently had the chance to travel abroad to South Korea with the U.S. Meat Export Federation and see firsthand the programs USMEF has implemented in foreign countries.
“Those markets are very important to us, and they are going to get more important as we move forward,” Taylor said. “Ninety-six of the world’s population lives outside of the United States.”
Among the many ways the Cattlemen’s Beef Board works to support American ranchers, one project Taylor mentioned that he believes is critical to the beef industry is the Cattlemen’s Beef Board issues management team.
“We have groups that don’t particularly like our industry and are trying to do away with us that will put out half-truths or misinformation, and that team monitors media 24/7, so if one of those stories comes out that is not right, they can get right on top of it and get the truth out before that half-truth grows legs,” Taylor said.
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