Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to talk with outgoing Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Andy Bishop to discuss his volunteer service to the beef industry. Coverage of CattleCon 2025 is powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Bishop said that one of his favorite benefits of his position is the people he has met. “I really enjoy that camaraderie,” he said. “It is more like a family atmosphere and a high school reunion when we go to these functions.”
He added that looking at his four children causes him to ask what he can do now to positively impact their futures. “Anything that I can do in this position to enhance the industry and continue pushing it forward in a way that will allow them more opportunities for success…I feel like I have done my part to do that, so I really enjoy that part of it as well.”
Bishop said that the topic of how to best tell the checkoff story and how it helps the industry is constant in CBB conversations, and that there are many things going on behind the scenes to ensure that monies are being spent appropriately and efficiently.
“It is important to be able to highlight those programs in a way that producers can take and make their own,” he said. “Understand that we are not promoting beef to them. We are promoting beef to the consumers out there who really have no idea what we are doing today. They are four of five generations removed from the ranch, and it is our job as the Beef Checkoff to be able to tell that story and educate those consumers while giving them the confidence that they need to buy our product and know that they will have a safe nutritious product that is going to be the best tasting one in the world.”
He pointed out that the motivations of each consumer base are different, so researching the reasons that people buy certain cuts of beef is paramount. The Northeast Beef Promotion initiative is keenly about nutritional value, environmental sustainability, and affordability.
“They are just one segment of the industry,” Bishop said. “There is a completely different dynamic of what drives purchasing decisions when we talk about our export market. It is important that we understand that and tailor our messaging to those consumers.”
He said that the US Meat Export Federation is the second largest Beef Checkoff contractor due to the mind-blowing work that they do in more than eighty countries. “I had the opportunity to see that this summer in Japan and South Korea – just a glimpse – and the message that resonated from those consumers was that corn-fed American beef is the best there is.”
He touted the USMEF’s diligence in turning under-utilized cuts of beef in America into profitable products abroad.
“Preliminary results show exports account for $400 in added value to each carcass,” Bishop explained. “The biggest message that we got from our return on investments study was that had we not had a checkoff in the last five years, beef demand would have been 2.8 billion pounds lower. That is a big number, and it equates to about 8% less on the steer price. That shows the value of what the checkoff is providing.”
Noting the increase in carcass weights, and the decrease in the nation’s herd size, Bishop pointed out how much worse things could have been without the added 2.8 billion pounds in demand.
When the Beef Checkoff began in 1985, the dollar had 3 times its buying power today, but even still, the beef checkoff continues to fuel demand for beef with only $1 per head.
“Imagine if you are getting that $13.41 return on your investment for one dollar, what $2 could do in promoting our product,” Bishop said. “Even an extra dollar increase in the checkoff still wouldn’t get us back to the buying power of today, but we have learned how to be efficient with those dollars so give us an extra dollar and see that beef demand grow. I think at that point, we would start seeing beef consumption begin to grow again.”
Specifically, Bishop would like to see the extra money go into nutrition research to prove once and for all that beef is the highest quality protein available and is essential to everyone’s diets.
