#56 - Andy Bishop, Dumbing Down the Checkoff

Andy Bishop is a cow-calf producer from Bardstown, KY.  He also serves as a loan officer at their local bank. In addition, he currently serves as Chair of the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board.

Cattlemen's Beef Board | Beef Checkoff

Episode Transcript

Microphone (Yeti Stereo (00:06):
Thanks for joining us for episode 56 of
practically ranching.
I'm your host, Matt Perrier.
As always the podcast issponsored by Dalebanks, Angus in
Eureka, Kansas.
Andy Bishop is a cow calfproducer and loan officer from
Bardstown, Kentucky.
In addition to these two dayjobs, plus a young family.

(00:30):
He also serves as the chair ofthe Cattleman's beef promotion
and research board, orCattleman's beef board for
short.
And of course the CBB overseesand manages our industry's$1 per
head beef checkoff program.
It's this volunteer job that wetalk about most on the episode.

(00:51):
We start with a little refresherabout the somewhat complicated
structure of the beef checkoffprogram.
We touch on some of thechallenges that our industry
faces with this intricateprogram and its moving parts
with various contractors andapproval and budget and audit
processes, and evencommunication with us as

(01:13):
producers who pay into thecheckoff.
And then we finish up with apretty interesting conversation
about what may lay ahead for thecheckoff.
Now I have witnessed the beefcheckoff from a lot of different
perspectives.
And I thought I knew most of theins and outs of this program,
but I still learned, or at leastwas reminded about a few things

(01:37):
that even I had forgotten.
As a supporter of a unifiedindustry voice.
I'm a believer in our checkoff.
But I also think that we mustconsider how, or even if it can
continue to be a relevant methodfor continuing the beef demand
growth into the future.

(01:57):
As a lender and a producer andthe leader of the CBB, Andy also
has a lot of differentperspectives.
He shares a few of those.
And I think it made for a greatconversation and one that I hope
that you will help continue asyou visit with other producers
in your area.
As always, thanks for tuning inGod.

(02:18):
Bless you all.
And enjoy this conversation withAndy Bishop.

Matt (02:25):
I just read that May is beef month and so what better
time to have the chair of theCattleman's Beef Board than May
to come on and talk a littleabout the checkoff and where
we've been and where we are andwhere we're going.
Give everybody, me included, alittle introduction to you and
your family's operation and kindof how you got involved with the

(02:46):
Cattleman's Beef Board.

Andy (02:48):
certainly.
And, uh, we're just excitedabout May beef month.
Obviously check off contractorsacross the country will be
working hard and a lot of state,uh.
Beef councils as well, weactually signed our May beef
month proclamation yesterdaywith our governor here in
Kentucky, which is a annualevent, which is gets us some
publicity for beef in the stateand give him some stakes as
well.
So that's always a highlight.

(03:10):
Enjoy that.
As far as my family isconcerned, I live in Bardstown,
Kentucky or outside ofBardstown, Kentucky.
My wife, Megan and I raise ourfour Children there, ages 14
down to eight.
And we raised them there on oursmall cow calf operation.
And I guess you'd say I am theexample of a Kentucky, uh,

(03:30):
cattle farmer.
We've got about 75 mama cows,Work off the farm, uh, as a, as
an ag lender, been doing thatfor 15 years and work at a local
bank there in town, which allowsme to, to farm, you know, uh,
after work and on the weekends.
And, uh, we raise someregistered Angus cattle, but
mostly primarily commercialcows.

Matt (03:51):
Good, I think that would um, mirror what a lot of our
producers out here probablyunderstand exactly where you're
coming from of trying to juggleall those, uh, all, keep all
those balls in the air.
How did you get involved withthe Cattlemen's Beef Board?
I assume through the State BeefCouncil first and, and how did
that all come

Andy (04:08):
yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, I go back to like,2007, I moved back to Kentucky
from Tennessee.
I lived down there for a fewyears and moved back home and.
Uh, went to my 1st stateconvention, uh, Kentucky
cattlemen's convention.
And just fell in love with.
Not only the atmosphere, but thecamaraderie among the producers,

(04:29):
uh, it's kind of like you couldjust like a class reunion
amongst all the producers.
And I said, man, I want to bepart of that.
Uh, and so, as I got involvedwith Kentucky cattlemen's
association, started learningmore and more about the check
off how that check off operated.
Really like the marketing pieceof the checkoff and the things
that the Kentucky Beef Councilwas doing in particularly.
And so, I moved into aleadership position row with the

(04:52):
Kentucky Beef Council and becamethe Beef Council chair and
served in that role for 3 years.
Then moved over to theFederation, actually the
Federation of State BeefCouncils and started moving into
leadership role there and theopportunity came available to
run for the beef board.
And so I put my name in the hat,wanting to get more involved in,

(05:13):
in the checkoff discussion.
And, thankfully was selected bythe secretary of agriculture to
serve on the beef board.
And so I moved into that role 4years ago.
Now, I'm in my 4th year.
immediately started pursuingleadership at the beef board
level.

Matt (05:29):
So you threw out a few terms there that I think
sometimes add to the confusionsurrounding the checkoff,
especially the beef checkoff,because it's the only, only
commodity checkoff program thatI've ever been familiar with, or
I guess very familiar with.
And if you would go through forfolks what the federation, the

(05:51):
Federation of State BeefCouncils, what these individual
state beef councils, and then,uh, of course, Cattlemen's Beef
Board and the contractors thatthey help fund beef promotion
and research efforts through.
Walk us through all that,because It gets pretty confusing
for a lot of us when we just saysomething about the checkoff and
then we start hearing all theseother terms and firms.

Andy (06:14):
You bet.
And so I actually served as aKentucky Cattlemen's president
last year as well.
And so I did a lot of countytalks to county meetings.
And so if it's okay, I'd like tobreak it down the way I do it.
Those county meetings.
It's easy for me.
And hopefully producers can kindof understand.
Usually they do when I leavethose meetings.
And so it kind of goes back to19, the early 1980s, the check

(06:35):
off when the check off began.
At that time, beef demand was atan all time low, many states
had, had started their own, uh,promotion of beef products and
started their own checkoffprogrammings within each state.
and so producers got together inthe early eighties and said,
Hey, why don't we make anational checkoff where we can
all pull our money together topromote our product?

(06:57):
And, uh, uh, That process failed2 times in the early 80s, and
then finally passed in 1985.
A little over 70 percent ofproducers across the country
voted in favor of, uh, of thenational referendum that created
the national beef check off.
And that original check off was1 dollar.
When you pass that referendum in1985 that created the act, which

(07:20):
is the 85 checkoff act, and thenyou created the order, which is
basically how those funds flow,but also how we can utilize
those funds within the checkoffprogram to make, make everybody
on the same page.
And so the way that thing wascreated in 1985 was that
original dollar, which is stilla dollar today, uh, is split in

(07:41):
half.
And half stays at the statelevel at the state beef council.
And that's what we call thefederation of state beef
councils.
So all those state beefcouncils, there's 43 of those
beef councils.
They belong to the federation ofstate beef councils.
They keep that 50 cents withinthe state for their promotion
within the state.
They can elect to send money upto the, to the national level

(08:04):
through their federation ofstate beef councils.
They can choose to partner withother contractors, such as the
U.
S.
meat export federation or, or N.
C.
B.
A.
and we can talk about that alittle bit further later on, but
they utilize that 50 cents atthe state level.
The other 50 cents comes up tothe Cattleman's Beef Board
level.
And that Cattleman's Beef Boardis made up of 99 members that

(08:27):
are selected by the U.
S.
Secretary of Ag.
And so, the way that works is,uh, basically each state gets
representatives on the BeefBoard, and it's based on cattle
numbers in that state.
Those cattle numbers aredetermined by the U.
S.
D.
A.
and that controls how many seatsyou have on the board.
Each state sends representativenames up to the U.

(08:50):
S.
secretary of agriculture and U.
S.
D.
A.
U.
S.
D.
A.
will then select.
A name out of that group, it'salmost like a, an audition
process.
You basically send in a resume.
You don't have to interview, butyou do send in a resume.
And I know in Kentucky, you haveto interview for that position.
To even be able to be sent up,but, uh, other states do it
differently.

(09:11):
U.
S.
Secretary of Agriculture choosesthe name, and then you belong to
the Beef Board, as a member ofthe Cattlemen's Beef Board.
And of those 99 members, 92 ofthose are producers, just like,
just like you and I are.
From all over the country,obviously, and then the other 7
are actually importers.
So they're importrepresentatives.
They're chosen by theirimporters to be sent up, but

(09:32):
they're still selected by the U.
S.
Secretary of ag.
And so that's obviously aquestion.
I get a lot of wise importers.
Why are importers on our on ourbeef board?
Well, importers pay into thecheck off just like you and I
do.
And, uh, they either pay on aper head basis if live cattle
are imported.
Most of the imports are our leantrim that are imported in the
United States.
72 percent of the of the importslast year were lean trim that we

(09:56):
blend with fat to make burger.
Uh, and so they pay up per,carcass equivalent, basically
that USDA has a formula for soevery, every box of beef has an
equivalent of a check offassociated to it, and so they
pay into the check off and lastyear, it was a little over
7Million dollars that, uh, thatwe received from import check
off dollars.

(10:17):
So it does provide a tremendousvalue, especially on times when,
uh, when check off receipts aredown here, domestically,
hopefully that clears that up alittle bit.

Matt (10:26):
Well, it does.
it does some.
I'll be honest, until I gotinvolved, similar to your path,
I was involved with KansasLivestock Association and then
got involved with Kansas BeefCouncil, uh, Executive Committee
or Board, and learned a lot thatI thought I knew.
And didn't, and of course itdoes change a little bit through

(10:48):
the years and Kansas is in aunique spot with as many cattle
numbers as what we have and sothat's always a nuanced thing,
but you know, even after sittingthrough a few years of those
beef council meetings.
I think part of what you andothers within the cattlemen's
beef board, within the quoteunquote beef checkoff, catch all

(11:11):
term, what we fight withproducers is misunderstanding of
just who and how those dollarsget allocated.
And that's a nature of thebeast.
As, as you said, in 1985, whenwe finally got this past, we, as
an industry, um, anything,whether we like it or not,

(11:32):
anything that goes through USDAis going to be pretty complex.
and I get that, but I thinkthat's one of the things that I
struggle with, and I know youstruggle with when we have to
spend as much time in thoseKentucky cattlemen's meetings or
the Kansas livestock meetings orfarm bureau or anybody else,
just explaining and almost to acertain level defending that A:

(11:58):
we have folks in positions tomake use of those dollars in the
best way possible.

And B (12:03):
this is how it's working, man, that confusion and that
complexity makes it even harder.
It just gives more opportunitiesfor folks to poke a certain part
of the beef checkoff and saying,well, Who decided that dollar
would go there?
And

Andy (12:18):
you bet

Matt (12:19):
it's tough.

Andy (12:20):
and it's a, it's an ongoing struggle, right?
I mean, we, we, we deal with itevery day.
And so, you know, the other partof that discussion that I had
with those producers is okay.
At the state level, we have beefcouncil members that are
producers that make thedecisions on how those dollars
are spent at the state level.
We just, we just had our 1stbudget meeting.
Uh, 2 weeks ago at our Kentuckybeef council, and so those

(12:42):
producers are in and off of thatboard.
They get to see the request andhow those dollars need or how
our checkoff, uh, team wants tospend those dollars.
But then ultimately, theproducers get to make that
decision when you talk about thenational level, that 50 cents
goes up to that national leveland then producers set on on the
committees.
And so there's 6 committees atthe, at the national level.

(13:05):
And, beef board members and theFederation members that are that
are selected by the Federationof state beef councils.
They attend the summer businessmeeting.
Where they listen to contractorsand a contractor presents what
they call an authorauthorization request.
Basically, they're saying.
If you approve me, here's whatwe would like to do with check
off money and those committees,listen to those contractors,

(13:29):
listen to those requests, andthen provide feedback to the
contractor, get a chance to askquestions that they bring up
from their state level.
Uh, but then they also get toscore and rank those,
contractors.
That information goes on to thebeef promotion and operating
committee, and this is wheresometimes it gets a little
complex, but but it's veryimportant to understand how that

(13:50):
process works.
So the beef promotion andoperating committee is 20
members.
10 beef board members and 10Federation of State Beef Council
members.
So those 10 members from thefederation are from all states.
Sent up by their state beefcouncils as representatives, and
they run for a position.
They actually interview and andgo through the full gamut.
Um, pretty extensive interviews,uh, to be honest, to be able to

(14:13):
be a representative on thatoperating committee.
Same thing happens on the beefboard of the 99 members on the
beef board.
You put your name in the hat tobe on the operating committee.
You interview this year.
We had 27, 27 applicants forthe, uh, for the operating
committee.
We had 10 spots.
Uh, and so you went through a 30minute long interview process,

(14:34):
with a nominating committee.
The nominating committee is alsomade up of beef board members
chosen by the beef board membersthemselves.
that goes that happens at summerbusiness meeting as well, where
we select a nominating committeeto interview and choose the
operating committee.
So, when you think about thatoperating committee, there's 20
members on there, and they'reall producers just like you and

(14:56):
I, that are chosen by theirpeers.
so it's not a, not a governmentgroup.
That's telling us how that, howthose, uh, that operating
committee should be structured.
It's not the beef boardemployees.
It is the beef board membersthemselves, that operating
committee takes the feedbackfrom those committees at summer
business meeting, and then theylisten to the contractors again

(15:18):
in September.
And then basically have tobalance that budget and so give
you an example.
Last year, we had 48Milliondollars worth of request
authorization request by 9contractors.
We had 38Million dollar budget,and so we had 10Million dollars
to shave off the top anddetermine how those dollars

(15:40):
could be spent.
So, it was a pretty heateddiscussion obviously, everybody
has their own their owncontractor programs that they
like, and you like this 1, oryou may not like this 1, but you
also have to take intoconsideration feedback by the
committees.
there was a contract that didn'tget funded last year, and it
basically was because thecommittee scored it really,
really low, and it was tough tomake that decision because you

(16:03):
contractors spend a lot of timeand effort to to fund these
programs are to come forth withthese programs, and you'd like
to see everybody get money.
But at the end of the day, it'sjust doesn't work that way,
especially if the committeemembers don't see that it's a
good value for our dollar.
Once those dollars are allocatedby the promotion and operating
committee, it then has to bevoted on by our executive

(16:24):
committee.
And approved and then the beefboard, actually, the full beef
board votes on that budget andsays, yes, we agree that you can
allocate this budget in thatmanner that you've set forth.
At that point, contractors goout and they do the programming
that they've requested, and thenthey ask for reimbursement.

(16:45):
And that's probably the biggestmisconception, Matt, that we run
into is.
You know, I hear a lot of times,all of these contractors just
get a blank checkbook and theyget to go out and do what they
want to.
Well, actually, it doesn't workthat way.
The contractors have to go dothe program, come back, submit
all their, information to ouraudit committee.
Uh, to our auditors, ourinternal auditors, they audit

(17:07):
those financials to make surethat they're correct.
Then USDA audits those.
And at that point, once those,once they go through those two
processes, then the check, thenthe contractor can receive the
funds back that they'verequested, but only after
they've, done those programs.
And so that makes it tough on alot of contractors, because if
you're asking for a lot ofmoney, you've got to have that

(17:29):
money up front to be able tospend.
And that does weed out a lot ofthe contractors and the programs
that they could be doing justbecause they don't have the
money up front to be able tospend it.

Matt (17:38):
So I said it was complex.

Andy (17:41):
There's a long.

Matt (17:42):
you've even confused me.
No, I, and, and guess what?
You hit the high points, didn'tyou?
I mean, honestly, that is aboutas simplified as you can make
this process and still hit onthe main points.
And again, I go back to the factthat part of the battle that you

(18:04):
and other leaders and staff andeverybody else within the Beef
Checkoff have to fight is thatbattle.
onerous of a structure and Imean, and golly, I, of course
you're in the lendinginstitution in the financial
world and so you're no strangerto red tape and government
oversight and everything else,but most farmers and ranchers I

(18:25):
think would throw their hands upin disgust and say, you got to
be kidding me.
We approved this project.
We allocated the funds and nowwe have to go through a process
almost as detailed to hear howthey use those funds before
we'll write the check.
You got to be kidding me.
There's got to be a better way,but with a government program,

(18:46):
which is what it is, or at leastoversight, there's probably no
other way to simplify it.
Is there,

Andy (18:51):
No, and I think it's important to remember, I think
we lose sight of that because ofthe complexity that if we didn't
make it fairly complex, andthere weren't red tape and
things that you had to gothrough.
The misuse message that we oftenget.
From check off"all the checkoffsbeing misused," right?
If we weren't going through thisred tape, then there may be some

(19:12):
legitimacy to that misusecomment, but we know the amount
of eyes and the amount of.
Red tape that we have to gothrough.
This thing is controlled down ifyou really want to get into the
details down to 15 minuteincrements as far as your time
is coded as a checkoffcontractor on what you're

(19:32):
working on.
And our auditors have to evenreview down to those time
cards....
"okay.
We spent 45 minutes on thisproject." Well, our, our auditor
can say, well, actually, itshould have only taken you as a
contractor, 15 minutes to dothat project.
We're only going to approve 15minutes of your use.
And so there is a, Lots of eyes,a lot, a lot of set of eyes that

(19:53):
look at these programs.
And, and so I think that's why Iget frustrated sometimes when
they, when you hear thecomments,"oh, you're just
misusing checkoff, they're justthrowing this stuff out there."
Well, if you really saw theintricate details that go on
behind the scenes to make surethat that doesn't happen, you'd
have full faith in the checkoff.

Matt (20:09):
I am guilty of asking questions that sometimes I
really don't want to know theanswer to.
In your financials, eitherbudget at the beginning of the
year or end of year financials,do you have the percentage Of
time that is spent by your staffor the folks that are auditing

(20:32):
these programs.
How much of our beef checkoff dowe have to spend just on those
audit procedures and, or howmuch a year, I assume this is
all volunteer work, but howmuch, how many of your hours
does the CBB board have to spendjust breathing down somebody's
neck to make sure that they did15 minutes worth of work for

(20:54):
getting 15 minutes of pay?

Andy (20:55):
Yeah, and for me, for me, I can, I can answer that
question pretty easily for mepersonally.
It's about 85 days this yearthat I'll be out of state.
Uh, away from my home, it'svolunteer.
Uh, that's that's.
That's on my dollar, I mean,obviously the reimburse some,
some travel expenses, but, uh,but basically it's on, it's on
my time and my dollar, my cattleand my farms suffer when I'm not

(21:17):
here obviously.
But I'm passionate about it.
And so, uh, you know, I committo doing it.
And then if you looked at zoomcalls and meetings and things
like that, my goodness, it'sprobably closer to 100 days
worth of time that that I committo the check off.
And all of our producers arespending an ample amount of
time, making sure that thesethings are going the way they're

(21:37):
supposed to, from an overheadand administrative.
Uh, standpoint, you'd ask thatquestion about our, our staff.
And the entire check off, so ourentire beef board has to, uh, by
law operate on a 5%administrative budget or less,
um, and that's that is by law.

(21:58):
And so, as check off dollars andreceipts go down.
Our administrative budget goesdown accordingly, and so it gets
pretty tough.
Right?
I mean, you're administering a42Million dollar check off with
5 percent overhead.
And I, I looked this up forsomebody at a meeting.
Last month that we were at, andthey wanted to know, well,

(22:18):
what's H.
S.
U.
S.
what's their, what's theiradministrative budget?
And I looked it up and it's 39%.

Matt (22:25):
Uh,

Andy (22:25):
We're farmers, Matt, we're farmers and ranchers.
We operate lean.
and so our beef board has tooperate lean as well.
And that also that of that 5percent budget, we have to pay
for USDA oversight.
So, you know, we, we heard abouta law that came out and said,
you can't use a.
Checkoff dollars for X amount orthis or that and USDA shouldn't

(22:46):
be using taxpayer dollars tooversee checkoff programmings.
Well, USDA doesn't and ourgovernment doesn't.
The checkoff itself, overseesitself and pays USDA to oversee
us.
So, that's all included in that5 percent administrative budget.

Matt (23:01):
Well, it's a giant task and, um, I, I don't envy you one
bit because it's yeoman's workand it gets more expensive every
day.
And yet here you are operatingon a budget that was set in
1985.
And I don't know when on a perhead, not a per pound or Per

(23:24):
dollar value of the animal oranything else basis.
And I want to touch on that interms of where do we go from
here in trying to make betteruse of cattlemen's dollars to
actually do promotion research.
But before we do, you mentionedcontractors and I think

(23:44):
sometimes, uh, some of thosecontractors are the ones that.
that even add some confusion,not they themselves, but when
their names get thrown into themix, give us, I guess, the main
five or six contractors to theCattlemen's Beef Board to carry
out those programs.

Andy (24:01):
Yeah, we can go by order of size.
It probably makes it easiest.
Obviously, NCBA is the largestcontractor and, and that's one
that even, you know, Producershere in the state to say they
came up and conventioncongratulations for being an
NCBA officer.
Well, I'm not an NCBA officer.
I am the chairman of the beefboard.
Uh, NCBA is a contractor to us.
I'm, I'm not an officer for theNCBA.

(24:22):
So, um, but they are our largestcontractor.
Uh, U.
S.
meat export federation would be2nd, in size as far as, as, as
what they, what they receivedfrom funding.
Then it kind of gets muchsmaller.
You've got, uh, uh, the NorthAmerican meat Institute.
They've just renamed themselvesthe meat Institute and they
receive a little bit of funding.

(24:43):
Uh, American Farm BureauFoundation, uh, receives funding
for stem work that they do withteachers across the country.
Um, you've got Northeast BeefPromotion Initiative.
They're up in, uh, in thatNortheast section.
Uh, so we send a lot of dollarsup there.
because they've got way morepeople than they've got cattle
and I always go back.
I think they said they've got15.

(25:06):
People for every head of cattle,where Nebraska has 5 head of
cattle for every person.
And so when you look at that,you think, okay, well, it makes
sense.
Let's send the money where thepeople are and it's easy to
advertise there.
So they would be another 1.
Um, we've got the NIAA, you'vegot Media Importer's Council.
So those are the, the main ones.

(25:26):
Cattleman's, um, uh, USCattleman's Association has been
in the past a contractor to thecheckoff as well.
I know I'm probably leaving oneout.
I didn't write'em all down, tobe honest, so I'm, I'm going off
of memory here, but there arenine total contractor.

Matt (25:39):
And just in rough numbers, let's say percentages of the
budget in terms of beefpromotion, research, the
producer communications portionof that, how do those all stack
up today?
How much do we spend trying tosell it as opposed to trying to
make new products and thingslike that through

Andy (26:01):
there's, there's, there's 6, 6 budget categories and
within those budget categories,all of them are pretty even as
far as the funding amounts,except for producer
communications.
It's a, it's 1.
8Million that we spend inproducer communications and.
You know, that's a hot buttontopic.
Should we have to spend thatmuch money to educate the
producer?
And then how do we do that?

(26:22):
You know, how do we get it out?
You can put as much literaturein front of a producer as you
want.
Is he going to read it?
are they gonna once they readit, are they going to still
understand it?
And so that's something that'sconstantly changing.
We're trying to figure that 1out, but that 1, that is our
smallest budget categorypromotion and research probably
would be the 2 largest ones.
And then, uh, obviously exportas well.

(26:42):
They export was about 8Millionlast year.

Matt (26:46):
I've had folks suggest that I, um, take some volunteer
time and be on the cattlemen'sbeef board, or at least our
state beef council again.
And I, I laugh and say, youknow, you do not want me in that
room because you're 1.
8 million that's going toproducer communications would go
to zero.
If I was there and I hate sayingthat, especially here on a

(27:09):
podcast that guess what isfocused on producer
communications, but my goodness,the amount, and I know that's a
pittance, but still it's, it's1.
8 million that you all couldhave used to sell beef to
somebody who doesn't know howit's raised and the amount of
time.
And, and, you know, I wouldventure to guess that, well, you

(27:31):
said it yourself.
All those nights that you spendaway from home, all those times
you're on a cattleman, statecattlemen's association program
or whatever else, you'respending a lot of time
communicating with producers.
And that's zero in that 1.
8 million.
Man, I'd like to wave the magicwand and make that go to zero
because so often we spend abunch of time educating folks

(27:54):
that truly don't really want,they're, they don't want to hear
what it is that we actually aredoing.
They're wanting to look to seewhat it is they wish we were.

Andy (28:04):
I fully agree with that.
100%.
You know, and that's probablythat's my biggest push as.
The, the chairman of the beefboard this year is 1) increased
transparency, but.
Let's get producers out tellingthe check off story and I saw it
last year.
I spoke at 30 county meetingsacross our state last year.
And you go in and you say, I'mgoing to talk about the check

(28:26):
off.
And immediately you can seepeople in the room start
squirming and getting just madimmediately by the end of that
discussion, which usually wouldtake me about 30 minutes to
really lay out the check off howit operates and then some
different programs that we doand why they don't see those
check off dollars at work.
A lot of times.

(28:46):
then you just see the light bulbgo off.
And at the end of the meeting,those same people that were mad
up front come to you and say,you know, I never, I never, I
had no idea that the checkoffwas doing all this programming.
Why, why am I not seeing that?
And I said, we're, we're sendingout publications.
We're doing emails, we're doingFacebook stuff.
We're doing stuff at the, at thestockyards levels.

(29:08):
It's everywhere around you, butyou just don't see it.
And so that conversation is afree conversation.
Right?
And so I think that conversationprovides inroads and I wish
there was a way that we couldhave that conversation
nationally at one, one time,right?
Or a couple of times where youcan get as many producers as
possible and let somebody and Icall it for me and my purpose, I

(29:30):
call it dumbing down the checkoff where where you basically
you put it simplistic form wherepeople can understand how that
check off operates and how thosedollars being spent.
And in many cases, why you don'tsee that dollar.
Um, Unfortunately, that's stilltough to do.
And you, you, you hit it on thehead is there's a lot of
producers that you can stillhave that conversation with, or

(29:50):
put as much literature in frontof as you want.
And they're just, they're alwaysgoing to be anti Checkoff.

Matt (29:56):
Yeah, it's frustrating even for me who doesn't spend
all the nights away from hisfamily and

Andy (30:01):
Yeah.

Matt (30:02):
cow herd is what you all do.
Um, it's frustrating to see thatbecause I, I grew up, I was born
in the early seventies.
I mean, mom and dad wore the bigbuttons that said Beeferendum, I
mean, they were, they were allfor the checkoff the first two
times and still were obviouslyby the time they finally got it
passed.
And at that time there was justthis massive support for the

(30:25):
checkoff and we've seen thatwane through the years and
people can point to alldifferent reasons and I think
one of those contractors, thatyou mentioned is probably the
lightning rod for so many folksthat want to, want to, uh,
criticize how checkoff funds arespent, especially when they go
to the National Cattlemen's BeefAssociation and, and, um, You

(30:46):
know, again, we want to talkabout confusion.
The fact that we've got NCBAfolks that are, helping with
those contract dollars throughCBB, and then we've got folks
down the hall that may not eversee the check off side who are
working on policy.
It's totally separate, but thefact that they're all under the

(31:08):
same building and under the samename and get the same check from
somebody above...
it, it adds to the confusion.
And I, for one, am a huge,proponent of the merged
organizations.
But unfortunately, we as anindustry did not, accept that
very well in 96 or 98 orwhenever it was that that

(31:31):
happened.
And, and I think we've beenfighting it ever since.
And it's frustrating to me that.
For lack of a betterdescription, an umbrella name
that is supposed to be the, allencompassing holistic, let's all
talk about the entire beefindustry from conception to

(31:54):
consumption, how in the worldthat got misconstrued as,"Oh,
checkoff dollars to go to DC andlobby some Policy that I don't
agree with" is it's frustrating.
It's, it's fascinating to methat that narrative could get

(32:15):
started and go as far as what ithas, but it's frustrating with
all the work that you all havedone and all the firewalls and
everything else that have beenbuilt, that we still have folks
that are saying, yeah, they'reusing your checkoff dollars to
go to DC and lobby againstsomething that you don't believe
in.

Andy (32:31):
You talked about those administrative dollars, uh, and
we spent a lot of them to makesure that that that firewall is
protected that you that youtalked about where those policy
dollars or those checkoffdollars are not going for policy
stuff.
That probably gets more scrutinyand more sets of eyes on it than
anything to just make sure thatthat's there because of the
narrative in the countryside.
and it's also easy to point thefinger at NCBA because they're

(32:54):
the largest contractor.
They are, they're the largestcattlemen's group, right?
I mean, they're massive.
They do great work as acontractor.
We love their programs.
Um, and I think most producersonce, Once they come see the
programs that that NCBA is doingreally begin to understand the
magnitude that NCBA as acheckoff contractor is having on

(33:18):
beef promotion and the checkoffin itself.
And so, you know, The beefboard's unique, Matt, in that
there's a lot of, a lot ofpeople that are on the beef
board that are not NCBAsupporters, because of the way,
the way we're appointed, right?
And which is a great thing.
you can say, hey, there's,there's, there's people from all
across, uh, all walks of life onthis beef board as far as

(33:41):
producers are concerned with alldifferent mindsets.
And I see a lot come in with,with kind of an anti NCBA
sentiment.
And after they see theprogramming that they're doing,
uh, it kind of, It kind ofsquashes a lot of that.
The efficiency of putting thosegroups together is something
that we need.
Um, we do it in the state ofKentucky.

(34:02):
Our beef council is housed underthe same roof as our association
and, and there's savings inthat.
We talked about that originaldollar, that buying power today
is 32 cents of that originaldollar.
And so, If we're not doingthings efficiently and working
as streamlined as we can, thepromotion that we can do with

(34:22):
that dollar gets less and less.
And that's already somethingthat we're facing.
And so, um, we've got to becreative.
Um, we do what we can to dispelthe myths between NCBA and the
policy dollars and those kindsof things.
And, and from an auditstandpoint, that's where we
really hang our hat and say,listen, this thing is getting

(34:43):
reviewed by our auditors by a3rd party auditing firm by the
USDA auditing firm.
And then we have a budget auditcommittee that overview that
oversees everything.
So, 4 sets for groups of eyesthat are making sure that those
dollars are being spent the waythey're supposed to.

Matt (34:59):
Well, it is a complex process and we keep bringing
that up at this point in ourconversation.

I think I have either a (35:05):
Bored to tears, everybody who already
knows that there are firewallsin place to make sure these
dollars are used the right wayand they already know the
structures and they've setthrough those board meetings

that you have, or B (35:20):
they've shut us off because I.
of an organization or of acontractor that they may
disagree with politically.
So now I want to, I want to turnthe page and I want to flip to
something that's, that's alittle bit tougher.
I think to talk about even thandefending the structure of the

(35:43):
beef checkoff.
And that is where do we go fromhere?
1985, we pass a dollar a headcheck off for all cattle at
change of ownership.
And at that time we were hunkingand chunking and throwing onto a
white foam tray big pieces ofmeats.

(36:03):
And in one box, not just onetruckload, but in one box, we
may have everything from a primeyield grade five to a.
Standard yield grade one and thesame retailer got that stuff and
had to do something with it.
Fast forward to today.
And thanks to value basedmarketing and cooler sorting and

(36:23):
branded beef and everything thatwe've got today, we've improved
quality and consistency, butwe've also changed the way we
merchandise beef and beefproducts.
Like you said, we've got about athird of the buying power today
that we had in 1985.
When we go to using thesedollars on research and

(36:45):
promotion and exports, uh, we,we market and merchandise cattle
a little differently.
We've got bigger folks owningmore cattle and sometimes a
channel marketing and, andsupply chain management that,
that they do their own thingfrom womb to tomb.
And they're, Marketing,merchandising it themselves.

(37:07):
Do we need to, either A,increase the beef check off
threefold or fivefold orwhatever it may be?
Or just throw the whole thingout and start from scratch and
say, How would we build it if wewere building it in 2024, not
1985?

Andy (37:24):
Oh, man, this, this could go for a while, Matt.
We may not have enough timehere.

Matt (37:28):
Ha ha ha ha! Like I said, we're down to, we're down to two
dozen people finally listening

Andy (37:33):
That's right.

Matt (37:33):
we can get down and dirty.
Ha ha

Andy (37:35):
to you 2 dozen for sticking in, but so great
question.
Uh, you look at other commodityprograms and so let's point out
pork.
For example, pork is, uh, theircheck off was designed a little
differently in the fact thatit's a value driven 1.
Their checkoff last year, Ithink was 108 million where ours
was 42 or 43 million.

(37:58):
Uh, we are the 2nd largestcommodity group in the nation
and we're the 7th largestcheckoff.
And so when that 1st dollar was,was, uh, approved or passed by
producers, I think that was awin win and everybody was
excited just to get a dollarpassed.
you look back at it now inhindsight and you say, Man, if
we could have done some kind ofa, You know, inflation index or

(38:22):
something like that, or a valuebased index where that thing
would move with the value ofcattle in times like today,
where we have extremely highmarkets, we might be generating
more more revenue for the checkoff, even though receipts are
down as far as cattle areconcerned.
But we can't change that withoutopening back up that 85 act, as

(38:44):
a producer, I can speak to it asa producer.
We need more dollars.
no doubt about it.
We would have to have 3 timesthe dollars today to equate to
what we were doing.
You know, when we passed that85, and so that's, you know, you
hear producers that were used toseeing a beef ad on TV and

(39:05):
family sit down at night andwatch TV together in the
eighties.
I grew up in the eighties.
That was my time.
And so there was not a nightwent by that we didn't watch
some kind of family TV showtogether and you could see those
advertisements.
Those same ads today would costus.
Ungodly amounts of money, aSuper Bowl advertisement.
We get that a lot...
why aren't we not advertisingthe Super Bowl?

(39:27):
Well, a 30 2nd commercial at theSuper Bowl.
I think it's 3Million dollars.

Matt (39:31):
Well, look at it this way, you wouldn't have to have near
as many meetings because youcould make that budget by ten
ads and you're

Andy (39:38):
That would, that would be pretty easy.
You know, uh, yeah.
So 3 million and everybody saysthe NCBA gets all the money
there...
their promotion budget last yearwas 7 million.
So that take almost half oftheir promotion budget with with
a 32nd Superbowl commercial.
Now, the cool thing is Matt,what we did was.
Here in Kentucky, we did, we didan ad on the Superbowl.

(39:59):
Locally, and it was, oh, it wasgreat.
And it didn't cost us hardly anymoney because these local
channels can, they get so muchspot, but, but what we've
realized we can do is, is getpretty efficient with those
dollars and advertise on socialmedia.
For example, uh, tick tock,Spotify, YouTube Pandora.
And that's part of my discussionwhen I talk with producers is,

(40:21):
and I usually pick out 1 in theroom.
When's the last time you've beenon tick tock?
And they'll say, what's ticktock.
Well, have you been on Spotifythis week?
I have no idea what you'retalking about.
Well, the, the, the point ofthat is you don't know what I'm
talking about because you're noton those platforms, but I'm not,
I'm not advertising beef to you.

(40:41):
I'm not trying to convince youto eat one more steak a week.
but who am I advertising to?
It's those 25 to 45 year oldmothers that are making buying
decisions and guess wherethey're spending their time.
Tik Tok, Spotify, Pandora,right?
Uh, I saw an ad last week that,that, um, Gen Z spends seven

(41:02):
hours a day on social mediaplatforms.

Matt (41:06):
Wow.
Yeah,

Andy (41:11):
it's cheap.
we get a lot of calls inKentucky.
Uh, why we need a beef camp.
We need a beef billboard at thisred light.
Well, billboard costs 10, 000and you may get 10, 000 people
that go by that thing a day.
And I always say, you think thatmom who's going to make that
buying decision when she pullsup to that red light is looking
up at that billboard saying,man, I need to cook my family

(41:34):
beef tonight.
No, she's on her app looking atSpotify, TikTok and Pandora
while she's at the red lightwhile somebody's honking the
horn behind her.
It's so cheap.
I can reach 5 million peoplewith that same 10, 000 ad on a
social media app.
And I can reach 5 million peopleversus 10, 000.

(41:55):
Those numbers are paramount, butthat's why producers a lot of
times don't see these dollars.
I'm gonna give you an example.
NCBA did a, and I don't want to,I don't want to think I'm
promoting NCBA here, but thiswas 1 that really stood out to
me.
I'm on the domestic marketingcommittee.
And so promotion domesticallyis, is it's kind of my bread and
butter.
I love it.

(42:16):
But NCBA did a call shareprogram with Sam's club where
Sam's club put it's up part ofthe money and NCBA put up part
of the money.
And we're, we're encouragingthat because that spreads our
dollars out.
Right?
Makes them more efficient.
For every dollar they spent inthat promotion over an 8 week
period, it generated 93 dollarsin additional beef sales that

(42:37):
they normally don't have in thatsame 8 week period.
And they look at it year overyear.
So Sam's Club would go back thatsame week or that same eight
week period a year before andsay, how much money did we
generate in beef sales?
That 1 spend for every dollarwas 93 returns.
When you look at programs likethat, and essentially what it

(42:58):
was was on their app, you couldlog on.
It was a roast recipe and aninfluencer was cooking a roast
and how to prepare it.
You could click on it.
I think it put it in your cartwith the ingredients on the
recipe.
Boom.
You got it in there.
You're ready to go shop.
Those type programs are, are,are pretty cool.
And it allows us to keep beef atthe front, front of the plate.

(43:20):
These retailers realize that ifwe can put beef in the cart.
That cart value is going to goup tremendously and so we're
doing a lot more of those typepromotional programs.
And I think once again, we're avictim of our own success
because we're using that dollarefficiently, but because we're
using that dollar efficiently,most producers not going to see
it.

Matt (43:39):
I was just sitting here thinking the old adage necessity
is the mother of innovation orof invention...
because you all have had to makethose hard decisions and because
you've recognized that, guesswhat?
We can't take this shotgunapproach to beef promotion
anymore.
And just put a little here, puta little there, put a little at
the billboard at the Cosby showat everything else that people

(44:03):
wanted us to do in the eightiesand nineties.
We've got to take a sniperapproach and make one shot and
make sure it counts and that'swhat you all are doing.
But in the process, yeah, youmay be getting a huge ROI on our
dollars, but from a, uh, socialcapital within our industry.

(44:25):
You're losing the battle becauseproducer communications, what we
think of as producercommunications, and this is what
I've maintained since thebeginning of my exposure to the,
to the beef checkoff.
What we think is producercommunications, isn't producer
communications.
They want to see that ad talkingto a beef consumer so that they
can puff their chest up and beproud that.

(44:47):
By gosh, that's my checkoffdollar at work.
And I think that's why when wespend money on quote unquote,
producer communications stuff,we can set at the checkout line
at the local livestock market orstockyards or whatever else.
It's not moving the needle.
The people are not going to readthat.
What they want to see is thatcheckoff dollar being used to

(45:09):
work.
And like you said, when I'm noton Tik TOK and I'm not watching
the cooking show or whateverelse that we are trying to reach
our target market, I don't seeit.
Um, I, but I, you know, theSam's example is a great one.
We saw one locally that I just,I love because I get a kick out

(45:30):
of the territorial nature and,and, uh, legal battle nature of,
of society today.
We had a deal locally and youmay have even heard about it on
the national stage, but ourKansas beef council had done a
partnership promotion with theKansas state athletic department
or maybe Kansas state football acouple of years ago.

(45:51):
And following that, and I'll getsome of the details screwed up,
but following that, theoffensive line of the K state
football team made hats or tshirts or something about the
beef that they had on theoffensive line of K state
football.
Well, they used.
Kansas Beef Council's logo andthose, that beef look and

(46:15):
instead of lawyering up, which alot of people probably would
have done and said, Hey, ceaseand desist letter, here you
come.
That's our logo.
You can't use it.
The minds at our beef councilcalled them up and said, Hey,
you haven't done anything wrong,but that's kind of our logo.
Why don't we team up?
And they did a tailgatepromotion and they made hats and

(46:35):
they did an NIL sponsorship withthese, with the offensive line,
the K state football team.
It was perfect.
It was perfect.
And it cost them a pittance.
And in fact, they probably spentless on this whole two year
promotion than they would havehiring a lawyer to go in and get
our trademark back.

Andy (46:56):
Absolutely.

Matt (46:57):
Stuff like that is what every state beef council, the
CBBs contractors, NCBA, meatexport federation, farm bureau,
all these folks...
Every one of them, whether wewant to admit this or not at the
local sale bar and cafe, everyone of them is governed by

(47:17):
producers.
And they are saying, look, yougot to do more with less.
I don't want my check offraised.
I don't want my dues raised.
You've got to figure out how toget more out of the system.
But when we as producers saythat, we also have to realize
that means.
We may not be seeing the thingsthat you all are doing because

(47:38):
of that.
I, I still think that it's awell oiled machine.
I think it's probably betteroiled today than it's ever been.
But at some point, I think thatwe as an industry are going to
have to take a deep seat or adeep breath or step back or
whatever metaphor you want touse and say, how long can we

(47:59):
keep doing this?
How long can we spend?
Keep spending a buck ahead andtry to fund a multi billion
dollar industry that this hasgrown into in 2024.
And those are going to be harddiscussions.

Andy (48:15):
I'll speak to that as a producer and a banker, not as
the Beef Board Chair, becauseI'm not allowed to talk about
check off, increasing check

Matt (48:21):
Oh, that's right.

Andy (48:22):
that because of rules, right?
And so, but as a producer and asa banker, I'm a numbers guy,
Matt.
I look at numbers and we've got10 state beef councils that are
less than 200, 000 in receipts.

Matt (48:36):
Wow.

Andy (48:37):
If we get much smaller with check off revenue
dollars...
This herd gets much smaller.
Those beef councils will nolonger be operating.
And now we don't have boots onthe ground in those states
promoting our product.
So as a producer, I can say, youknow what, if I spent a dollar
in 1985, I could gladly spendtwo, three, four dollars now for

(48:58):
the same promotion to make surethat my product is protected and
that these guys have the amountof money needed to promote the
product the way they need to.
You know, you talked about that,uh, Kansas state program and
that thing is spread.
The example you gave and so likeNE BPI did one with UConn last
year.
Well, they had talked to ESPNabout advertising.
Well, it was just.

(49:19):
It was an ungodly amount toadvertise on ESPN.
So they promoted UConnbasketball and they had a banner
ad running around UConn's arena.
And so we did it at UK here inKentucky.
And so UConn was on TV as wellas UK.
And every time they were in thearena, you could see that beef
ad scrolling behind the scenes.
And so we're getting promotionthat way by, by, by getting

(49:40):
creative.
But at the end of the day, um,we can only get so creative with
that dollar.
And I think, I think it's timefor producers to To come
together and say, what do weneed to do?
How do we need to generate morerevenue?
And there's different ways thatyou can do that.
I obviously can't lead that asthe, as a beef board, but, but
producers can.

(50:00):
And I think it's important thatthat discussion begins to happen
again.
You know, I think we.
Most people might see the valueof the check off when we do
surveys all over the country forproducer sentiment about the
check off.
It's always over 70 percentapproval rate.
Most of the time around 75percent approval rate.
When you look at 2022, we set arecord for beef demand.

(50:22):
And we also set a record for thehighest retail prices in
history.
If nothing else, that says, youknow, what consumers have faith
in our product, they love ourproduct because of the quality,
the safety and and and thenutrition message that we've
gotten out through check offspending.
And and they're willing to goout and pay for it now more than
they ever had before.

(50:42):
And I think that's that ifnothing else is a testament of
what we're doing with the checkoff.

Matt (50:49):
how it has unfolded because you talked about that
low in beef demand and I thinkI've seen everything from 1994
to 1997 is when we reallybottomed out, but we were well
on our way when the beefcheckoff was formed and that's
why it was formed.
That's also why This merger ofthe National Livestock and Meat

(51:11):
Board or Beef Industry Counciland National Cattlemen's
Association and everything elsemade NCBA because we said look,
for centuries, now for a couplecenturies, we in the beef
industry have had this segmentedapproach that I raise calves and
I sell them to somebody else andyou know, He raises stocker

(51:32):
cattle and he sells them tosomebody else.
And she raises feed yard cattleor they sell very isolated, very
focused on what makes me moneyand very distanced from the
consumer.
And I graduated.
Folks on the podcast, all twodozen of you that are still
here, folks on the podcast,heard this way too many times.

(51:54):
I graduated in 96 at the low ofthe cattle cycle.
And I went to work for thePennsylvania beef council.
I didn't know that I was a staff

Andy (52:02):
no, I did not.

Matt (52:04):
Yeah, I wasn't there for long.
I was there for about a yearwhen an opportunity came up, uh,
with the Angus association, Iwent to work for them down in
Texas, but I was at some ofthose.
Early checkoff side meetings.
And it was confusing toeverybody then because it had
just come together as a merger.

(52:24):
But there was a sense ofoptimism that I have maybe never
seen since.
And that was,"we are finally allin the same room.
we don't all agree, but we'reall in the same room and I think
we can get something done." Andwe started having all, you know,
we had the Beef QualityAssurance program and, and the

(52:46):
National Beef Quality Audit hadjust come down and we were
moving the injection sites fromthe, the round up to the neck.
Why?
Because the packers that were inthe room were telling us this is
how many top butts and sirloinswere getting back with abscesses
and all this stuff.
And we really started makingsome progress.
And meanwhile, there was thislittle smoldering firestorm that

(53:08):
people said, I don't know that Iwanted progress.
I don't know that I wanted to befocused on beef quality or
demand or anything else becauseit's changing the way I have to
do business, or it's making memore uncomfortable.
I'm not sure.
All of us are pretty innovative.
We can figure out how to do, tochange our business, to make
sure that we stay in businessand do what's needed.
But it's fascinating to me tosee that from 96 to today, which

(53:33):
incidentally was not that thatwas the only reason, but that
was when the merger took place.
That we've got, as you said,higher beef demand.
Record high prices, higherprofitability for most folks and
most segments, and yet moredistrust about other people

(53:54):
within our industry or withinother organizations or whatever
the case may be.
And, and.
Human nature is fascinating butthat, that blows me away that we
can look back at what we've donewhen we finally all, as that
person said at one of thoseinitial meetings, we're finally
all in the same room and talkingabout this stuff.
What we've done since we startedhearing the challenges of the

(54:15):
other segments, how can we notgo, yeah, Arm in arm, let's get
this thing figured out.
We don't all have to agree onevery policy that's for another
part of our organization, but Ithink we can all agree that,
hey, we need to spend moneywhere it's gonna return, and
that is with beef promotion andresearch and exports, and let's
figure out the best programsand, and move on.

(54:37):
And, and if and when we need tochange that structure, whether
it be increasing the per head,I'm one that thinks that it
probably needs to be somehowtied to the value.
of that beef or carcass orwherever you want to place it.
But you talk about notsustainable, the current model
of the act and the order at adollar per head into eternity.

(54:59):
It's the definition ofunsustainable.

Andy (55:02):
it is.

Matt (55:03):
these are conversations that have been being held for
years.
I've been hearing them at KLAand Kansas beef council meetings
for years.
And yet every time we get veryfar into it, somebody will say,
but yeah, what about that 20some percent that don't like to
check off as it is now?
they'll fight it tooth and nailand that, you know, that's,

(55:25):
that's always the case, but I

Andy (55:26):
Well, you know,

Matt (55:27):
that

Andy (55:28):
I can, I spoke at a meeting last year and a
disgruntled farmer caught meafterwards and wanted to give me
his definition of what beef toman truly was and.
He said, you're not, you're,you're not promoting beef.
You're not driving beef to manwith the checkoff.
You're just, you're just, uh,you're just putting information
out there.
Consumers are always going topurchase our product, all of the

(55:50):
products that we raise.
And I said, yeah, you're right.
They are, but at what price?
And he said, well, what do youmean at what price?
I said, do you want it to be theprice of chicken?
Or you want it to be the priceof a ribeye today.
And he said, well, I want it tobe the price of a ribeye today.
And I said, then consumers won'talways purchase everything we
produce at that same price thatthey will today.

(56:11):
If they don't have confidence inyour nutrition, your safety,
your taste, everything we'redoing behind the scenes.
And, you know, I work off thefarm.
I spend 150 a year in checkoffdollars.
That's my contribution to thecheckoff.
And.
I'm promoting beef in Japan.

(56:31):
I'm, I'm doing nutritionstudies.
I'm doing, Salmonella researchstudies.
I'm spreading the sustainabilitymessage that to people that I
can't normally agree with anyway that that don't understand
what we're doing on the farm,but there's someone constantly
working on our behalf as aproducer with those checkoff
dollars to tell those stories tomeet that 99 percent of

(56:53):
consumers that are not us on thefarm.
We're 1%.
If we're trying to tell our ownstory by ourselves, we're not
going to get very far and soknowing that I've got people out
telling that story on my behalfthat are marketing my product on
my behalf.
I mean, I'm going to South Koreatomorrow.
Uh, and Japan this week, and topromote American beef, and I'm

(57:14):
teaching a group of high schoolstudents in Japan never thought
I'd be able to do something likethat.
So, but tell them about life onthe farm and ranch and helping
them relate to what we're doing,how we take care of our animals
and.
That's the stuff that a lot ofour producers can't see and I
wish they could.
And, and I think that thatsentiment, that 20 percent that
you talked about would, would goup considerably if, if they

(57:35):
could see these things.
And if, by all means, if you'vegot ideas on, on how to help,
help me help us get that messageout there, I'd certainly be open
to anything.

Matt (57:44):
this podcast episode is one of those methods that I hope
will.
And everybody that's listeningthat is still on, and I know
that there's a slug of them whostill are.
I think that we can help in thatregard.
It doesn't have to be the CBBpresident.
It doesn't have to be the paidexec for XYZ State Beef Council

(58:06):
or whomever else that's tellingthe story of the beef checkoff.
It It has to be us.
It means more from a producerthan any talking head that gets
sent to the cattlemen's meeting.
Uh, whether that be at the locallivestock or cafe or after
church on Sunday.
there are questions anduncertainties and everything

(58:28):
else about, and like I said, Igo back to the structure of the
beef checkoff, but how ourcheckoff works and quite often
in the absence of us asproducers being engaged in
knowing those answers.
There's a little bit differenttype of narrative that gets
told.
And I think that's, um, I thinkit's up to us.

(58:49):
I think it's up to us to, tohelp you all out and do that.
a few minutes ago, you said thatyou.
Your contribution to the beefcheckoff is 150 annually.
Anybody that's listened for thelast 50 some minutes knows after
hearing everything you've donethat, that it's a lot more than
that.
And every single person thatsits on a state beef council

(59:11):
board or exec committee, thecattlemen's beef board, the beef
operating committee.
Any of these folks who have ahand in trying to figure out
ways that we can promote beefthrough our checkoff.
my hats are off to you becauseit's, it's a thankless job.
And again, you, you, as I had aguy tell me one time who was on

(59:33):
our local or state beef councilfor a couple of years and then
couldn't get off fast enough.
He said, I came on here to tryand help influence beef demand
in a positive manner.
And we had to spend so much timedefending ourselves, that I
couldn't handle it...
I just got so frustrated and Ithink we lose a lot of people
like that.

(59:53):
And I think that producers, whenwe start running the check off
down or anybody that's tied tothat, whether it's a contracting
entity or otherwise, we have torecognize that if we truly are
asking folks to do more with thedollar that they're getting off
of that steer that we sold, webetter quit making them spend

(01:00:14):
time defending it.
Because that's the biggest wasteof the beef checkoff in my
opinion.

Andy (01:00:19):
You bet.
And, you know, I challenged ourKentucky producers last year at
our convention and, and in ourmagazines and I wrote articles
for every month and I'vechallenged the Beef Board
members.
Have a two minute elevatorspeech.
Go to beefboard.
org, beefboard.
org.
You can get any program you wantin the checkoff.
You can see how all the dollarsare spent.
You can see those programs.
Just pick out one or two thingsthat resonate with you.

(01:00:42):
That you can tell that story andI always use an example.
We've got, you know, a lot ofrow crop row crop farmers here
in Kentucky that also havecattle and my example to them is
if you can feed your corn toyour cattle for 4 a bushel of
feed value, but you can sell itto my distilleries here in
Barchtown for 6 a bushel.
All right, and then you can takethat 6 dollars Bush don't go

(01:01:05):
back and go back and buy a 4dollar commodity feed and feed
your cattle.
Would you do that?
Well, all hands go up, right?

Matt (01:01:13):
Mm hmm.

Andy (01:01:14):
I'm contributing to a check off the same way that
somebody is marketing for me,but also by giving money to the
meat export Federation.
For example, I can go generatemore revenue in foreign
countries for our product.
And in turn.
Be able to utilize our get ridof those products that nobody
wants over there.
Um, and so when you tell thosekinds of stories, and you get

(01:01:36):
something that resonates withproducers, whatever, what is it
that drives you?
What's 1 program you see thatdrives you if you can just tell
that story, it's going to openthat dialogue instead of letting
people blast us on social media,that's probably been the demise
of what of the check off as faras people behind the check
office, social media andtechnology, because it's so easy

(01:01:56):
to get a false narrative outthere and get a big audience.
Unfortunately.
so I just encourage producersto.
Find a couple of programs withinthe check off, make those phone
calls and figure it out a littlebit more if you have to, but,
but don't be afraid to havethose conversations because
they're going to come up quiteoften.

Matt (01:02:17):
Yeah, they always do, always have, and you're right,
social media has made it eveneasier.
But I think we also have toremember that while it's easy to
get pulled down by the vocalminority, we have to stay
focused on those folks that dobelieve in what it is we're
doing.
Those are the folks that youhave to keep.

(01:02:37):
In the back of your mind to beinspired.
And I think that, that, uh, youhave, and we'll continue to do.
And hopefully, like I said, we,as producers can do what we can
to not just be a cheerleader,but also come forth with ideas
because you're going to needthem, we're going to need them.
And ways to, again, do more withless and, or figure out a better

(01:02:57):
structure going forth to makesure that we work with all of
the nuanced beef industry as itis today, because it is a lot
more complex.
It is, there's a lot more grayareas as we move toward more
vertically coordinated marketingprograms and supply chain
initiatives and all these thingsthat the checkoff may have to
change with it.

(01:03:17):
and we as producers, I thinkhave to be engaged in that
conversation going forth.
Well, Andy, I appreciate youbeing here a bunch, uh,
appreciate your time that you'vedone here the last hour, but
especially all those meetingsand time away and, and helping
lead cattlemen's beef board and,making sure that, uh, you use
those and allocate those dollarsas best we can.

Andy (01:03:38):
Matt, I appreciate being able to have the conversation
that we've had and, and gettingsome dialogue out there that
hopefully some producers can canhear and understand and go to
beef board dot org.
See how those check off dollarsare being spent and, and, uh,
keep telling the story.

Matt (01:03:53):
You bet we'll sure do it.
We'll take care, safe travels tothe Pacific Rim and we'll, uh,
talk to you down the road.

Andy (01:03:59):
Thank you, sir.
Have a good day.

Matt (01:04:01):
You bet you too.

Microphone (Yeti Stereo (01:04:03):
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