Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 97: Want to Know What the Beef Checkoff Is Really Doing Here’s the Breakdown with Ryan Moorhouse

Transcript

97: Want to Know What the Beef Checkoff Is Really Doing Here’s the Breakdown with Ryan Moorhouse · CattleUSA Daily

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
• 0:03
  Today we are excited to welcome Ryan Morehouse out of Amarillo
• 0:07
  and with the Cattlemen's Beef Board or the beef check off onto
• 0:12
  the podcast today. Today we are talking all things
• 0:15
  beef check off, what we have been seeing this year so far.
• 0:20
  We're going to be talking the impact report that the beef
• 0:22
  check off just recently released.
• 0:24
  And then we are also going to be diving in to consumer demand and
• 0:29
  consumer trends, trends that we have been seeing this year thus
• 0:32
  far. And then as we go into the rest
• 0:35
  of the year, we are almost to the halfway point of 2025, which
• 0:39
  is crazy to say. And we're just going to be
• 0:42
  talking what we have seen this year so far and what are trends
• 0:45
  are anticipated for the remainder of the year.
• 0:48
  So without further ado, let's go ahead and get into this podcast
• 0:52
  episode with Ryan. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
• 0:58
  Podcast, your go to source for the latest livestock markets,
• 1:02
  industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
• 1:04
  today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
• 1:07
  passionate advocate for agriculture here to keep you
• 1:09
  informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
• 1:13
  episode. Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:19
  We are so excited to have you on today to share a little bit more
• 1:24
  about the Cattlemen's Beef Board, the beef check off and
• 1:27
  everything. I would love it if you could
• 1:28
  just take it away, share a little bit about yourself and
• 1:31
  both of those organizations. Well, thanks for having me on.
• 1:34
  We we certainly appreciate it. Any chance we get to talk about
• 1:37
  the check off and let some listeners and producers know
• 1:40
  more about it. We'd love to take advantage of
• 1:42
  those. My name is Ryan Morehouse.
• 1:44
  I'm Cattleman's Beef pork chair this year for the Cattleman's
• 1:47
  Beef Pork. I grew up North Central Texas on
• 1:49
  a cattle stalker operation and then I've spent the last 20
• 1:52
  years in the cattle feeding business in the Panhandle,
• 1:55
  Texas. I still get to do both, still do
• 1:57
  the cattle feeding and the Stocker operation and cattle
• 1:59
  cattle at home. So little bit of both and enjoy
• 2:02
  all of it. That's been my livelihood.
• 2:04
  The cattle industry has for my whole career and really enjoyed
• 2:08
  it. Cattleman's beef, pork is
• 2:09
  basically the kettle, the beef check off, another term people
• 2:13
  use, and the pet cattle. The beef board is made-up of
• 2:16
  producers and importers from all over the country.
• 2:19
  Basically the producers and importers are nominated by state
• 2:23
  and industry organizations and then they're appointed by the
• 2:26
  USDAUS Secretary of Agriculture. So basically go through the
• 2:29
  nomination process and then you're appointed by the
• 2:32
  Secretary of Agriculture and basically they oversee all the
• 2:35
  beef check off dollars at the national level and where they go
• 2:38
  and what we do with them. So that's kind of that's kind of
• 2:41
  the job of the beef board. The the number of seats per
• 2:44
  state depends on the cattle population in your state.
• 2:47
  So obviously states like, you know, Kansas and Nebraska have
• 2:50
  more seats per on the beef board in Texas just because they're
• 2:54
  cattle states, cattle rich states, lots of livestock.
• 2:58
  And then some of the smaller states obviously that don't have
• 3:01
  hardly any cattle would not necessarily have a spot on the
• 3:04
  beef board. But it's very, very diverse
• 3:07
  group made-up from, you know, all types of producers in the
• 3:11
  industry. And so we get lots of different
• 3:14
  opinions and thoughts on how to spend check off dollars.
• 3:16
  And that's what we want, that's our goal.
• 3:18
  So anyway, basically it's funded by producers, $1.00 per head
• 3:22
  every time an animal sold, every time a a cow, calf or urine or
• 3:26
  fat animal is sold. And that's how the the check off
• 3:29
  is funded. And basically the money that we
• 3:32
  have supports programs that promotion, research, foreign
• 3:36
  marketing, consumer information, information, all of this
• 3:40
  basically is to build demand for beef.
• 3:42
  That's our main goal is to build demand for beef.
• 3:45
  And so that's, that's what our task is and that's what we try
• 3:47
  to do. Yes, absolutely.
• 3:49
  Can we talk about the new report and the impact report that just
• 3:55
  came out recently? I would love it if you could
• 3:56
  walk us through that. That is a big thing that the
• 3:59
  beef check off is here for and the impact report is awesome and
• 4:03
  it's a great tool for producers and everyone alike.
• 4:06
  So if you could walk us through the impact report, that'd be
• 4:09
  great. You bet.
• 4:10
  So we were looking for something that's easy to easier, easier to
• 4:14
  digest and also, you know, hits all the high points and to to
• 4:19
  provide more transparency on where producer check off dollars
• 4:22
  go. So basically we took the annual
• 4:25
  report, which we do every year and combine that with our
• 4:28
  evaluation reports, which we evaluate all the programs every
• 4:31
  year. We actually have an evaluation
• 4:33
  committee that overseas that and we put it in one product that's
• 4:36
  hopefully easier to digest for producers in the format's easy.
• 4:40
  It basically includes all real results, the performance
• 4:43
  metrics, return on investment study we did, the highlights of
• 4:47
  all the different programs and then all the research projects
• 4:50
  that we're working on. You know, you can find it the,
• 4:52
  the place to find it for producers is at driving demand
• 4:55
  for beef.com, which is our which is a Kevin's Beef board website.
• 4:59
  It's on there again, it's something new we did this year.
• 5:02
  It's a great report. We've got hard copies as well.
• 5:05
  If folks want to get them, we'll send them one.
• 5:07
  It's basically shows people where their check off dollars
• 5:11
  went and it's, it's a little, the annual reports pretty thick
• 5:14
  and pretty cumbersome sometimes. So, so this has been a great
• 5:17
  addition to our communications. Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 5:21
  I think it just makes it so that you don't have to go through the
• 5:24
  multiple 100 page document and pretty much be like, OK, where
• 5:28
  because that's the question so many producers have, right
• 5:31
  where, where did my money go? What is it going to?
• 5:34
  And sometimes the check off is controversial to people.
• 5:36
  They they don't actually, but most of the time it's because
• 5:39
  they don't understand what the check off is doing, where the
• 5:42
  dollars are going and what the impact actually is.
• 5:45
  So having this easy to digest impact report where you can just
• 5:49
  see it and nice pretty graphs, plain language, this is where
• 5:52
  your money went. This is what it's doing.
• 5:55
  And these are the results that we saw from that is huge and
• 5:59
  huge for producers and consumers alike.
• 6:02
  Because I think a big, big, big part of the check off and the
• 6:06
  Cattlemen's Beef Board is your guys's role in consumer demand
• 6:10
  and driving demand, like you said.
• 6:12
  And in order to do that, we need to be using our dollars
• 6:16
  properly. But then as producers, we can
• 6:18
  then go look at that report and be like, OK, so this is where
• 6:20
  our focus has been as an industry over the past few
• 6:24
  months and how we are continuing to look at that and push that.
• 6:29
  As far as consumer demand goes, that obviously is a big role
• 6:32
  that you guys play. Can we talk about how consumers
• 6:35
  are buying beef these days? What consumer trends are you
• 6:38
  seeing? Any thoughts that you guys have
• 6:40
  as far as those go? You bets, you know, it's crazy
• 6:43
  times in the beef industry right now.
• 6:45
  We've got, you know, record wholesale prices and the beef
• 6:49
  finish. We've got record, you know, Live
• 6:51
  prices, record feeder prices. And so most of that is, you
• 6:55
  know, part of it's attributed to just the supply situation we're
• 6:59
  in. But you know, we like to think
• 7:01
  that all the programs we use in the check off helps, you know,
• 7:05
  put beef at the center of the plate for consumers so that they
• 7:08
  they want our product, they love our product.
• 7:10
  So demand right now really is at a, you know, an all time high.
• 7:16
  I think fresh beef sales recently topped 40 billion.
• 7:19
  And so that's that. And that's really old news.
• 7:21
  I mean, it's still continuing. I mean, you go to the store now
• 7:23
  and beef, the prices for beef compared to other proteins is,
• 7:28
  is higher, but people are still buying it.
• 7:30
  And that's really that's, that's a great story to tell.
• 7:33
  And, and for for all producers, What, what are consumers
• 7:36
  spending their dollars on? Mostly you see some of the
• 7:39
  centre cuts that are higher priced, obviously in this in
• 7:42
  these conditions, maybe they're looking for something a little
• 7:44
  cheaper, maybe some cuts that are a little less expensive,
• 7:47
  less less known cuts. And so you're seeing some of
• 7:50
  that also looking for ads, consumers looking for ads and
• 7:53
  retailers are great about doing great ads for beef just to get
• 7:56
  consumers in the door, obviously so they can buy the other stuff
• 7:59
  that's not on sale, which is good for us and good for them.
• 8:02
  I guess use a lot of coupons, buying in bulk, things like that
• 8:05
  just to cheapen some of the products up.
• 8:07
  And then I think you've seen, I mean, I think restaurant sales
• 8:11
  have been great, but I think some folks have been cooking at
• 8:13
  home more and I think that's a great thing.
• 8:16
  I think it's a lot lost art a little bit, you know, knowing
• 8:18
  how to cook, especially different types of cuts of beef.
• 8:22
  And that's what that's what we're here for is to educate
• 8:25
  people on maybe what, what cuts of beef to choose if you're on a
• 8:29
  budget and then how do you cook them and make them good?
• 8:31
  So the, the vine is just the first step.
• 8:34
  Being able to cook it right and enjoy it.
• 8:36
  That's the second step. And that's what a lot of Chekhov
• 8:38
  dollars are spent on, is to educate folks in that regard.
• 8:41
  Yeah, absolutely. And we've been seeing just a
• 8:43
  bunch of trends move more towards beef, whether it be just
• 8:47
  generational trends and nutritional trends, TikTok
• 8:51
  trends, whatever it is. We've been seeing a big push
• 8:55
  towards just more whole diets, better sustainable proteins and
• 9:00
  beef provides that. And so I'm really excited as
• 9:03
  someone who's an advocate for the beef industry to see that
• 9:06
  trend continue to go that way of people.
• 9:09
  It may be more expensive on the shelves right now, but the
• 9:12
  demand is still high. And we're going into our halfway
• 9:16
  point throughout the year. And this is kind of a big
• 9:18
  turning point, right? We're going into the dog days of
• 9:21
  summer, but then also summer grilling season is just
• 9:24
  starting. You and I right before were
• 9:25
  talking about how summer is here and it is hot and we are feeling
• 9:29
  it and we definitely are. And protein is available at such
• 9:34
  a high rate and there's so many different protein options
• 9:38
  available to consumers. Can you talk a little bit about
• 9:42
  how the beef check off is specifically targeting beef and
• 9:46
  beef within consumer trends, how as we go into the summer
• 9:49
  grilling season, we are really targeting those consumers?
• 9:53
  You bet. So lots of ways, obviously that
• 9:55
  that we use Chekhov dollars and many different ways to target
• 9:59
  consumers. You know, one of the one of the
• 10:00
  best and been long running is the beef.
• 10:03
  That's what's fordinner.com web page.
• 10:05
  You can get on there and get on get new recipes for beef, tips
• 10:08
  on how to cook it, content that help help beef work for you and
• 10:12
  and things like versatility and beef have different cuts how to
• 10:16
  cook them. And so that's one thing that's
• 10:18
  been ongoing. Some of the other things we've,
• 10:20
  you know, it is grilling season like you mentioned.
• 10:22
  And so July 4th right around the corner, we've kind of come
• 10:26
  through some of the beef centric holidays with Father's Day
• 10:29
  behind us now and Memorial Day behind us.
• 10:31
  But we still have the 4th of July ahead of us.
• 10:33
  And that's obviously a big grilling time, probably the
• 10:35
  biggest I believe. And so, you know, NCBA, the
• 10:38
  National Kennels Beef Association, they kicked off a
• 10:41
  big grilling campaign started in May.
• 10:43
  You know, can we start pushing the grilling campaigns with
• 10:46
  different programs in May? And that's one of the things
• 10:48
  that did was National BBQ month in May and they showcased, you
• 10:52
  know, regional BBQ styles, different areas of the country
• 10:56
  and how they cook barbecue and obviously beef being the main
• 11:00
  ingredient we use for those. And then and did that on a lot
• 11:02
  of different social media channels.
• 11:04
  Basically they went across the country, you know, beef centric
• 11:07
  BBQ, how different parts of the country cook it.
• 11:11
  Some parts in Texas, we like smoky brisket, you know, that's
• 11:15
  kind of what we're known for. But you get over in the eastern
• 11:17
  part of the country and they like they're a more of a
• 11:20
  southern style BBQ, whether it be beef and sometimes they cook
• 11:23
  with pork, but different sauces, different different things.
• 11:27
  But pushing beef as as a big BBQ an item is, is the goal.
• 11:31
  We do this every year. But they did have a big campaign
• 11:33
  this year and NCAA did a great job on that.
• 11:36
  You know, one thing we're looking at is, excuse me,
• 11:38
  knowing that people's budgets, you know, different people have
• 11:40
  different budgets and what can you work with finding different
• 11:44
  ways to target the different consumers?
• 11:46
  New methods like streaming services is a way we would try
• 11:49
  to get to folks. You know, if you just take out,
• 11:53
  I have some of the older producers ask me like, why don't
• 11:56
  we see any more ads on TV? And I, I say, you don't have
• 12:00
  much an ad cost on TV for like a 30 second ad to, you know, it'd
• 12:04
  be great. And we still do it some.
• 12:06
  But with the limited dollars we have, we feel like the reach is
• 12:10
  more now on the digital and the social media and the things like
• 12:12
  that, which a lot of the older producers don't always
• 12:15
  participate in me being one of them.
• 12:17
  But I still know we do great things with the dollars and we
• 12:21
  can stretch them further, you know, doing it that way.
• 12:23
  So that's one thing, you know, get taking the time to get on
• 12:27
  some of these social media channels and and streaming
• 12:29
  services. One of the things beef and
• 12:32
  sweats for dinner program did is let they leveraged connected TV
• 12:36
  to reach like 78,000,000 consumers through different
• 12:39
  place and ads in different live sporting events.
• 12:42
  But they, they said they think they reached like 3,000,000
• 12:45
  viewers in and 2.8 million complete video views.
• 12:49
  So hey, anytime you do that with, with the limited dollars
• 12:53
  we have, it's great. And we get a chance to throw one
• 12:56
  on TV occasionally we might, but it is terribly expensive.
• 12:59
  So that's definitely something that's tougher to do these days.
• 13:03
  Yeah, it definitely is. And it's nice to see like beef
• 13:07
  check off dollars going to something that we're not just
• 13:10
  continuing to do the same thing that we've been doing for a
• 13:12
  while. Because you know, TV ads worked,
• 13:15
  they really did when that was the thing to do.
• 13:18
  But now that we have connected TV and we can do more targeted
• 13:21
  ads and really push beef in a different way that is reaching
• 13:26
  the consumers that we need to be reaching right now.
• 13:28
  And I I also appreciate the fact that we are reaching consumers
• 13:33
  with different price points and budgets because we want to reach
• 13:36
  the consumers that can go get a big brisket and go put it on
• 13:41
  their smoker on just a casual Saturday.
• 13:43
  But then we also want to reach the consumers that are choosing
• 13:46
  to get ground beef because both of those are vital to the beef
• 13:50
  industry. We need both and both provide
• 13:54
  such a great push into beef demand.
• 13:58
  And so as we go into the second-half of 2020 25, as we're
• 14:02
  looking at the rest of the year, one of your guys biggest goals
• 14:06
  is to continue to drive beef demand.
• 14:08
  And can you just talk a little bit more about that?
• 14:11
  What are you guys doing to continue to drive that beef
• 14:14
  demand? Well, you know, beat the man
• 14:17
  like we've talked about before, is that a like a 37 year high
• 14:21
  right now? If you look at all the charts in
• 14:23
  the long term charts that people like Halifax put out and things
• 14:26
  and you know that's what they do for a living is track all that.
• 14:29
  So you know the information extremely accurate.
• 14:31
  So we're pretty excited about where we are as an industry and
• 14:35
  especially excited like we mentioned that with prices as
• 14:38
  high as they are and people still buying beef, you know,
• 14:42
  it's the best tastes, the tasting protein out there.
• 14:45
  We think a lot of it's due to, you know, obviously with the
• 14:47
  product we have safe product, we have people trust US beef safety
• 14:52
  inspection programs. And so that's great.
• 14:54
  So do the our folks who we export beef too, they they trust
• 14:57
  it as well. But demand being as high with
• 14:59
  prices as high is sure it's a little scary, but hopefully
• 15:04
  we'll keep doing it. The check off basically all the
• 15:07
  programs between called the consumer facing demand programs,
• 15:12
  demand building programs like beef, it's what's for dinner.
• 15:16
  And then also these, these social media and the connected
• 15:19
  TV campaigns, all that stuff we're doing to push to beef like
• 15:24
  for for example, so 2024 beef tomatoes up by 6.7% and then
• 15:31
  this is just 24. So we're halfway through 25 and
• 15:34
  it all these numbers are going to be higher, so we can revisit
• 15:37
  these numbers later. But from 24 fed cattle prices
• 15:40
  were up 10% / 10%, feeder cattle prices up over 17%.
• 15:45
  That's some things we want the producers to know that we're
• 15:48
  that help them. You know that hopefully all the
• 15:52
  demand building programs will have get back in their pocket
• 15:55
  because as you mentioned before, any time a dollar comes out of
• 15:59
  somebody's pocket and gets extremely controversial.
• 16:01
  Some people like to check off believe in the check off others
• 16:05
  don't. And I visited folks from all
• 16:07
  across the country in my time as an officer on CBB and it's
• 16:11
  totally understandable their thoughts and you know, I like to
• 16:13
  listen a lot. We like to be very transparent,
• 16:16
  but it's it's, it's always controversial building this
• 16:20
  demand when people can see what demands doing, beef demands
• 16:23
  doing, I think, I think sure helps.
• 16:25
  That absolutely. It's our most public facing
• 16:29
  aspect of the beef industry, right?
• 16:31
  It's how our consumers are purchasing, how they are viewing
• 16:35
  the beef industry and everything that goes along with that.
• 16:38
  And so often I think it's easy for us as producers to look at
• 16:42
  those scenarios and situations and remove ourselves from them
• 16:45
  because that's not our problem. But it is, it is our problem.
• 16:49
  And luckily, we have organizations like the Beef
• 16:52
  Check off that are handling it for us is do a lot of that work
• 16:56
  forward facing, consumer facing work for producers so that we
• 17:00
  don't have to be the ones out there, not the farmers markets
• 17:03
  or everything else communicating that we get to stay on our
• 17:07
  ranches and do what we do best. And that is raise a really high
• 17:11
  quality, great tasting protein source.
• 17:14
  And it is just really cool to be able to see what the Beef Check
• 17:17
  Off is doing and how you guys are prioritizing spending
• 17:20
  dollars and especially as we go into demand for the rest of the
• 17:24
  year. So it was really awesome to hear
• 17:25
  your thoughts, Ryan. I really appreciate that.
• 17:27
  As we start to close out the podcast, do you have any closing
• 17:30
  thoughts or comments for our listeners today?
• 17:34
  Well, to, you know, kind of add on what you said, it's, you
• 17:38
  know, basically the check off allows producers to take, you
• 17:43
  know, a dollar for every head. So put it in a a pool of money,
• 17:46
  a large pool of money where you have the dollar amounts are
• 17:49
  enough to where you can really make a difference.
• 17:51
  You know, if you and I, we have 500 head of cows in the pasture
• 17:55
  and we took our $500 and tried to go do something with, I mean
• 17:59
  what are we going to do? We're going to go to the local
• 18:01
  newspaper and take out an ad and promote beef.
• 18:03
  I mean we can do that and I don't think there's anything
• 18:05
  wrong with that. But to get to national level and
• 18:08
  to really, I mean, like we talked about what it costs to
• 18:10
  even have ATV ad these days, you just can't do that.
• 18:15
  And so being able to pull those dollars together, that's the
• 18:17
  strength of the check off and to, to pull those dollars
• 18:20
  together to, to promote beef and promote demand, push beef demand
• 18:25
  and, and then do safety research and nutrition research, all
• 18:29
  which is a whole other topic. You know it, it really does
• 18:32
  great things. So closing out, I certainly
• 18:34
  appreciate your time and opportunity to be on here and,
• 18:37
  and your commitment to the industry.
• 18:39
  I mean, you're doing the things that producers like me don't
• 18:42
  want to do. I mean, we don't mind hopping on
• 18:44
  here and, and talking a little, but I'm sure not the best at it.
• 18:47
  And we, we appreciate folks like you that really reach out in the
• 18:51
  industry and, and push beef and the beef industry in general,
• 18:56
  because that's what we need. We need younger folks that are
• 18:58
  really committed to, to doing the work that you're doing.
• 19:01
  So we appreciate that, you know, know that the check off's
• 19:03
  working hard for all the producers and we're here to
• 19:06
  build demand for beef and that's really our job and that's our
• 19:09
  goals. And that's, it's pretty centric.
• 19:11
  I mean, that's what we're focused on all the time.
• 19:13
  Reminder on the impact report, get on driving demand for
• 19:16
  beef.com, check out that impact report or give the Cabinet Speed
• 19:20
  Board office a call. We'll mail you a hard copy if
• 19:23
  you'd rather have that. We're pretty easy, but it's a
• 19:25
  quick way and an easy way to look at where you check off
• 19:28
  dollars are going. And we try to be very
• 19:30
  transparent with all that, even though sometimes we're told
• 19:32
  we're not, but I'm like, it's all right there.
• 19:34
  You just got to go find it, you know, got to work a little to
• 19:37
  find it, but we'll, we'll help you any way we can.
• 19:39
  And so, and I encourage producers to ask questions, you
• 19:43
  know, a contact Catalan's beef board, contact the neighbor or
• 19:46
  contact and you know, anybody would know about the check off.
• 19:49
  Each state has numerous folks sitting on state beef councils
• 19:52
  committees. And then, you know, then we, we
• 19:54
  have the national beef board. So lots of different
• 19:57
  opportunities to visit with producers and encourage you to
• 20:00
  ask questions. If you got questions, we'll be
• 20:02
  glad to answer them. Yes, absolutely.
• 20:04
  Ryan, thank you so much for your time today.
• 20:06
  I really appreciate it. And to all of you listeners out
• 20:08
  there, everything that Ryan and I chatted about today will be
• 20:12
  linked down in the show notes. So if you want that impact
• 20:14
  report, if you want more info on beef is what's for dinner.
• 20:17
  If you want more info on anything else that we talked
• 20:20
  about, I will have all of that link down below for you to check
• 20:23
  out yourself and to go dive into further.
• 20:25
  And as always, make sure you like subscribe, rate review,
• 20:28
  share with a friend. We appreciate it here at the
• 20:30
  team and hope you guys have a great rest of your day.
• 20:33
  Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Cattle USA Daily
• 20:36
  Podcast. Have a good one y'all.