Long-Range Plan Discussed
at Policy Division Forum

by Troy Smith

During an early session of the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention in Denver, attendees were presented with a summary of a proposed Long-Range Plan for guiding the U.S. beef industry during the next three years. Later, during the convention's Policy Division Forum, they learned the details from Barry Carpenter of the National Meat Association and Homer Buell, a Nebraska cow-calf producer. Both men were among the 23 members of a task force representing multiple beef industry organizations, which drafted the plan.

According to Carpenter and Buell, the Long-Range Plan pursues a stated mission: "To provide the safest, highest-quality, most consumer-friendly beef and beef products in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner." In tag-team fashion, the pair explained the plan's core strategies and goals for accomplishing that mission.

"The task force saw the need to focus on core strategies to move forward during the next three years," said Carpenter. "And we wanted to have measureable goals."

Those core strategies and respective goals are as follows:

• Improve domestic consumer preference for beef, with a goal of increasing the consumer beef Index preference measure from 28% to 31%.

• Capitalize on global growth opportunities, with a goal of increasing the value of U.S. beef exports by 25% per head.

• Strengthen the image of beef and the beef industry, with a goal of establishing a benchmark measure of public perception of beef and beef production.

• Protect and enhance our freedom to operate, with a goal of developing an index to measure and track freedom to operate.

• Improve industry trust, openness and relationships, with the goal of establishing a benchmark of industry stakeholder perceptions of unity and trust.

• Position the U.S. cow herd for growth, with a goal of increasing bred heifer retention to 18%, while stabilizing U.S. beef production at a minimum of 26 billion pounds annually.

"Task force members believe there are two factors critical to the plan's success," said Buell. "We need to increase both [national beef] checkoff resources and non-checkoff resources. The industry also needs to adopt a practical and effective industry-wide animal disease traceability program."

The proposed Long-Range Plan was subsequently adopted during the Convention's business meeting Feb. 5.

Click here for more coverage of the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show.

[Click here to go to the top of the page.]