08/20/08 Bringing the Beef Industry Together

Bringing the Beef Industry Together. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. In the days of agriculture gone by it was pretty much a free for all. You produced whatever commodity and hoped you could sell it. There was very little cohesiveness other than a casual relationship with a fellow producer. Then we started to see various associations coming together for the propose of sharing information and the mutual marketing of products. Eventually the checkoff programs were started as a way to pool funds for marketing and research. Les Hardesty, dairy producer from Greeley, Colo., chairman of the National Dairy Board and member of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, which is funded in part by the beef checkoff, recently referenced the need for the beef and dairy checkoffs to come together with one common goal, one common vision  to sustain agriculture well into the future. HARDESTY: You know any ag producers need to work together. There's fewer and fewer of us around the United States but then you take livestock industries such as the dairy industry and the beef industry meeting together, working together on common problems. It just absolutely makes sense. As the industries combine efforts to work toward a Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition plan and national quality assurance programs, Hardesty explains that in the end, it's the consumer who has the final say. HARDESTY: We heard a lot about the Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition and the two industries working together to recognize the value of all of the nutrients, a total nutrient package in foods whether it's beef or dairy. Our consumer is the ultimate judge of our product. They make the choice every day whether or not to consume or to purchase our product and we need to be giving our consumers what they want. As a dairy producer and contributor to the beef checkoff, Hardesty has recognized the value of the beef checkoff in his own operation. HARDESTY: The beef checkoff over the years have done a lot of things that have helped dairy producers whether it goes back to studies that they've done on cuts of meat that might be more prevalent in a dairy cow that will add value to the chuck or the round, beef quality assurance  they participate in that very heavily and so yes, the beef checkoff does indeed add value to our dairy side of the equation and glad that it's there and glad that it's in place and very, very important as we move into the future to make sure that our voice is heard and that our consumers know what we are all about. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.