10/27/06 National Beef Cook-Off

For more than 30 years - the National Beef Cook-Off has been a proud program of the American National CattleWomen. And for the last 20 years - it has enjoyed support from the National Beef Checkoff to make it bigger and more effective. Dianne Kirkbride - whose family ranches in Wyoming - serves as a member of the Cattlemen's Beef Board. She says the Cook-Off's beginnings were humble. KIRKBRIDE: The National Beef Cook-Off was founded in 1974 when cattlewomen got together with 13 amateur cooks for a total prize package of $800. And now the National Cook-Off will have a total prize package of $110,000 which is really exciting. Kirkbride was involved with the Beef Cook-Off program for many years. She says the program has been able to keep up with the times. KIRKBRIDE: In 1974 the prize winning recipe was a brisket and it took 4 hours to prepare. We now have focused on convenience, family oriented recipes that are more conducive to today's lifestyle. According to Kirkbride - the Cook-Off is really all about the recipes developed by the amateur cooks that participate. KIRKBRIDE: We then take those recipes and are able to use them with the help of the media and get those recipes out to a lot of people, encourage people to try new recipes. Another thing I think that it does is it really help us promote some of the new cuts of meat, the new products that we have and show people how they can use those things with these new recipes that have been developed. Kirkbride says it was the love of cooking that was the impetus for starting the Cook-Off in the first place. KIRKBRIDE: Cattlewomen are wonderful cooks and I think want to be able to promote that product and teach other people how to use their product and show other people all the wonderful things you can do with our product and how you can come up with some great recipes and use them within your own home easily and I think that's one of the reasons that Cattlewomen are excited about promoting this is to just share that with the American public. The National Beef Checkoff celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill - checkoff assessments began on October 1, 1986. Due in part to checkoff-funded marketing efforts - consumer demand for beef has risen 20-percent since 1998. For more information, visit www.beefboard.org That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.