DENVER, CO – The Beef Industry Long Range Plan task force officially introduced its new five-year plan for 2021-2025 today at the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in Denver. The task force’s mission is to ensure the long-term prosperity of the U.S. beef industry by sustainably producing the most trusted, highest quality and consistently satisfying protein for consumers around the world.
“We want beef to be the protein of choice, and we want the entire U.S. beef industry to be trusted and respected for its commitment to quality, safety, and sustainability,” said Kim Brackett, leader of the task force and cow/calf rancher from Idaho. “The task force invested many hours, discussing the current state of the industry and what we need to accomplish over the next five years. We feel we’ve established some important priorities and strategies, as well as benchmarks for success that will help keep our industry on track through 2025 and beyond.”
THE BEEF INDUSTRY LONG RANGE PLAN
Updated every five years, the Beef Industry Long Range Plan is a tool designed to help the beef industry establish a common set of objectives and priorities. It communicates the industry’s strategic direction and provides insight on how the industry can serve its stakeholders by growing beef demand.
Since 1995, industry leaders have gathered to develop an aligned, comprehensive plan with the goal of increasing consumer demand for beef. These leaders are brought together to study and compile major areas of opportunity facing beef over the next five years.
The 2021-2025 Beef Industry Long Range Plan includes the following key priorities and core strategies:
Industry Objectives:
1. Grow global demand for U.S. beef by promoting beef’s health and nutritional benefits, satisfying flavor and unparalleled safety.
2. Improve industry-wide profitability by expanding processing capacity and developing improved value-capture models.
3. Intensify efforts in researching, improving, and communicating U.S. beef industry sustainability.
4. Make traceability a reality in the U.S. beef industry.
Core Strategies:
1. Drive growth in beef exports.
2. Grow consumer trust in beef production.
3. Develop and implement better business models to improve price discovery and value distribution across all segments.
4. Promote and capitalize on the multiple advantages of beef.
5. Improve the business and political climate for beef.
6. Safeguard and cultivate investment in beef industry research, marketing and innovation.
“We’ll measure the plan’s success by tracking key metrics for each Core Strategy,” Brackett said. “For example, one of the measures for the Core Strategy to ‘Drive growth in beef exports’ will be to grow the value of U.S. beef exports as a percent of total beef value to 21% by 2025. Additionally, there are a number of other goals to help measure success specific to the other core strategies.”
HOW THE BEEF INDUSTRY USES THE LONG RANGE PLAN
The Long Range Plan Task Force encourages other beef industry businesses and organizations to utilize the plan as input for their own strategic decision making processes.
For example, the Beef Checkoff, its committees, and contracting organizations, use pieces of the Long Range Plan as their guidebook. All funding decisions and focus areas of Checkoff projects and programs, by design, must follow the key areas outlined in the plan that align with Checkoff budget categories: promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, producer communication and foreign marketing. To ensure this focus, each year Checkoff committees continue to renew their alignment by identifying key plan initiatives as their priorities based on current industry needs. Checkoff contractors take this direction and develop Checkoff-funded programs that fall within the scope of the Beef Promotion and Research Act and Order and support the plan’s priorities.
THE BEEF INDUSTRY LONG RANGE PLAN TASK FORCE
The task force convened several times over the past year and considered all aspects of the industry from production trends, economic factors, foreign markets, consumer trends, and the competitive climate. The group evaluated the previous five-year plan and determined, based on industry trends and insights, where the industry should maintain and/or shift focus over the next five years.
In addition to Brackett, other members of the task force are also individuals representing key beef industry segments and devoted to ensuring the beef industry’s long-term success:
- Dr. Keith Belk, Department Head Animal Science, Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO)
- Andy Bishop, Fairfield Farms, (Cox’s Creek, KY)
- Tim Brady, Director of Risk Management, Agri Beef Co. (Boise, ID)
- Donnell Brown, Owner/Manager, R.A. Brown Ranch (Throckmorton, TX)
- John Butler, CEO the Beef Marketing Group, feeder (Manhattan, KS)
- Paul Defoor, Co-CEO at Cactus Feeders, Inc., feeder (Amarillo, TX)
- Joe Goggins, Owner, Auctioneer and Field Rep, Public Auction Yards, (Billings, MT)
- Ken Griner, President, Usher Land & Timber, Inc., cow/calf and seedstock (Chiefland, FL)
- Mary Kraft, Owner/Operator, Quail Ridge Dairy (Fort Morgan, CO)
- Jon Lowe, Head of Global Commercial Development, Livestock, Zoetis (Parsippany, NJ)
- Dean Meyer, farmer/feeder (Rock Rapids, IA)
- William Rishel, Owner, Rishel Ranch, seedstock (Lincoln, NE)
- Suzy Strassburger, President, Strassburger Steaks, LLC, a specialty meat purveyor (Carlstadt, NJ)
- Jerry Wulf, Partner/Advisor, Wulf Cattle (Hancock, MN)
“After helping to develop our previous Long Range Plan, I was encouraged with how it was embraced by the entire industry,” said Brackett. “Over the past year, our task force researched and fashioned this new plan with just as much care, and we hope it will be received with even more enthusiasm.”
To view the complete Beef Industry Long Range Plan, a plan summary or get more information, visit BeefLongRangePlan.com.
