Posted: 08.02.2011

Cattle industry leaders, and those involved in the beef checkoff programs, are gathering together in Florida this week for the 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.  Chuck Adami, president and CEO of the Equity Livestock Association in Baraboo, is one of those representatives.

Adami tells Pam Jahnke that he's waiting to see what leaders of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Cattlemen's Beef Board, have to say about the latest shake-up in leadership.  "It's a very complicated situation,"  Adami tells the Wisconsin Farm Report.  Adami is the chair of the Wisconsin Beef Council and represents the beef and dairy industry on the national stage.  "When you're dealing with the checkoff - 50 cents of the dollar growers contribute stays on the state scene and 50 cents goes to the national arena.  The thing that's difficult to understand is who controls how that money is spent."  Adami reminds growers that the dollars originally goes to the Cattlemen's Beef Board for national programs like education and advertising.  Execution of those programs, however, is generally contracted to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.  

Adami says he's hoping that there's a renewed spirit of cooperation at this summer meeting in Florida.  "As you know, Pam,"  Adami continues, "the beef herd is down and that means the checkoff dollars will be down. So it's really important that every dollar is spent correctly."

Adami says that he's been witnessing firsthand how the drought in the south is impacting beef supplies nationwide.  "We're actually seeing people go from Wisconsin down to Texas and Oklahoma to buy these animals,"  Adami says.  If there's a positive out of the bad weather in the south - it's that Wisconsin's livestock herd is not being depleted as quickly.  "I think that prices are going to stay high,"  Adami forecasts, "plus I think there's an element we're not looking at and that's exporting.  Domestically consumers are not eating as much beef as they have year over year before - but - the price is driven up because of the amount of beef we're sending overseas."  Adami says despite consumer's worries about the price they're paying for beef - they need to know that a lot of the beef exported from the United States are cuts that aren't normally consumed here.  "We don't eat the livers, the tongues, the kidneys,"  Adami explains, "Korea is huge - and if China ever opens up freely to our products - all meat prices are going to go up."

Presidential candidate Herman Cain will keynote this week’s 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Kissimmee, Florida. Cain has significant experience in the food industry - having served in leadership positions with Burger King, Godfather’s Pizza and the National Restaurant Association. During this week - meetings will be held by the Federation of State Beef Councils and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board to discuss Beef Checkoff Program priorities.

« back to news articles