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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — All beef producers have something they can contribute to the Illinois Beef Association.
“This is our organization and it’s up to each one of us to contribute whatever we can,” said Buzz Iliff, president of IBA, during the group’s annual meeting. “Anytime we can help you, please call the office or one of the board members because that’s what this organization is all about, helping each other.”
IBA members elected Iliff, a veterinarian from Wyoming, to his second term as president during the event. In addition, Paul Walker, Danvers, was selected to serve as vice president, and Shannon Welsh, Scotia, was chosen as the Policy Division District 4 director, representing Henderson, Warren, Knox, Hancock, McDonough, Fulton and Adams counties.
“We’ve got to tell our story because there are a lot of people who think veggie burgers and lab-grown meat will be the future and would love to see us out of business,” Iliff said. “Beef is 100% nutrition and it’s a very dense product with lots of zinc, iron and protein with a lot lower calories than a veggie burger.”
Promotion at the grassroots level is important, Iliff stressed.
“It is critical to talk to people one-on-one because 98% of the population has no idea what animal agriculture is and they have no idea of our dedication and hard work to take care of our animals,” he said.
The members approved the IBA Strategic Plan during the meeting, which includes five strategic areas — organizational effectiveness, membership and youth/young leader development, advocacy and representation, communication and information and producer programs and production research.
“We have over 2,200 junior members, which is a five-year high for us,” said Jill Johnson, IBA executive vice president. “We appreciate affiliates understanding how important this is to us.”
Many of the young leader activities generally occur in the spring and summer, which have been impacted by the pandemic.
“We couldn’t have an Edge Conference this year, so instead we put together an essay and photography contest and the winning photograph will be the cover of the August ‘Beef’ magazine,” Johnson said. “We won’t have a junior points program, so we are happy to support some of the late summer jackpot shows for our youth.”
The Team Beef program is part of the IBA communication and information strategic area.
“We have 20 people in this program for runners and cyclers and they wear the Team Beef brand in competitions,” Johnson said. “We are excited to have such a strong group of Team Beef athletes — some of them raise cattle and some don’t — who are great spokespeople for the industry.”
During February, IBA completed a campaign for Heart Month.
“There are a little over 25 cuts of beef that have the heart certification,” Johnson said. “We were able to deliver beef messages to consumers in Illinois and we reached around 500,000 consumers talking about heart healthy benefits of beef.”
During May Beef Month, IBA provides grants to the affiliate chapters for promotional work. Nineteen affiliates applied for grant dollars to do a variety of projects, including food back donations, billboard advertising and beef advertising on the radio.
“We are excited to offer these grants and we will continue to do so to amplify the beef message,” Johnson said.
IBA has been involved with the Illinois Farm Families program, which is coalition effort with the Illinois commodity groups for the past 10 years.
“This is probably one of the strongest programs we have in Illinois,” Johnson said. “This past fall, 60 dietitians toured a beef farm and board members were there to talk them through different aspects from animal health to nutrition to the environment.”
The IBA hosts Beef Quality Assurance trainings throughout the state.
“This is another big focus for us and we have just under 5,000 beef producer certifications in Illinois,” Johnson said. “We also launched a consumer education campaign talking to consumers about the BQA program, what it does and why it’s valuable continuing education for cattlemen.”
As COVID-19 hit the United States, one of the first priorities for IBA was to stress the importance for agriculture to be deemed an essential business on both the state and national level.
“We were not able to have our summer conference and cattlemen’s college, so we organized a Cattlemen’s Educational Series of webinars that is recorded and is available on our website,” Johnson said. “This is a feature we might continue using for those we are not able to get to meetings.”
IBA lobbied the state Legislature for funds to assist Illinois farmers.
“In the budget for the 2021 fiscal year, they allocated $5 million for livestock management facilities,” Johnson said. “We are working with the pork, dairy and Farm Bureau groups, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce to put together a stimulus program at the state level.”
Frustrations with the cattle market and the need for additional price discovery have been frequent conversations by cattlemen this year.
“Our executive committee has had quite a few discussions about the disparity between live cattle prices and the boxed beef prices,” Johnson said. “This is probably the No. 1 policy priority for a lot of our members especially thanks to the two ‘black swan’ events — the Tyson plant fire in August 2019 and now COVID this year.”
For more information about the Illinois Beef Association, go to: www.illinoisbeef.com.