Training Camp to Further Retailer Education about Beef

DENVER (August 11, 2004) – A “traveling training camp” will soon be helping extend the beef knowledge of store-level meat retailers across the country.The checkoff-funded half-day seminar will cover the topics retailers need to know in their day-to-day operations and interaction with consumers at their stores.

Materials for the seminar, including a manual, professional video and interactive CD-ROM, were in production during 2004.Hands-on seminars for store-level meat managers, with participants involved in preparing beef dishes to learn more about proper cooking methods for each cut, will start being conducted in late fall of this year.

Funded by beef producers through their $1-per-head checkoff, the seminar and related materials are coordinated for the Cattlemen's Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).The NCBA serves as one of the Beef Board's contractors for checkoff-funded programs.

The “Beef Training Camp” is an extension of the checkoff-funded “Beef College” program, which nearly 5,000 retail meat managers and staff have attended to date.The new program will allow for greater reach to retailers, as those who miss the live seminar will benefit from information provided in the printed, video and computer materials.

Among issues covered in the program are cooking methods for beef, industry and consumer trends, nutrition, food safety, beef basics and current issues, such as animal ID.The information and presentations are based on retailer needs as they market and promote beef.

“We have received tremendous interest in offering this program from the retail community, and believe it will go a long way toward providing a core knowledge of beef and the business of selling beef,” according to Alan Hess, a beef producer from Alma, Kan., and chairman of the Joint Retail Committee.“What’s more, this program allows us to reach retailers who are geographically spread out.By structuring our ‘training camp’ this way we can regularly and directly reach retailers coast-to-coast.”