Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m. on August 2, 2006 in the conference room of the Utah Dept. of Agriculture in Salt Lake City, UT. Minutes from the previous meeting were approved as submitted. Thayne Dutson, Administrative Advisor, explained the project renewal process. After discussion, the consensus was to develop a revised project outline for a funded project. The proposed title will be: Enhancing the Competitiveness and Value of U.S. beef.

The remainder of the meeting was spent developing an outline for the new project, describing each of the segments of the project and assigning individuals to help write each segment. Results of the discussion follow.

General Project Outline:

Statement of issues and justification

a. BSE and world trade (closure of markets, government interventions in markets, international competition, etc.)
b. Work of committee related more to trade and quality issues and consumer acceptance more than technical questions related to meat processing. The reason for this is that these appear to be the principal issues being faced.
c. There are important new issues that have emerged requiring a new emphasis for the project. These issues include:
-Traceability
-Enhancing Palatability and Process Innovation
-Food Safety
-Determining and creating quality and value for different customers
-Organizing and managing the beef production and marketing system (supply chain management)

II. Related, current and previous work
-Literature review for each of the issues
-Traceability
-Enhancing Palatability and Process Innovation
-Food Safety
-Determining and creating quality and value for different customers Organizing and managing the beef production and marketing system (supply chain management)

b. Literature review provided by persons assigned to each issue

III. Objectives: Integrating economics and meat science to enhance the domestic and international competitiveness of US beef by measuring and improving beef quality, safety, and value through:
-Traceability
-Enhancing Palatability and Process Innovation
-Food Safety
-Determining and creating quality and value for different customers
-Organizing and managing the beef production and marketing system (supply chain management)
IV. Methods
a. Written for each issue by persons assigned to that issue
V. Measurements of Progress and results
a. Outputs
b. Outcomes or Projected Impacts
c. Milestones
VI. Projected participation
VII. Outreach plan
VIII. Organization and governance
IX. Literature cited
Details of each segment were identified. Enhancing the Competitiveness and Value of U.S. beef Objective: Integrating economics and meat science to enhance the domestic and international competitiveness of US beef by measuring and improving beef quality, safety, and value through X. Traceability
XI. Enhancing Palatability and Process Innovation
XII. Food Safety
XIII. Determining and creating quality and value for different customers
XIV. Organizing and managing the beef production and marketing system (supply chain management)
Other issues to be listed in the introduction: Developing knowledge to improve the value chain, institutions and incentives to adopt new technologies.
Traceability
1. Key Issues
a. National Animal/ID Systems, cost versus benefits, impact on producers by size and scale
2. Outputs
a. Regional analysis of cost/benefits (Davis)
b. Use trace back for disease control
c. Value of traceability in market-based programs
3. Impacts
a. Understanding of optimal implication
4. Milestones
a. Davis: Publishing cost/benefit analysis in '08-'09
b. Scale economy study, Bailey at Utah, Spring '08
c. Value of Disease '08
Enhancing Palatability and Process Innovation
1. Key Issues
a. Tenderness and flavor is problematic
i. Need improved and identification of tenderness and flavor
ii. Tenderness prediction necessary for increasing consumer value
b. Current processing methods may inhibit value enhancement
2. Outputs
a. Development and assessment of tenderness prediction technology (NE and TX)
b. Identify Sources of and methods for reducing off flavor (NE, TX)
c. Evaluation effectiveness of tenderness and flavor enhancement technologies (NE, ND)
d. Evaluate effectiveness of genetic pre-harvest markers of tenderness and flavor (IA, KS, TX)
e. Evaluate alternative fabrication procedures for beef (NE)
3. Impacts
a. Enable prediction of beef quality
b. Increase palatability of beef products
c. Improved efficiency in carcass fabrication
4. Milestones
a. Prediction technology
b. Reduce off flavors
c. Product improvement control
d. Evaluate genetic markers
e. Assess alternative fabrication procedures
Food Safety
1. Key Issues
a. Food borne illness potential exists for beef products
b. Risk of food borne illness must be reduced
c. Food safety inspection policies may inhibit foreign marketing
2. Outputs
a. Identify pre-harvest and post harvest interventions to improve beef product safety. (CO and TX, maybe IA)
b. Understand basic molecular and microbiological factors in beef product safety (CO and TX, IA)
c. Evaluate implication of U.S. food safety policy irregularities on international trading relationships (WY, KS)
3. Impact
a. Improve human health, protect markets, build consumer confidence
b. Improve international trading relationships for beef
4. Milestones
a. 2008/09 Theoretical framework, case study, identify data sources for policy analysis
b. 2010 match observations with theoretical framework
Determining and creating quality and value for different customers
1. Key Issues
a. Consumers make purchases based on many value perceptions. To improve marketing US beef these value of perceptions must be understood.
b. Why don't demographics matter?
2. Outcomes
a. Determination of value factors for customers
i. Understanding impact of various factors for value determination (WY, NE, UT, CO)
ii. Understanding of market segmentation factors
3. Impacts
a. Enhancing ability to create product composition (which factors) that will improve market demand
Think about international studies
4. Milestone
-environmental quality, ethics...
Organizing and managing the beef production and marketing system (supply chain management)
1. Key Issues
a. Extremely variable production systems are not channeled appropriately to produce constituent products to meet different demands
2. Tools
a. Tools to predict end point fat content under different management regions (CA, UT, WY?, TX?)
b. Identify regionally optimal production and marketing for cows and calves systems (UT, CA, NE, SD)
c. An evaluation of the current public price reporting program (SD, WY)
d. Understanding barriers to efficient international trading created by different grading systems (UT)
3. Outcomes
a. Cattle produced marketed appropriately for different end points in their environment
b. Quantify risk-return trade offs associated with different marketing systems
c. Identify factors influencing positive and negative effects on marketing systems
4. Milestones
a. Have a fat prediction model by 2009
b. Regional optimal production system identification '10
c. Evaluation of weaning and feeding programs on cow failure
Note: Need to move away from one base price to different value-based marketing.
The time-line for writing the project includes the following milestones.
August 28, 2006 Writing assignments communicated to committee members.
August 28, 2006 First draft of justification for the project revision prepared.
October 1, 2006 Input provided to committee chairs from committee members.
October 16, 2006 Committee portions of project revision submitted to full committee.
November 1, 2006 Draft project revision submitted to entire committee for comment.
December 1, 2006 Final version of the project revision compiled and shared with committee.
Feb., 2007 Annual meeting of the committee to finalize project revision.
The next meeting of the committee was proposed to be in February, pending the time-line for the project to be submitted to the Western Directors for approval.
The meeting was adjourned by noon on August 3, 2006.

No publications were discussed as a part of this meeting.