Beef Demand Index Takes into account: 1. USDA per capita beef supplies 2. USDA Choice retail prices 3. Annual adjustment for inflation based on Consumer Price Index

* Preliminary estimate: Declined 3.7% in 2009 After 10 years of decline, the angle of the downward trend in beef demand tumoderated in 1986, the year after the national beef checkoff program was created. Then in 1998, the trend-line turned upward for the first time in 20 years, just after we developed our first industry-wide long-range plan and started really focusing on what CONSUMERS wanted from our product, including new-product development. There have been up-and-down adjustments since then – high-carb diets in 2004 may have contributed to the upward movement and the general economic downturn of 2008-09 certainly contributed to the downward movement – but we remain more than 6 percent ahead of where we were in 1998. Every five years, we are required to have a formal economic evaluation of the checkoff’s effectiveness. In the latest report, which includes some pretty extensive econometric models that I won’t pretend to understand in full, ag economist Dr. Ron Ward of the University of Florida estimated that producers get an average rate-of-return of $5.55 for every dollar invested in the beef checkoff…. Take a minute and think about how much that means for you and you’ll start to understand how important those beef checkoff investments are. What agricultural economists say is that while beef demand will dip during challenging economic times, the checkoff works to lessen the severity of those dips – in other words, that the industry is better off than it otherwise would be – because of checkoff programs in promotion, research, research and education. * Preliminary estimate: Declined 3.7% in 2009