The activity is picking up here at the Cattle Industry Convention. More media are showing up in the news room and I’ve been doing a little Beef Board Blogging. I think that from a Beef Board perspective the financial outlook is really the main conversation in the hallway and meetings I’ve sat in on so far.
This morning I interviewed both Dan Dierschke, Treasurer and Lynn Heinze, Executive Director of Communications for CBB.
Dan says they’re finding that collections are down considerably from expectations. He says that after looking at all the data available they’ve concluded that revenue will be down about $2.5 million. So, he says they’ve chosen to cut the current budget to compensate rather than move forward on a deficit basis. He does want producers to keep in mind that even with a pessimistic financial outlook there are still a lot of dollars being spent in support of Checkoff programs that are attempting to raise demand for their product.
You can listen to my interview with Dan here: cic-09-dierschke.mp3
Lynn discussed the new producer attitude survey in which he says that the survey shows that the current economic situation is impacting a lot of people. He says that support for the Checkoff has drifted down a little but that still almost 7 out of 10 producers know about and approve of the Checkoff. More importantly he says, the survey shows that producers continue to feel that the Checkoff has contributed to the overall advancement of the industry and to their bottom lines.
You can listen to my interview with Lynn here: cic-09-heinze-survey.mp3
The 2009 
The cost of feed and minerals is one of the top concerns for the poultry industry right now – and that is where 
The Beef Board Operating Committee meeting is over and before he went to dinner I caught up with Chairman Dave Bateman.
Here’s the Yard-O-Beef welcoming committee in the Cattle Industry Convention news room. It’s always nice to see the staff here and between chocolate and beef we’re well fed.
“All Star” is the theme for Novus International at the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta this week. There’s a couple of good reasons for that. 
The other reason is that the 2009 Baseball All Star game will be held in St. Louis – which is also the home of Novus International. To drive home that theme, Novus will have a special guest at their expo trade show booth this week – Hall of Famer Lou Brock.
Lunch was on Novus International today at the 
In a relaxed atmosphere, Dr. Tara York with Novus presented some information on the “Synergistic Effects of Nutritional Antioxidants” to about 200 attendees, focusing on vitamin E, selenium, and ethoxyquin (as well as a bunch of other big words that I can’t pronounce or spell!!) Novus is pretty much the world leader when it comes to antioxidants for poultry, with over five decades of basic and applied research, development and manufacturing expertise being utilized to develop, manufacture and support multiple lines of nutritional and health products for the poultry industry.
Welcome to AgWired’s coverage of the International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo, sponsored by 
This afternoon I got to visit with Bob Callanan and Cassandra Schlef,