Just like a farming operation, keeping a close eye on the budget sustains its capacity. Al Wulfekuhle, a producer from Iowa and the treasurer for the National Pork Board says the main priority of the board is to wisely invest Checkoff funds.
“When we start looking at a budget, the first thing we do is we engage with National Pork Producers Council, state associations, packers, processors, try to do consumer focus groups, we’re trying to learn everything we can first, do the research, do the background.”
Looking at the return on investment and ideas brought to the board.
“We don’t want to create demand that just makes the market go up for a few months, we want to work with our domestic and our export customers to create long term demand and trust. So, that is our number one priority in that area, is just create long term demand that’s going to be here for us but, also for the next generation to pig farmers.”
Wulfekuhle said their focus right now is building trust and adding value to the industry.
“Again, we have the research to show that it’s great for childhood development, it’s also great for the senior health and brain health and cognitive health. And that’s just an awesome story to tell and we need to do a better job of that, pork is really good for you.”
Producers are encouraged to read the publicly-available financial information on porkcheckoff.org.
