"If you don't care about this industry who does? This business isn't lucrative enough to be in, if you don't love it."

Who is MLE Marketing?
• Michigan Livestock Exchange founded in 1922 by Michigan producers
• MLE expanded to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky in early ’80s
• Michigan Livestock Credit Corp. (MLCC) founded in 1989
• Merged with Southern States in 1998 to become the largest livestock-marketing cooperative, MLE Marketing

MLE Marketing/Southern States Cooperative
• 380,000 members
• 1,245 retail outlets
• 24 states
• $1.4 billion in sales ($500 million MLE)

Increased profit through industry coordination
“We as an industry can either decide to work together and compete, or we can maintain our romantic cowboy independence, fight amongst ourselves and become totally irrelevant as an industry.”
— Mark Gardiner, Ashland, Kan.

Industry challenges
• Poorly defined breeding programs or target markets
• More than 80 breeds contributing to U.S. cattle population
• Regional environment differences
• 800,000 cow-calf operations in the United States
• Half of calves are weaned by 64,000 (8%) cow-calf producers
• The other half are weaned by 736,000 (92%) cow-calf producers

The bad news
• In 20 years we have lost 20% market share
• Beef industry lost $4.5 billion in equity from 1994 to 1998
• People have less interest in cooking
• Consumers turned away from fresh product

The good news
• Overall, the U.S. economy is good
• Consumers took home 1% more beef last year and spent 1.2% more for it
• Growing shift in consumer opinion that eating red meat is OK
• Eating quality of beef has improved

Current industry facts
• The beef business, with all its problems, is still the largest food sector
• Consumers are still passionate about beef
• Tenderness technology can positively affect the whole industry
• The only dollars we have to divide are the ones that the consumers are willing to spend

Our mission
Now is not the time to become complacent. We need to use this better economic climate to regain our lost market share.