Upon seeing the positive comments about the producer panel we included at each of our SRMEC-funded "Where's the Beef?" direct beef sales programs, we knew producers were interested in hearing from people on the ground in the direct beef sales arena. This project was intended to provide more of this type of information from a wide array of diverse producers and make it available to anyone interested in direct beef sales, regardless of their location or ability to attend an in person program.
One main goal of this project was to focus on a diverse set of interviewees. We were able to feature both men and women, an African-American producer, an Army veteran, producers who do conventional grazing and those doing only grass fed, producers with store fronts and those who only sell halves and quarters, producers at this for over 20 years and those with less than a year of experience. We were also able to sit down with the state licensing agency, the Department of State Health Services, a first-of-its-kind interview about the required licensing for beef sellers.
To say the project was a success would be an understatement. As of September 30, 2024, our 8 videos and recorded webinar received nearly 40,000 views. We also received 540 evaluation responses from viewers. We focused only on those evaluation respondents who completed the evaluation form for the webinar (246) in looking at our project outcomes, but we were able to significantly exceed our goal of reaching 100 people even with that limited subset. When you consider all the people who have viewed all of the videos, the impact is even more broad. Additionally, the impact of the videos continues even after the grant period has ended. From September 30, 2024 to October 30, 2024, we have received over 350 additional evaluation responses.