May is National Beef Month and the checkoff's retail program is "dashing" out to retail grocery stores across the country to celebrate with exciting summer promotions.

For starters, a Cinco de Mayo promotion with Snyder's Of Hanover® Tortilla Chips will include in-store displays featuring an instant redeemable coupon for $2 off beef with the purchase of tortilla chips.

Another one of the major components of this year's retail program is the Healthy Beef Salad promotion with partners Alberto-Culver's Mrs. Dash® and California Cheese®. During this promotion, 50 million coupons for savings off beef will be distributed in Sunday newspaper inserts on May 17.

"The great thing about these programs is that all of the coupon redemption costs are covered by promotional partners," says Cattlemen's Beef Board member Margie Hande, cow-calf producer from Amidon, N.D., and vice chair of the Joint Retail Committee. "Our checkoff investment as producers goes toward the creative development and media costs for advertising these promotions. On average, for every dollar we invest, our retail partners are putting in $5 to $10. That's a sizeable return on investment."

Additionally, May Beef Month includes a beer and burger promotion with long time partners Kraft®A.1.® and Anheuser-Busch® Michelob® beer and will continue through June. The checkoff is also once again working with Sutter Home® wine to promote the Build a Better Burger®contest where contestants get to submit recipes for America's best beef burger for a $50,000 cash prize.

"Partnerships through retail help demonstrate how our producer dollar is stretched to maximize our checkoff investment," continues Hande. "Our minimal investment is extending the retail program reach to millions of beef customers for the next few months. It is our hope that through these partnerships and relationships, we can continue to grow demand for our great product and thereby create profit opportunities for producers."

To round out the May Beef Month activities, a new promotion with Hormel Food's CHI CHI's® and Herdez® brands started in April and continues until July 12 (CHI CHI's east of the Mississippi and Herdez west of the Mississippi). The promotion includes in-store displays with coupon tear pads and Instant Redeemable Coupons for $2 off beef with the purchase of salsa.

For more information about checkoff-funded programs, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.