Enhanced Top Cut: Beef Experience

Utica, NY (April 2024)—The enhanced Top Cut: Beef Experience aims to foster deeper engagement among school-age children in the pasture-to-plate journey by offering them a hands-on learning opportunity. In partnership with New York Agriculture in the Classroom (NYAITC), this revamped initiative offers educators and student groups a comprehensive resource pack, amplifying the learning experience.   

The transition to the Top Cut: Beef Experience signifies a commitment to streamlined processes and extended opportunities. By removing awards, educators can now focus solely on guiding students through the project without the added pressure of competition. Moreover, introducing two participation windows - fall and spring - grants educators greater flexibility to seamlessly integrate the experience into their curriculum throughout the academic year, ensuring all students can participate.   

Simplified participation lies at the core of this year's Top Cut: Beef Experience. Eliminating the requirement for pre-registration aims to make it easier for educators to incorporate the initiative into their lesson plans, thereby encouraging broader participation from schools and classrooms across New York.   

Furthermore, a dedicated resource center has been established to enrich the support available to educators. This resource center offers many tools, including templates, rubrics, and NGSS standards-based toolkits, empowering educators to effectively implement the Top Cut: Beef Experience in the classroom.   

As we embark on this new phase of the Top Cut: Beef Experience, we invite educators and students alike to join us in this immersive journey from pasture to plate. For more information and to access the resource center, visit https://newyork.agclassroom.org/programs/topcut/   

Stay tuned for updates on the enriched Top Cut: Beef Experience as we continue to empower the next generation of beef enthusiasts and learners.   

To learn more about New York Beef Council and Beef Checkoff-funded activities in New York, visit www.nybeef.org.     

About the New York Beef Council: The New York Beef Council is funded by the $1-per-head National Beef Checkoff Program. Checkoff dollars are invested in beef promotion, consumer information, research, industry information, and foreign market development, all with the purpose of strengthening beef demand. For more information, visit www.nybeef.org.   

About the Beef Checkoff: The Beef Checkoff was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The Checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle and a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States may retain up to 50 cents of the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.