Operating Committee Approves
Beef Checkoff Initiatives For 2008
Committee forced to cut more than $1.8 million in proposals

DENVER, Colo., (Sept. 22, 2007) – The Beef Promotion Operating Committee this week funded a total of 42 program proposals with beef checkoff dollars for Fiscal 2008. At the same time, however, a tight budget forced the committee to reject more than $1.8 million in proposals to stay within the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s (CBB’s) $46.8 million national program budget for the coming year.

“This was one of the most difficult Operating Committee meetings I’ve been through during all the years I’ve served on it because of all the tough choices we had to make,” said CBB Chairman Ken Stielow, a producer from Kansas. “At the same time, it was one of the best because of that. We have a very tight budget for 2008 – down about 9 percent from the 2007 budget – so we really had to debate the merits of each program extensively.”

The plan of work funds promotion, research and information programs and is designed to build demand for beef using the checkoff funds remitted to the CBB. The plan still must be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture before any funds can be expended.

Approval of the plan came after a day and a half of presentations and discussion. The Operating Committee – 10 producer members of the Cattlemen’s beef Board and 10 producer representatives from the Federation of State Beef Councils – had to balance the industry’s requests for funding against anticipated checkoff collections for 2008.

“Discussions got a little lively at times,” Stielow said. “Contractors knew that the budget was going to be tight, so they made sure their proposals didn’t have any fat around the edges. That meant that we had to cut things we didn’t want to cut, and that can become an emotional experience.”

The result, Stielow said, is a producer-selected menu of checkoff activities that the committee believes will create the best opportunities for cattle producers in the coming fiscal year given the budget constraints.

Contractors with program proposals included in the plan are the American National CattleWomen (ANCW), the American Veal Association (AVA), the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB), the Meat Importers Council of America (MICA), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the National Livestock Producers Association (NLPA) and the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

The approved checkoff plan of work for CBB during fiscal 2008 includes:

Of the $1.8 million denied, producers on the Operating Committee turned down nearly $1.5 million in proposals from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, $33,500 from the American National CattleWomen; and $305,000 from the National Livestock Producers’ Association.

Programs authorized by the Operating Committee must be approved by USDA before any money can be spent. Each contractor of the Beef Checkoff Program works on a cost-recovery basis and, by law, cannot profit from work they do on behalf of the Beef Board and state beef councils. Each contractor is subject to audits by CBB and USDA on an ongoing basis.

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The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on 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.

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