News
Beef Checkoff proposes spending more than $39 million
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) – the Beef Checkoff – will consider investing more than $39 million in beef promotion, research, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2021. The Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) – including 10 producers from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 producers from the Federation of State Beef Councils – approved the checkoff spending last week in Denver, according to a news release from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The spending proposal still must be approved by the full Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the USDA.
“Producers drive all the decisions that the BPOC makes during these important meetings,” said CBB and BPOC Chair Jared Brackett, quoted in the release. “Once again, our contractors came to these meetings with some incredibly innovative ideas and projects. As always, it’s a real challenge to balance the budget and distribute our limited amount of Checkoff dollars to these contractors in a way that we believe will best drive beef demand. I personally thank all our contractors and committee members for dedicating considerable time and effort to continue moving the beef industry forward.”
The BPOC pared back requests for funding that were more than $8 million over budget. Among the eight contractors that were awarded grants, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association gets the biggest piece of proposed checkoff funding at $26,442,207 to do beef promotion, foreign marketing, and research. Second to the NCBA, the U.S. Meat Export Federation gets $8,350,170 primarily to market U.S. beef to other countries. The other six contractors are:
• American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture – $670,996
• Cattlemen’s Beef Board – $1,689,915
• Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education – $646,144
• Meat Import Council of America/Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative – $497,037
• National Institute for Animal Agriculture – $89,466
• North American Meat Institute – $994,068