CBB Operating Committee Approves FY19 Plan of Work
The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board will invest about $40.5 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2019, subject to USDA approval.
In action at the end of its September 11-12 meeting in Denver, CO, the Operating Committee approved checkoff funding for a total of 14 “Authorization Requests” – or proposals – brought by seven contractors for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2018. The committee, which includes 10 producers from the Beef Board and 10 producers from the Federation of State Beef Councils, also recommended full Beef Board approval of a budget amendment to reflect the split of funding between budget categories affected by their decisions.
The seven contractors had brought a total of $45 million worth of funding requests to the Operating Committee this week, almost $5 million more than what was available from the CBB budget.
In the end, the Operating Committee approved proposals from seven national beef organizations for funding through the FY 19 Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board budget, as follows:
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (five proposals for $27.4 million) U.S. Meat Export Federation, (one proposal for $8.3 million) North American Meat Institute (four proposals for $1.9 million) Cattlemen’s Beef Board (one proposal for $1.7 million) American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture (one proposal for $700,000) Meat Import Council of America (one proposal for $417,000) National Livestock Producers Association (one proposal for $60,000)
Included in the budget was $1.7 million for producer communications, which includes investor outreach using national communications and direct communications to producers and importers about checkoff results; as well as development and utilization of a publishing strategy and platform, and a state beef council content hub.
The full fiscal 2019 budget is $43.9 million. Separate from the authorization requests, other expenses funded include $227,000 for evaluation; $300,000 for program development; $800,000 for USDA oversight/CBB legal; and about $2 million for administration. The fiscal 2019 budget represents an increase of $3 million from the $40.9 million FY18 budget.
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 50 cents on the dollar. The states then often use a large portion of that money to buy seats on the Federation of State Beef Councils Board as well as the U.S. Meat Export Federation Board. The USDA and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board have no oversight on over half of the $80 million Beef Checkoff enterprise.