Cattlemen’s Beef Board Approves Fiscal 2005 Budget
DENVER, COLO. (August 17, 2004) – The Cattlemen’s Beef Board approved a $52.5 million beef checkoff budget for fiscal year 2005, capping a year-long planning process and several days of joint industry committee meetings to review specific proposals for checkoff funding.
The breakdown of the budget recommendation, which must be approved by USDA before any funds are expended, includes the following budget elements: promotion ($26.8 million); research ($6.95 million); consumer information ($6.4 million); industry information ($1.8 million); foreign marketing ($5.6 million); producer communications ($2.1 million); evaluation ($210,000); program development ($130,000); USDA oversight ($220,000); and administration ($2.25 million). The 2005 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2004.
“We took a hard look at what areas we need to focus on to provide the most benefit for producers in the current market environment,” said Beef Board Chairman Nelson Curry, a producer from Kentucky and chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Operating Committee. “We tried to identify what we believe is the way to fund a varied program that will help build demand for beef and, as a result, improve producers’ opportunities for profit through promotion, research and information efforts that keep beef at the center of America’s plate.”
The promotion segment of the budget for 2005 represents an overall decrease from the current fiscal year because the Beef Board dedicated an additional $1.5 million to domestic summer promotion this year, amid continued closure of the majority of export markets.
Meanwhile, the budget for fiscal 2005 represents an increase in funding for additional market research in the areas of BSE, nutrition, and youth attitudes, and allows for expansion of the checkoff’s issues-tracking efforts. And the Beef Board plans to increase the consumer-information budget to provide additional public relations efforts and more funding to reach out to nutrition influencers in 2005.
In the Industry Information segment of the budget, the Beef Board approved a slight decrease compared to the final 2004 budget, which included expanded funding for the crisis management in the wake of the Dec. 23, 2003 announcement of a case of BSE in the U.S. The foreign-marketing segment of the recommended checkoff budget represents an increase for the coming year, in anticipation of reopening markets and because the budget was reduced during fiscal 2004 to help fund additional domestic summer promotions. Finally, total funding for producer communications efforts is expected to remain at about the same level in 2005 as it is in the current year.
In the final stage of the fiscal 2005 budgeting process, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee will meet in September to identify specific programs to fund through the fiscal 2005 budget, before the Oct. 1 beginning of the fiscal year. USDA also must approve those recommendations before any checkoff dollars may be spent.
During its meeting last week, the Beef Board also approved a reapportionment plan that – based on declining cattle numbers in four states – will reduce the size of the board from the current 108 to 104 effective in 2006. Based on review of USDA inventory and import records, the Beef Board approved its Executive Committee’s recommendation to reduce Board seats by one each in Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming, leaving them with 2, 2, 6, and 1 seat, respectively.
The Beef Board is required to review the geographic distribution of cattle inventories nationwide and the volume of imported cattle, beef and beef products at least every three years and reapportion units or modify the number of Board members from particular states or regional units to reflect the distribution of cattle production.
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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. The checkoff assessment became mandatory when the program was approved by 79 percent of producers in a 1988 national referendum vote. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
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