Beef Checkoff sets plan of work for new fiscal year -

In action concluding its two-day meeting in Denver this week, the Operating Committee (OC) — including members of the BB and the Federation of State Beef Councils — approved checkoff funding for a total of 18 “Authorization Requests,” or proposals for checkoff funding in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2013.

The committee also recommended full BB approval of a budget amendment to reflect the split of funding between budget categories affected by their decisions.

“Our budget continues to tighten every year, but we have tightened our processes along with our belts to leverage every checkoff dollar to the greatest extent possible,” said BB and OC Chairman Weldon Wynn, a cattleman from Arkansas.

The committee had to cut about $1 million from proposals to meet budget requirements and, in the end, cut a total of $1.15 million.

Just one proposal submitted was cut completely, and that was a $100,000 request from the National Livestock Producers Association to help tell the beef story to consumers through participation on the established “America’s Heartland” program on public television. The remainder of the cuts was achieved through reductions in budgets for the following programs:

A proposal from the North American Meat Association for veal promotion (reduced from $756,250 to $631,250)

Funding for the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative brought by the Meat Import Council of America and the Pennsylvania Beef Council (reduced from $246,325 to $199,629)

A “Moms, Millennials and More” communications program brought by the American National CattleWomen (reduced from $797,600 to $668,900)

The foreign marketing program managed by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (reduced from $7.9 million to $7.6 million)

A producer communications Authorization Request from the BB (reduced from $1.75 million to $1.5 million)

NCBA’s proposal for a consumer information Authorization Request (reduced from $6.9 million to $6.7 million)

Seven national beef organizations had project proposals approved by the OC, to be reimbursed through the FY2014 Cattlemen's BB budget, as follows:

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association ($27.2 million)

U.S. Meat Export Federation ($7.6 million)

Cattlemen’s Beef Board ($1.5 million)

North American Meat Association ($1.15 million)

American National CattleWomen ($668,900)

Meat Importers Council of America ($367,004)

National Livestock Producers Association ($30,000)

Broken out by budget component, the FY2014 Plan of Work for the Cattlemen’s BB budget includes:

$8.1 million for promotion programs, including a new consumer digital advertising program, veal promotion, a Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative to build demand in densely populated Northeast states.

$8.9 million for research programs, focusing on a variety of critical issues, including beef safety research, product enhancement research, human nutrition research and market research.

$10.8 million for consumer information programs, including a Northeast public relations initiative, national consumer public relations, including a “Moms, Millennials and More” consumer information program, the National Beef Ambassador Program, and nutrition-influencer relations.

$1.6 million for industry information programs, comprising beef and dairy-beef quality assurance programs and dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter misinformation from anti-beef groups and others, as well as veal quality assurance and funding for continued checkoff participation in an industry-wide antimicrobial discussion.

$7.6 million for foreign marketing and education in some 80 countries in the following: ASEAN region; Caribbean; Central America/Dominican Republic; China/Hong Kong; Europe; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Middle East; Russia/Greater Russian Region; South America; and Taiwan.

$1.5 million for producer communications, which includes producer outreach using paid media, earned media, direct communications, and communications through livestock markets and state beef councils.

Other expenses funded through the $41.3 million 2014 Cattlemen's BB budget include $224,000 for evaluation, $230,000 for program development, $375,000 for USDA oversight; and about $1.9 million for administration, which includes costs for board meetings, legal fees, travel costs, office rental, supplies, equipment and administrative staff compensation.