Beef Promotion Operating Committee Determines Funding

Beef Promotion Operating Committee Determines Funding

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee determines which beef checkoff programs to fund and at what amounts. The group’s 20 beef producers finished their deliberations on the 2013 program of work - which begins today - identifying a 40-million dollar effort in promotion, research, consumer and industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications. After the break we will visit with one of the Operating Committee members, I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range.?

Linda Joy Stovall of Texas is a representative of the Federation of State Beef Councils on the Committee. She says all of the programs are important to beef producers - but two stand out for her.

Stovall: “Promotion with the advertising, the training with partnerships for restaurants supermarkets and then the next thing I would say would be research. Nutrition and beef safety in all new products because that is where all the protein comes, the zinc, the iron and that is what the consumers really need to know about.”

According to Stovall - the producers on the Operating Committee - 10 representing the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 representing the Federation of State Beef Councils - work hard to allocate checkoff dollars to programs that will best build demand for beef.
During the meeting cuts - totaling nearly $3 million - had to be made. Still - Stovall says she is pleased with what they accomplished on behalf of the beef industry.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range on the Northwest Ag Information Network.