09/27/06 Beef checkoff decisions

Carl Crabtree of Grangeville and Laurie Lickley of Jerome are two of the 20 members of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee, BPOC. That committee approved a beef checkoff plan that Lickley says is designed to build demand for beef. LICKLEY "Promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications are the seven areas in which out checkoff dollars can be spent." The checkoff assess one dollar per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle. The states retain 50 cents on the dollar, the other 50 cents goes to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion Board. LICKLEY "This year we allocated close to 52 million dollars in checkoff dollars to programs." 28 million went for promotion, over seven million for research, 6.66 million for consumer information programs, and 4.8 million for foreign marketing efforts. LICKLEY "Producers out there listening today recognize that it's those of us out here on the ground floor every day making decisions on how their dollars are spent." The BPOC had to deny 4.76 million dollars in proposed projects because of budget limits. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott