Checkoff Budget Recommendation

At the end of a long three days of planning meetings, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee on May 14 recommended a $41.5 million national beef checkoff budget for Fiscal Year 2010, and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Executive Committee ratified the recommendation. The budget is based on a recommendation earlier in the day from the industry’s Joint Budget Committee, which based its recommendation on projected checkoff revenue for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, 2009. Pictures are Beef Board Chariman Lucinda Williams and Secretary/Treasurer Tom Jones.

The budget recommendation must be approved by the full Beef Board and USDA before it is official. The Board vote will take place at the 2009 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in July and, if approved, heads to USDA. At this point, the budget recommendation is broken down by components including promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing, producer communications, evaluation, administration, USDA oversight, and program development. It does not, however, include specific program proposals for the year, as that will be determined based on proposals that national beef organizations will present to the Operating Committee in September.As recommended by the three committees this week, the bulk of the national beef checkoff budget for FY2010 - about $39.5 million – would be invested in checkoff programs, as follows:

• $18.1 million for promotion, including things such as advertising, foodservice, retail and veal promotion, and new-product development.
• $6.2 million for research programs, including beef safety, product enhancement, nutrition research, and market research.
• $4.7 million for consumer-information programs, which includes consumer public relations, youth education and information, and nutrition influencers outreach.
• $2.9 million for industry-information programs, including beef and veal quality assurance and issues management.
• $5.3 million for foreign marketing, including promotion programs across the globe.
• $1.8 million for producer communications, including trade advertising, media relations, and direct communications to producers about the results of their checkoff investments.

In addition to the program budget, additional costs include $220,000 for evaluation of checkoff programs; $130,000 for program development; $255,000 for USDA oversight; and $2 million for administration, which includes costs for all Board and committee meetings, as well as office rental, supplies and equipment, and salaries.