State Beef Councils Talk Checkoff Compliance

Every time a bovine animal is sold, the $1-per-head beef checkoff is due. That includes sales of a single animal to a neighbor, or even freezer beef. Compliance with payment of that assessment is monitored through audits of collecting points, advertised sales, and various other collection techniques, and state beef councils responsible for collecting that dollar are meeting today to talk about how to improve that system.

Thirty staff members for state beef councils across the country are gathered in Denver this morning to work with each other and Beef Board staff to share and come up with ideas for reducing non-compliance. And the ideas are already flowing.

Producer communications will be part of the picture, as well, as the Joint Producer Communications Committee has asked for more emphasis on “compliance messages” in the national producer communications program in Fiscal Year 2012.

The message is this: Buyer and seller are responsible for seeing that the checkoff assessment is paid on every sale. If it’s not paid now and identified later in an audit or other compliance effort, stiff penalties can be attached, on top of full back payment. Need a refresher on the rules? Go to Who Pays the Checkoff?

Committee Approves Checkoff Plan of Work

The Cattlemen’s Beef Board will invest about $39.8 million, from a total budget of about $42.1 million, into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information,  industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications in Fiscal Year 2012, if the recommendation of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee is approved by USDA, following review by the full Beef Board.

In action concluding its two-day meeting in Denver, the Operating Committee — including 10 members of the Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils — approved checkoff funding for a total of 39 “Authorization Requests,” or proposals for checkoff funding in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2011. The committee also will request full Board approval of a budget amendment to reflect the recategorization of the FY2012 budget in accordance with the programs approved. 

National organizations that had proposals approved by the Operating Committee (and the number of proposals and dollar amounts approved) are as follows: National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (19 programs totaling $30.2 million); U.S. Meat Export Federation (13 programs totaling $6.38 million); Cattlemen’s Beef Board (one program totaling $1.8 million); American National CattleWomen (two programs totaling $483,360); Meat Importers Council of America (three programs totaling $475,000); and the National Livestock Producers Association (one program at $35,000).

Based on the grim outlook for checkoff collections in the next few years (see post below), the Operating Committee voted to leave about $1.2 million “unallocated” to lessen the extent of the blow looking forward to Fiscal Year 2013 and beyond.

Broken out by budget component, the Fiscal Year 2012 Plan of Work for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget includes:

• $17.8 million for promotion programs
• $5.8 million for research programs
• $4.4 million for consumer information programs
• $3.1 million for industry information programs
• $6.4 million for foreign marketing programs
• $1.8 million for producer communications

Other categories funded through the 2012 CBB budget include $225,000 for evaluation, $180,000 for program development, $250,000 for USDA oversight; and about $2 million for administration, which includes costs for Board meetings, legal fees, travel costs, office rental, supplies, equipment, and administrative staff compensation. Fiscal Year 2012 begins Oct. 1, 2011.

Tough Times Ahead

“You can’t keep buying yourself out of a drought.”

That sentiment was voiced by Texas cattlewoman and Operating Committee member Linda Joy Stovall and other producers, as this morning’s portion of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee meeting kicked off with discussion of the tremendous impact that drought is having on the beef industry, particularly in Texas and Oklahoma.

Speaking of the “upshot,” Beef Board and Operating Committee member Chuck Kiker, noted: “I think consumers are going to get a whole new appreciation of the food industry in the next 10 or 12 years, because they’ll see the effect in increase in food prices.”

Beef Board member Dan Dierschke, who ranches near Austin, Texas, in the heart of the worst drought on record, echoed those sentiments, noting that cattlemen in the area are giving up on their generations-long businesses in large numbers. It’s clearly a very sad situation.

Discussion of this issue amounted to Operating Committee members reminding themselves of the outlook for the checkoff budget down the road, and the associated importance of planning ahead for even tougher times for the checkoff, in particular, and the beef industry, in general.

The committee is now voting on Authorization Requests for checkoff funding in Fiscal Year 2012, so we’ll get you details about the plan of work for the coming year here shortly.

Talking Beef With Consumers

In the home stretch of Authorization Request presentations this afternoon, NCBA presented proposals for checkoff funding of Promotion and Consumer Information programs in Fiscal Year 2012.

In presenting a $789,811 “Nutrition Influencer Program” proposal from NCBA, nutrition information program director Julie Sodano (pictured, presenting, right) talked about the important role that the checkoff plays in distributing information about the nutritional qualities of beef to today’s consumers. Having the research in hand from checkoff-funded research programs (see below) is a start, but getting that information to consumers is critical for it to be effective.

Along the same lines, the public relations AR, supported through the Consumer Informaiton budget component, along with the nutrition influencer program, gets the good word about beef out to consumers nationwide through national press releases, magazines, desk-side visits, and the like. View the Nutrition Influencer and Public Relations proposals, and visit Consumer Information Implementation to see the proposed costs associated with managing these two programs by NCBA.

In the area of Promotion, NCBA is presenting proposals today for Consumer Advertising, New Product and Culinary Initiatives, Retail Marketing, Foodservice Marketing, and Veal Marketing and Communications. For the costs associated with implementing those promotion programs, visit Promotion Implementation.

Research at Base of Checkoff Program

Consumer insights about beef and the beef ‘eating experience’ provide critical links to all other checkoff program efforts to build consumer demand for beef. After all, if the beef industry isn’t constantly adapting to meet consumers’ changing needs, then demand will nosedive. That’s the basic tenet for checkoff investment in consumer market research, via an Authorization Requested presented by market research director John Lundeen to the Operating Committee this afternoon.

Market research director John Lundeen presented the associated $1.35 million market research “Authorization Request” for checkoff funding in Fiscal Year 2012. Tactics/research topics included in the proposal include foundational product research; channels of distribution; new product development; enhancing the beef experience; tracking through the Consumer Beef Index; beef industry image; consumer barriers to eating beef; highlighing safety successes and perceptions; and eating personality validation. For details on the proposal, up for vote by the Operating Committee tomorrow morning, visit Market Research 2012.

Also in the research arena, NCBA is presenting Authorization Requests in the amount of $940,000 for beef safety research; product enhancement research; and human nutrition research. NCBA’s “implementation” AR (covering the costs associated with managing these research programs) is available at Research Implementation.

NCBA Presents Industry Information Proposals

After a hearty beef lunch, Operating Committee members are back at it this afternoon, and have begun listening to presentations from NCBA staff of Authorization Requests in the areas of promotion, research, consumer information and industry information.

Ryan Ruppert is kicking things off with a presentation of Beef Quality Assurance Programs proposed for checkoff funding in Fiscal Year 2012. Among highlighted new or improved tactics in the plan of work for the coming year are BQA training sessions for livestock marketing representatives, aimed at getting buy-in from all segments of the industry to include responsible practices from farm to slaughter, thus resulting in higher-quality beef and strong consumer confidence in beef and beef products. In addition, the BQA staff intends to increase its coordinated advertising efforts with producer communications staff by more than 25 percent. 

All told, the BQA program proposals seeks $800,000 in checkoff funding for FY12. Among elements in the program, funded through the Beef Board’s Industry Information budget component, are tactics to increase producer use of BQA; a national residue avoidance campaign; development and refinement of BQA management protocols; and an industry education campaign to avoid animal abuse and neglect. Next on the Operating Committee agenda today is presentation of “issues and reputation management” proposals, also funded through the Industry Information component. The “implementation AR” submitted for these Industry Information programs by NCBA is available at II Implementation.

Producer Communications & More

CBB Vice President of Communications Lynn Heinze (pictured) has completed his presentation and question-and-answer session with the Operating Committee, mapping out a FY2012 Plan of Work for producer communications funded through your national Beef Checkoff Program.

The main change in the producer communications plan for the coming year, compared to that occurring in FY2011 is an increased emphasis on regional advertising, including print, radio and online, to increase checkoff messages in areas that surveys indicate are home with producers who have less understanding of how the checkoff operates on their behalf, Heinze said. That will include regional programs in the Southeast, Northeast, Northwest, and Texas, primarily.

Another change, as prescribed by a recommendation from the Joint Producer Communications Committee, includes increase focus on messages about checkoff compliance, helping producers understand that the reason the checkoff is successful is because all producers and importers must pay the $1-per-head or equivalent assessment. That, said Heinze, is based on a request from state beef councils, and from research that indicates there are still some 15 percent of producer who say they’ve never heard of the checkoff.

Following the producer communications presentation, Sherry Hill of the American National Cattlewomen, presented a plan of promotion for the National Beef Cook-Off, and Sarah Bohnenkamp, also of ANCW, now is presenting a proposal for a “Telling the Beef Story” program, including the National Beef Ambassador Program.

Coming up next are presentations from the National Livestock Producers Association for checkoff assistance in funding a national forum about animal antibiotics, and proposals from the Meat Importers Council of America for another year of the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, which comprises foodservice and retail promotions, as well as consumer public relations regarding beef in the heavily populated Northeast corridor of the country.

(All above proposals include implementation costs, or the cost of managing the programs, within the amount requested.)

Foreign Marketing Kicks Off Funding Meeting

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee meeting is under way in Denver this morning. As every September, when proposals for checkoff funding of programs in the coming fiscal year, this promises to be heavy on information, with a day and a half schedueld for review of a total of 58 proposals.

Today, members of the Operating Committee — 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils — will hear presentations on 38 “Athorization Requests,” (ARs) or proposals for checkoff funding, in the areas of promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications. Another 20 “Attachment A’s” map out “next-priority” proposals in the case that additional checkoff funding is available after the committee recommends the main ARs it believes should be funded. 

No voting on the ARs will take place today — that happens tomorrow.

The total amount requested in checkoff funding for Fiscal Year 2012 is $42.2 million, compared to an available budget of $40.6 million, so not everything presented can be funded. Fiscal Year 2012 begins Oct. 1, 2011.

National beef organizations presenting proposals, and the number of proposals and dollar amount requested, are as follows:

• National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 35 proposals for $30.41 million
• U.S. Meat Export Federation, 15 proposals for $6.75 million
• American National Cattlewomen, two proposals for $1.72 million
• Cattlemen’s Beef Board, one proposal (producer communications), for $1.8 million
• Meat Importers Council of America, four proposals for $515,000
• National Livestock Producers Association, one proposal for $35,000

First up on the presentation block today is foreign marketing, and USMEF’s Greg Hanes is currently talking to the Operating Committee about how that organization wants to manage the checkoff’s international marketing efforts in the coming year. (For the individual foreign-marketing proposals, by country, visit Countries and scroll down to the “Foreign Marketing” section.) For proposed implementation costs, or the checkoff costs associated with managing these programs, is available at Foreign Marketing Implementation.

Stay tuned….

Committee Reviews Checkoff Proposals for FY2012

With the end of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s fiscal year around the corner, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee will meet in Denver Sept. 19-20 to consider nearly 40 “Authorization Requests,” or proposals for checkoff funding in FY2012, which begins Oct. 1, 2011.

The Operating Committee comprises 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 reprsentatives of the Federation of State Beef Councils, and is charged with making final recommendations about what national checkoff programs to fund with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget.

Given ongoing budget constraints, the committee continues to contend with tough decisions about what programs use producers’ checkoff investments most effectively and efficiently to build consumer demand for beef.

For a copy of the agenda for the September meeting, or to view any of the Authorization Requests that will be considered, click on “Committees” on the upper left side of this page, and then on “Beef Promotion Operating Committee” — or go straight to the page through THIS LINK.

“A Very Productive Joint Meeting”

After meeting with representatives of the Federation of State Beef Council’s executive committee on Thursday morning, the Beef Board Executive Committee compiled a list of Federation concerns about the CBB committee’s Roles & Responsibilities recommendations.

A resolution that gained support of both committees states that the two “had a very productive joint meeting and conversation and look forward to working together moving forward.”

The meeting was closed to staff, but open to producer members of both committees, as well as any other producers in attendance at the week’s meetings — including CBB and Federation members of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (see posts below).

(For background and reference purposes, the Roles & Responsibilities recommendations are available HERE; and CBB’s response to the Federation’s written comments about those is available HERE.)

In its own meeting later in the afternoon on Thursday, the CBB Executive Committee voted unanimously in favor of recording the Federation concerns about the Roles & Responsibilities documents, while its members were in the room to substantiate each of them.  Here are some of the suggestions made to the CBB Executive Committee for consideration:

• Suggestion that checkoff committees remain joint via equal numbers of members from Federation and Beef Board, including committee chair and vice chair positions. This would include the Joint Evaluation Committee.
• Request that the recommendations be clarified overall so that they cannot be misinterpreted as some “empire-building” effort by one group — rather simply as a listing of the Beef Board’s current responsibilities, in many cases. That includes clarifying that the CBB is not attempting to require state beef councils to send more than half of each checkoff dollar collected to the Beef Board, but rather noting that they CAN — as is currently noted in the Act & Order.
• Suggestions that the legal role of the CBB in planning be clarified.
• A recommendation that the Joint Committee and Joint Operating Committee agreements be reinstated/retained.

Now, the Executive Committee will wait until all other comments about the Roles & Responsibilities document are received from beef industry organizations that have been given a July 9 deadline for comments.

The CBB Executive Committee then will have a conference call on July 11 to determine if any of the comments have influenced them to make any changes to their recommendations before a full Beef Board discussion of them at the Board’s Aug. 4 meeting in Orlando.

$42 Million CBB Budget Recommended for FY2012

The Operating Committee accepted the recommendation from the Joint Budget Committee for a $42 million Beef Board budget for national checkoff programs in Fiscal Year 2012, which begins Oct. 1, 2011.

There was some discussion about whether the “producer communications” program area belonged under administrative costs or program costs for the checkoff, but upon an explanation and discussion about the history of development of the original Beef Act and Order, the committee maintained producer communications as a program expense, at a recommended level of $1.8 million of the total CBB budget in FY2012. USDA Ag Marketing Services rep Craig Shackelford pointed out that all of the 18 commodity checkoff programs running in this country today categorize producer communications as a program budget component, as well.

As recommended and based on budget projections developed through a number of data sources, including CBB, Cattle-Fax, and USDA, the budget recommendation includes the following:

• $20.76 million for promotion
• $6.79 million for research
• $5.11 million for consumer information
• $3.63 million for industry information
• $8.26 million for foreign marketing
• $1.8 million for producer communications

Non-program budgets for the coming year are recommended at $225,000 for evaluation; $180,000 for program development; $250,000 for USDA oversight; and $2 million for administration, which includes not only all salaries and benefits, but office materials and rent, and the cost of all CBB meetings and associated travel for Board members.

The recommended budget will be presented to the full Beef Board for a vote during its meeting at the summer Cattle Industry Conference in Orlando the first week of August, and from there to USDA.

Operating Committee Meeting Under Way

The Beef Promotion Operating Meeting in Denver is just getting under way, beginning wtih a financial report from CBB Secretary/Treasurer Weldon Wynn and an Joint Evaluation Committee update from CBB Member Ted Greidanus of California, who chairs that committee.

Also on the agenda for the Operating Committee today, before a standing-room-only gallery, is discussion of budget recommendations for Fiscal 2012, as presented by the Joint Budget Committee, and formulation of an Operating Committee recommendation to send to the full Beef Board at the summer conference in Orlando in August.

See the post below for a complete agenda of today’s meeting, as well as information about tomorrow’s meeting of the CBB Executive Committee, and for minutes of past meetings of these committees, click on “committees” on the top left of this page and select a committee.

For a complete listing of committee members, visit Checkoff Committees on MyBeefCheckoff.com.

Operating, Exec Committees Meet June 15-16

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee and the Beef Board Executive Committee are scheduled to meet in Denver this week, with recommendations for a Fiscal Year 2012 Beef Board budget among the agenda items.

Current members of the two committees are listed at Committees on MyBeefCheckoff.com, under each committee title and description.

The Operating Committee will begin its meeting at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, at the Embassy Suites Denver International Airport Hotel. As a reminder, the Operating Committee is made of up 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils. It is chaired by Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones.

For an agenda of the Operating Committee meeting, visit OC Agenda 061511.

The CBB Executive Committee is slated to begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 16, at the same hotel in Denver. The Executive Committee is made of up 11 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and acts on behalf of the Board between meetings of the full Board.

This week, the CBB Executive Committee will start off by meeting with the members of the Executive Committee of the Federation of State Beef Councils to discuss common issues, including the CBB Executive Committee’s roles and responsibilities recommendations. Per agreement between leadership of the two committees, that portion of the meeting will involve only the producers who sit on those two committees – no staff or other participants.  

The CBB committee also will review the budget recommendation from the Operating Committee, as well as reviewing financial reports, state beef council marketing plans, and state and national checkoff requests for partnerships involving brand and/or trade-name references.

For an agenda of the Executive Committee meeting, visit EC Agenda 061611.

Evaluating Effectiveness of the Beef Checkoff

The Joint Evaluation Advisory Committee had an extremely productive meeting May 17 in Denver.

Special guest Richard Gebhart (pictured, right), who not only had a long career in evaluation of billions of dollars in military programs, but also teaches statistics at University of Tulsa and currently serves on the Operating Committee as a Federation representative, presented some valuable information about statistical processes in evaluation and outcome-based evaluation. 

Chaired by Beef Board member Ted Greidanus of California (pictured, left), the committee also had a thorough discussion about the future of the checkoff evaluation program and how the program could be improved, in both the long- and short-term.

Some of the meeting outcomes included:

• The committee will take a more active role in oversight of the evaluation program, including evaluation processes. The Evaluation Committee reaffirmed its purposes: To measure program effectiveness in accomplishing industry and program goals, objectives and strategies; and to provide information to producer leaders – most specifically the Operating Committee — that is valuable in making funding decisions that maximize efficient use of checkoff dollars.
• Evaluation should be ongoing, and not just happen once or twice a year.
• The evaluation program will work toward collecting more valuable evaluation data and developing a more useful method of reporting evaluation data.
• The committee will oversee establishment of data trends for programs. These should show measurable program results over time for programs that receive funding year-to-year. This means continuing programs should develop and track meaningful, outcome-based measures over time.
• The committee will oversee development of a visual tracking and reporting system for key program objectives and progress, as well as macro evaluation metrics. This is sometimes called a “dashboard.” Such a system should be updated regularly and viewable by producer leaders and decision-makers at any time.
• Each AR submitted in 2011 for consideration for 2012 funding should contain at least one outcome-based measurable objective, in addition to appropriate process-based objectives. The committee directed evaluation staff to work with contractors to ensure inclusion of these objectives. These will be reviewed by the committee prior to summer conference.
• The committee believes state beef councils provide valuable and important input into the evaluation process, and the evaluation program will continue to do the online, quantitative survey of beef councils annually, taking those data into account when further developing evaluation metrics. Staff is directed to solicit state beef council input about how each council evaluates funding requests as well as how each council evaluated program effectiveness. From that, staff will prepare a report for the committee to see if there are ideas at the state level that could be useful to the national program.

Checkoff Helping Out In Japan

During its meeting in Denver on March 24, and in a follow-up vote last week, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee approved an amendment to the 2011 foreign-marketing Authorization Request. The amendment allows for investment of $100,000 in checkoff funds to help provide U.S. beef to folks left hungry and homeless by the devastation in Japan. As with any checkoff program, this money will be provided on a cost-recovery basis only, and in line with the revised proposal – not as a cash donation; for details, visit Japan Relief Fund.

Operating Committee Looks At Helping In Japan

USMEF's Greg Hanes

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee is meeting in Denver this week, and the situation in Japan certainly is one of the things that came up in reviews of the checkoff program’s foreign-marketing efforts.

Greg Hanes (pictured) of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program, presented an overview of checkoff-funded promotion efforts worldwide to members of the Operating Committee — including 10 members each of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Federation of State Beef Councils. Among those promotions, funded in part by the beef checkoff, is the “Trust” campaign in Japan.

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan this month, USMEF has organized an multi-meat campaign as part of its promotion efforts in Japan, to help feed consumers in Japan who were injured, misplaced and left hungry and homeless by the devastation there.

The Pork Board has already contributed to the effort through its checkoff, and Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones, who also chairs the Operating Committee, and Federation Chairman David Dick brought a motion before the Operating Committee today to ask USMEF to present an amendment to their checkoff authorization for Fiscal Year 2011 to include a $100,000 contribution from the Beef Board’s program budget. Dick said the Federation would also contribute a matching $100,000 from its budget, for a total of $200,000 in checkoff support.

With unanimous committee support for that motion, USMEF will return as soon as possible with a proposed amendment for consideration regarding the CBB contribution. The funding for the CBB portion would come from funds released from Fiscal Year 2010 projects completed under budget.  USDA representative Craig Shackelford assured the measure would be in line with the Beef Act and Order, as long as it remained tied to the existing approved promotion program in Japan. For an update about repercussions of the situation in Japan, visit Devastation in Japan.

Meantime, the Operating Committee continues with reviews of Fiscal Year 2011 program, as well as discussion of funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2012, including a review of the priorities in the newly adopted Beef Industry Long Range Plan and reports from financial and evaluation program managers.

Talking Checkoff At Trade Shows

Beef Board member Woody Barth of North Dakota, left, and CBB Chairman Tom Jones of Arkansas, man the checkoff booth at the Farmers Union meeting in San Antonio on March 14, 2011.

We’re in the midst of a busy tradeshow season for the beef checkoff, which kicked off in January, when the Cattlemen’s Beef Board teamed with the Georgia Beef Board (GBB) to participate in the four-day American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) tradeshow in Atlanta. This year, the AFBF show was combined with the Ag Connect Expo – which drew more than 12,000 registrants from more than 60 countries, increasing AFBF booth traffic by about 5,000 people! At the checkoff booth, GBB Treasurer Gerald Long did an hour-long radio segment with Kyle Bauer of KFRM radio.

In February, the checkoff participated in the NCBA Trade Show at the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention, while March highlights include the National Farmers Union show in San Antonio, Texas, and the Dairy Farmers of America annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo.

Beef Board leadership, officers and staff participate in about 15 industry tradeshows throughout the year to help inform producers about how their checkoff dollars are invested and the results of those investments.

Communications is Key

Producers have great stories to tell. And when it comes to telling the checkoff stories, the producers who sit on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board are arguably the single most important distribution channel, if you will, for checkoff messages.

That’s at the heart of today’s “Producer Communications” focus of the New Members Orientation for incoming Beef Board members.

This is definitely a highly motivated and active group of producers, and this morning’s exercises in communicating the positive messages of checkoff results have sparked excellent discussion. They have a story to tell, and they’re going to tell it. What an asset to the Beef Checkoff Program!

New Beef Board Members Learning The Ropes

Newly appointed members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board have come to Denver from throughout the country to spend two days immersing themselves in the workings of the Beef Checkoff Program and the Beef Board’s role in it. (See the post below for a list of the new Beef Board members.)

The goal here is to help the new Board members feel more prepared and comfortable about processes and roles when they attend their first Cattle Industry Convention as Beef Board members – less than three weeks from now. 

The meeting began early this morning with a general overview of the meeting purpose and objectives, followed by an extensive organizational overview of of the checkoff program.

CBB Vice Chairman Tom Jones talked to the new Board members about their responsibility to represent the beef industry, in general, and CEO Tom Ramey talked about the history of the checkoff and the structure. Chief Financial Officer Katherin Ayers and Collections Compliance Director Courtney Kalous talked about financial and compliance processes. USDA Agricultural Marketing Specialist Craig Shackelford spoke to the new Board members by phone about the role of USDA in overseeing the checkoff.

It’s definitely a tall order for these new members to try to start getting their arms around such a complex program in just a couple of days, but their level of discussion illustrates their interest in gaining a clear understanding.

Federation of State Beef Councils Chairman Scott George, a dairy producer from Wyoming, and Barb Wilkinson, the Federation’s executive director of leadership development, gave new Board members an overview of the Federation and explained how it works in conjunction with the national checkoff program.  Next, new Board members got an opportunity to meet each of the CBB staff members and hear briefly about their individual responsibilities.  Ayers, along with Immediate Past CBB Chairman Lucinda Williams and Polly Ruhland, vice president of planning and evaluation for CBB, talked in detail about the planning and budgeting processes.

Next on the agenda are comments from the CBB officers, an overview of checkoff committees and programs and, to close out Day 1, a Q&A about the topics of the day. A little rest after that, and Day 2 will start bright and early tomorrow. Stay tuned.

For more about the checkoff structure and processes, visit www.MyBeefCheckoff.com.

New Beef Board Members Get Oriented

Newly appointed members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board will gather in Denver Jan. 13-14 for a New Member Orientation. On the agenda is an overview of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Beef Checkoff Program organization and program objectives, as well as information about the Federation of State Beef Councils, the planning, budgeting and evaluation processes, USDA oversight of the program, committee responsibilities, and spokesperson and resource information.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced 40 appointments to the Beef Board on Dec. 6, 2010, including 29 new appointments and 11 members who were reappointed to a second three-year term. 

Reappointed were: Weldon D. Wynn, Ark.; Manuel Rodrigues, Calif.; Harold A. Wick, Colo.; Dan D. Hinman, Idaho; Jeanne L. Harland, Ill.; William R. Frazee, Iowa; Paul L. Kent, Minn.; Brian C. Healey and Terry L. Detrick, Okla.; Daniel M. Kniffen, Pa.; and Charles L. Ezer, Texas. 

Newly appointed members representing cattle producers are: Eric L. Smith, Ala.; James I. Maxey, Calif.; James C. Lefils, Fla.; Donald E. Gurtner, Ind.; Kent E. Pruismann, Iowa; Brittany J. Howell and Steve J. Irsik, Kan.; Julianna G. Jepson, Ky.; Howard W. Hardecke and Brenda L. Black, Mo.; Leo R. McDonnell, Mont.; Albert T. Davis and David J. Wright, Neb.; Patricia J. Bikowsky, N.Y.; Elwood F. Barth, N.D.; Peter J. Guglielmino, Northwest Unit; Davis W. Denman, Ohio; Brett W. Morris, Okla.; Patricia A. Venable, Ore.; Vaughn R. Meyer, S.D.; Linda A. Crumley, Southeast Unit; Ronald T. Yeargin, Tenn.; Charles A. Kiker III, Anne I. Anderson, V. Anne Wirtz and Jackie M. Means, Texas; Joseph W. Guthrie, Va.; and Alvin R. Bartz, Wis. The newly appointed member representing importers is Lawrence I. Bryant, Va.�