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Iowa considers state beef checkoff

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association is proposing a producer referendum that would reinstate a fifty-cent per head state beef checkoff in Iowa.  Iowa cattlemen had a checkoff in place in the 1970s, but it ended in the 80s.  Iowa Cattlemen’s Association Public Policy Director Justine Stevenson tells Brownfield that member support for such a checkoff is about 80 percent.

Iowa Cattlemen's Assoc. Public Policy Dir. Justine Stevenson at the Iowa Beef Expo, Des Moines, Feb. 16, 2016.“We’ve heard from our producers that promotion and marketing of the Iowa product, educating consumers and youth and working on international trade relationships are really important to building that Iowa brand,” said Stevenson in an interview with Brownfield Ag News in Des Moines this week.

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association is working with state legislators to put changes in place bringing the previous checkoff state code up to date. Stevenson says referendum voting will likely take place late this coming summer.

“Every producer that sold cattle within the last year would have access to a vote in that referendum,” said Stevenson.  “They would take place at the county level; either the extension office or the Farm Service Agency.”

Should it pass, a state beef checkoff would have no bearing on the current $1-per-head national Beef Checkoff.

Justine Stevenson (4 min. MP3)

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