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Judge rejects R-CALF’s claims in beef checkoff lawsuit

A district court judge in Montana has turned down a request by cattle group R-CALF for an injunction to stop 15 state beef councils from collecting checkoff dollars.

It’s a legal battle that has spanned more than three years.

There were several layers to R-CALF’s lawsuit. One of its main arguments was that checkoff funds should not be used to fund advertising and other programs that not all cattle producers agree with. They also expressed concerns about oversight of state beef councils and with checkoff dollars being sent to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to fund that group’s Federation of State Beef Councils.

NCBA calls the court decision “a major victory” for the beef checkoff program and the state beef councils targeted in the lawsuit.