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Legislators urge Vilsack for Beef Checkoff reform

More 130 state legislators sent a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Monday calling for referendum of the National Beef Checkoff program. The program takes $1 per every head of cattle sold to promote beef. But R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard tells Brownfield the checkoff’s current marketing is flawed.

“The checkoff program is marketing exclusive USA beef in foreign markets, but they are denying the opportunity for U.S. cattle producers to do the same in the single largest beef consuming market in the world and that’s right here in the United States of America,” he said.

Bullard said there is a growing concern that producers have not been able to vote on issues regarding the federally mandated program for the last 35 years.

“We’re grateful that so many state legislatures, bipartisan legislatures from 11 states, have joined in the effort to get the Secretary of Agriculture to actually give producers the right to vote on whether they want this 35-year-old Beef Checkoff program to continue,” Bullard said.

The letter includes representatives from Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming, Georgia, Utah, Arkansas, North Dakota, California and Missouri.