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Cattlemen's Beef Board Approves 2020 Checkoff Work Plan
USAgNet - 09/17/2019

The Cattlemen's Beef Board will invest approximately $40.9 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2020, subject to USDA approval.

In action at the end of its meeting in Denver, Colo., the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) approved checkoff funding for a total of 15 "Authorization Requests" -- or grant proposals -- brought by seven contractors for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The committee, which includes 10 producers from the Cattlemen's Beef Board and 10 producers from the Federation of State Beef Councils, also recommended full Cattlemen's Beef Board approval of a budget amendment to reflect the split of funding between budget categories affected by their decisions

The seven contractors brought a total of $50,766,964 million worth of funding requests to the BPOC this week, nearly $10 million more than the funds available from the CBB budget

"The BPOC is completely producer-driven. We have cattlemen and women from all over the U.S. as well as importers deciding where these checkoff dollars need to be spent," said Cattlemen's Beef Board and BPOC Chairman Chuck Coffey, Davis, Okla.

"It's always great to hear about the programs and projects proposed by our contractors to utilize our checkoff dollars, yet on the other side, an equally diffcult decision to balance the budget and distribute those dollars according to where we believe will be most useful for driving beef demand."

The full fiscal 2020 Cattlemen's Beef Board budget is approximately $44.5 million. Separate from the authorization requests, other expenses funded include $227,000 for program evaluation; $474,500 for program development; $800,000 for USDA oversight, which includes $400,000 for AMS oversight and $400,000 for CBB's legal and compliance; and $2.1 million for CBB administration. The fiscal 2020 budget represents an increase of $614,600 from the $43.9 million FY19 budget.

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