Jo Ann Smith of Wacahoota, Florida was presented with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s first-ever Beef Checkoff Visionary Award during the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention’s Opening General Session in Nashville, Tennessee. This honor recognizes an individual in the beef industry who has demonstrated exemplary support of and commitment to the Checkoff’s goals and vision.
“Jo Ann Smith has been a tireless advocate for the beef industry for decades,” said Hugh Sanburg, 2021 Chair of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). “When national trends and fad diets tarnished beef’s image in the late 1970s and early 1980s, demand fell sharply. That’s when Jo Ann and other beef industry stakeholders worked diligently to win approval for a national Beef Checkoff program. Without Jo Ann’s efforts, the beef industry might look very different today.”
More than 40 years ago, as cattle prices were plummeting, a group of cattlemen and ranchers came to Smith, asking how the beef industry could help itself and address flagging consumer demand. The question, “What could we accomplish with a national checkoff?” came up during those discussions.
“As a group, we tried to put together a program that would pass so we would have a checkoff,” Smith said. “That was our ultimate goal. We needed enough money to pull together as an industry and get beef’s message out because new consumers are out there every day – and it’s our responsibility to educate them about why they should choose beef.”
In 1986, Smith became the first chair of the newly formed Cattlemen’s Beef Board. Thanks to the strong foundation that Smith and others established during those early days, Beef Checkoff programs have diligently communicated beef’s great taste, value and nutrition to consumers here in the U.S. and around the world for 35 years.
“Jo Ann’s tenacity, hard work and leadership turned the dream of a Beef Checkoff into reality,” said Greg Hanes, CEO of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “She has truly been a trailblazer, and all of us in the beef industry are grateful for what she has accomplished – not just in her role with the CBB, but also with the many other local, state and national beef industry organizations she’s been involved with over the years. Truly, there’s no one more deserving of our first Checkoff Visionary Award.”
I’ve heard some producers say that they don’t know how their Checkoff dollars are spent. In fact, I heard one say that once they pay their money, “POOF, it just disappears.” Really? Well, they must not have looked very far or very hard.
The one-stop shop for everything Beef Checkoff is the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) website, DrivingDemandforBeef.com. Everything a producer needs to know about where their Checkoff dollars are invested is right there. This includes program proposals with budget summaries, program updates, board and committee information, and more. Producers can get even more program information by subscribing to The Drive, a complimentary quarterly publication.
Of course, the best way to get informed is to participate. There’s no substitute for getting involved and attending local and national meetings. In fact, this is the busiest time of year for planning/funding activities and meetings, and these will be on full display at the annual Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, TN, August 10-12. In addition to celebrating the Beef Checkoff’s 35th Anniversary, this gathering will focus on the proposed programs being considered for Checkoff funding for the upcoming fiscal year.
Here’s how the process works:
During the past months, a diverse group of contractors has been developing a wide range of project funding requests known as Authorization Requests (ARs). These ARs are based on strategies outlined in the current Beef Industry Long Range Plan.
The AR’s first stop is the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB), where a preliminary version of the proposal is reviewed and vetted. Next, the AR is forwarded to the appropriate Beef Checkoff Program Committee(s) for assessment at the Summer Business Meeting during the Cattle Industry Convention. There, the contractors present their proposals to the producer-led committee(s) and answers questions. Committee members score the AR and provide feedback, which the contractors use to revise and finalize their ARs before presenting to the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) in September.
Responsible for approving and funding Checkoff work each year, the 20-member, all-volunteer BPOC is one of the most important groups in the beef industry. Its producer and importer representation is evenly divided between state and national members: 10 from the CBB and 10 from the Federation of State Beef Councils. This group will meet September 9-10 in Denver to hear detailed presentations from all potential contractors and make final funding decisions.
It’s important to note that all of these meetings are open to all Checkoff-paying producers and importers, and provide great insight into how the whole Beef Checkoff program works and what your Checkoff dollars will be doing! It’s also important to know that producer and importer volunteers from around the country are calling the shots every step of the way — and laying it all out there plainly and publicly for fellow producers to see. The Beef Checkoff program has been and continues to be fully accountable, fully transparent, and fully available for producers to check out any time they want. So, POOF, there it is!
There are a lot of famous quotes about history. A great one by Teddy Roosevelt says: The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.
Today, there’s plenty of misinformation zooming around about the Beef Checkoff. To combat this, it’s important to prepare yourself and know the “ins & outs” of your producer-led program. Equally important is why it is the way it is and what got us here to begin with.
One authority on the what, why and how of the Beef Checkoff is Wayne Watkinson, legal counsel for the CBB and U.S. Dairy Export Council. Watkinson was instrumental in creating the country’s Checkoff programs. He helped draft the legislation that created the Beef Checkoff and has deep knowledge about the program’s rocky road to adoption.
Check out Wayne Watkinson’s “History of the Beef Checkoff”, a new CBB audio-video presentation that just may fill in some blanks when it comes to your Checkoff knowledge. Class dismissed!
Every year, eligible Beef Checkoff contractors submit program funding requests, called authorization requests or ARs, to the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC). But long before things get to that stage, they put on their thinking caps, brainstorm ways to drive demand for beef, and prepare their fledgling AR for the ride of its life. Oh, and here’s an interesting tidbit: if the contractor is already conducting a current-year AR, the proposal prep work and existing AR work happen at the same time! It’s a whole lot to juggle and shows contractors’ true dedication to producers and the industry!
Based on the current state of the beef industry, contractors create promotion, research, or education proposals (ARs) to drive demand for beef.
Contractors present draft ARs to the six Beef Checkoff producer committees, which, in turn, determine whether the ARs are aligned with strategies in the current Beef Industry Long Range Plan (LRP). The committees also offer feedback and “score” the ARs, giving contractors the chance to do some tweaking before their final submissions.
Comprised of producers with national and state perspectives—10 from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 from the Federation of State Beef Councils—the influential BPOC reviews each finalized AR to determine how it will impact demand. Then, it decides which ARs to approve, how much funding to grant, and submits a final budget to USDA.
Ensuring each AR program is effective happens through evaluation reporting throughout the year. Results and feedback are communicated to producer committees to guarantee dollars are being spent efficiently and lawfully.
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Oklahoma Beef Council have collaborated on a series of entertaining videos that explains how the Beef Checkoff works. Each of the five videos is designed to be a resource that will help cattle producers and other members of the beef community better understand the program and how their Checkoff dollars are used to drive demand for beef through promotion, education, and research efforts.
“We want cattlemen to have a sound understanding of their Beef Checkoff program, and we’ve created these videos to help reach that goal,” said Heather Buckmaster, Oklahoma Beef Council Executive Director “We hope all cattlemen will take a moment to watch these videos and then share them with others in the beef community.”
The short, animated videos explain the somewhat complex Checkoff system in a simple way. They present facts about how the Beef Checkoff works, what the program does, who decides what projects the Checkoff funds, and answer key questions producers often ask about their Beef Checkoff dollars.
“These videos are proof that Checkoff education can be fun and entertaining,” said Libby Stauder, Checkoff Communications & Education Manager at the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “Plus, we’re so excited to have broadcast legend Ron Hays as the voice of the project. It really was a great collaborative effort, and we look forward to rolling these out across the country so that producers and importers everywhere can better understand their Beef Checkoff program.”
What Does the Beef Checkoff Do?
Key Questions About the Beef Checkoff
How Does the Beef Checkoff Work?
Cattle producers are not people who sit around and wait for things to happen. They want action and are the first to roll up their sleeves and get down to business. In fact, that’s just what they did decades ago as they searched for a better way to promote their product. Their hard work and tenacity resulted in the Beef Checkoff.
While the Beef Checkoff was created under the Beef Promotion & Research Act, part of the 1985 Farm Bill, it didn’t take effect until 1986, when the Beef Promotion & Research Order was issued, and collection of the Checkoff dollar began. This year marks the Checkoff’s 35th anniversary.
Since 1986, the producer-led program has rolled up a lot of sleeves to shape the industry through Checkoff-funded promotion, research, and education initiatives. In a mere three and a half decades, it has covered a lot of ground to help keep beef the protein of choice among consumers, creating a breadth and depth of work worth noting, including these highlights:
Even from just these examples, it’s easy to see how the producers steering the Beef Checkoff meant business from Day One. So, during this special anniversary, it’s important to give a tip of the hat and hoist a glass to the hard-working men and women who have rolled up their sleeves.
Here’s to the Beef Checkoff contractors, who research, educate, and promote on the many benefits of beef. And here’s to the producers who are at the center of it all each and every day. The folks who raise a product worthy of such promotion and who pay into the program and support it with their time, energy, and ideas. They continue to be what makes the Beef Checkoff tick after all these years.
Beef. It seems like the kind of commodity that would be simple, straightforward, easy to understand. Except…it’s not. The industry’s long history of organizational splits, reinventions, mergers and aliases — along with the fact that many association names sound similar — is enough to make anybody’s head spin. Even folks from other commodities agree that the beef world is complex, and so is its Checkoff.
For three-and-a-half decades the Beef Checkoff has existed to promote beef, but unless you are actively engaged in the program, you may not fully understand its management and oversight. Those duties are clearly assigned to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion & Research Board (aka, Cattlemen’s Beef Board/CBB) by the Beef Promotion and Research Act. Even with completely separate boards, staffs and offices, two common misperceptions remain: the belief that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) oversees the Checkoff — and that CBB and NCBA are one and the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The 1985 Farm Bill created the CBB to administer the Beef Checkoff program. Through the dollar-a-head assessment on the sale of all cattle and equivalent amount on imported beef and beef products, each year the CBB funds promotion, research and education proposals presented to the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) by established, national, non-profit beef or cattle industry-governed organizations. Once a proposal is approved by the BPOC, the organization becomes a Checkoff “contractor” and conducts the work according to guidelines and program evaluations that ensure proposal objectives are met.
By law, absolutely no Checkoff funds can be used for policy or lobbying efforts. That said, the Beef Checkoff’s largest contractor, NCBA, does have a policy division. So, how does that work? Through closely monitored processes and a “firewall” that keeps policy work and Checkoff-funded work separate.
As a trade association representing U.S. cattle producers, NCBA is like a coin with two sides. One side, the Policy Division, works to advance the political interests of its members. Any discussion of NCBA and policy is valid, but that’s NCBA’s Policy Division at play and has nothing to do with the CBB or Checkoff.
The other side of NCBA is qualified to contract with the BPOC to conduct Checkoff promotion, research and education work as an established, national, non-profit beef or cattle industry governed organization. To be clear, it is not the organization’s policy side that competes in this arena.
Just like any other Checkoff contractor, NCBA must adhere to all rules and processes, and its contract work is managed by the CBB. Each year, it must submit Authorization Requests (program proposals) that fully outline the project work it wants to do. It must file progress reports, quarterly oversight evaluations and regular reviews. It can only receive Checkoff dollars on a cost-recovery basis, which means it pays expenses up front and is only reimbursed after the CBB reviews invoices and documentation proving the money was spent appropriately and within the parameters of the Authorization Request. A dedicated compliance officer ensures all provisions of the Act and the Order are followed, that the “firewall” is maintained and that no Checkoff funds are used for policy or lobbying.
For the current fiscal year, the Beef Checkoff has nine contractors:
So, in a nutshell, the CBB oversees operation of the Beef Checkoff and its contractors, including NCBA. The “beef world” is definitely not uncomplicated, but each organization that does Beef Checkoff-funded work on behalf of producers has a unique area of expertise. In the end, it all contributes to a great big, coordinated effort to drive demand for beef.
*Denotes organization with separate policy division; however, no Beef Checkoff funds support policy or lobbying efforts
On February 3-5, cattlemen and women from across the U.S. gathered for the 2021 Cattle Industry Winter Business Meetings, held virtually this year. Here, the cattle industry discussed current issues as a group and reviewed how the Beef Checkoff will adjust messaging and programs over the past several months to follow the newly adopted 2021-2025 Beef Industry Long Range Plan.
Beef Checkoff committee members from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Federation of State Beef Councils in each of the six different program committees – Consumer Trust, Domestic Marketing, International Marketing, Nutrition and Health, Safety and Product Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement – heard presentations during the Checkoff Highlight Session. These presentations explained how programs, research and education have creatively changed to drive beef demand.
A video of the full presentation can be viewed below.
