The Federation of State Beef Councils is the national home of state beef councils and a division of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program. The Federation elected Jennifer Houston, a livestock market operator from Tennessee to serve as chair at their recent meeting during the 2015 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in San Antonio, Texas.

Houston previously served as the Federation’s vice chair. She grew up on a cattle and hog farm in West Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in animal science. She worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Tennessee prior to joining her husband in a family livestock market operation. Houston has been deeply involved in the beef checkoff at the state and national levels. She was appointed to the Tennessee Beef Industry Council when it was established in 1986, and served as the TBIC representative to the National Live Stock and Meat Board, a predecessor organization to NCBA.

As chair of the Federation, Houston will serve as vice chair of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC), which recommends beef checkoff projects funded at the national level. Hanson will also serve on that committee. Approval of BPOC-approved projects and budgets is required by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Steve Hanson, a cow-calf operator from Nebraska, was elected vice chair. Other Federation members of the BPOC for 2015 are Austin Brown III (Texas), Clay Burtrum (Oklahoma), Dawn Caldwell (Nebraska), Terri Carstensen (Iowa), Jerry Effertz (North Dakota), Cevin Jones (Idaho), Scott McGregor (Iowa) and Kristin Larson (Montana).