The Cattlemen’s Beef Board has slated about $42 million for programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications in 2016.  This budget is still pending approval by the USDA and the full Beef Board.

“Tremendous efforts go into making decisions about responsible investment of producers’ and importers’ hard-earned dollars into checkoff programs that produce results for its investors,” said Beef Board and Operating Committee Chairman Jimmy Maxey, a cattle producer from California.

“This committee spent a full day listening to proposals for checkoff funding from numerous potential beef-industry contractors, then engaged in extensive discussions before making important decisions about how we invest this industry’s checkoff dollars,” Maxey said. “After members of the Beef Board and Federation of State Beef Councils worked over months to help develop efficient programs for fiscal 2016, it’s always a challenge to cut back some of those viable programs to meet our budget challenges, but I feel confident that the plan of work we created for fiscal 2016 will put us in a position to continue increasing consumer confidence in and preference for beef over other protein options.” Cuts from contractor proposals to meet budget requirements totaled $696,200.

In the end, the Operating Committee approved proposals from seven national beef organizations for funding through the FY16 Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget.