2004 News Archive
Beef Checkoff Wins Creative Excellence Award from Farm Broadcasters
During its 2004 Annual Meeting in Kansas City on Nov. 18, the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) honored the Beef Checkoff Program for excellence in advertising when it named the checkoff the first recipient of the Plambeck Award for Creative Excellence in a producer-directed radio advertising series.
The advertising campaign chosen for the Plambeck Award was specifically praised for its efforts to educate and inform beef producers about their checkoff-funded efforts to reassure consumer audiences about the safety of the American beef supply. The producer communications radio ads ran in November and December 2003 in the upper Midwest. They were part of a larger producer communications informational campaign that also included agricultural print publications and TV.
Cattlemen’s Beef Board Chairman Nelson Curry, a cattle producer from Kentucky, accepted the award from NAFB President Jeff Nalley, farm director for Cromwell Ag Radio Network based in Owensboro, Ky.
"I want to thank my fellow beef and dairy producers across the country, who pay the checkoff and make all of our promotion, research and communications programs possible," Curry said. "Certainly we don’t develop these programs to win awards, but this type of recognition helps assure us that we are on the right track.
"I also want to thank the farm broadcasters who help spread the news about the great work that is being done through the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, which administers the Beef Checkoff Program, as well as the Board’s contractors, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and Osborn and Barr Communications, who worked together to build this particular producer communications campaign," he added.
The Plambeck Award for Creative Excellence is named for Herb Plambeck, longtime farm broadcaster with WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa, and a member of the NAFB Hall of Fame. His widow, Laura Plambeck, was in attendance when NAFB presented the award.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval. The checkoff assessment became mandatory when the program was approved by 79 percent of producers in a 1988 national referendum vote. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the NCBA is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.