PRODUCERS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR CHECKOFF

DENVER (August 3,1998) – Beef producers have a right to know how their checkoff dollars are being spent and suggestions that checkoff dollars can’t be used to inform producers about their program are ridiculous, said a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Executive Committee.

"A recent survey of producers indicates that four out of 10 know little or nothing about the program," said Merlyn Carlson, a Lodgepole, Nebr., beef producer. "So we are taking steps to fulfill our moral and legal obligation to provide information to checkoff payers."

Carlson, who is a former National Cattlemen’s Association president and a former Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) vice chairman, said producers wrestled with the tough decision about whether to restore producer communications funding levels.

"We are producers, too. We are listening to producers and they are telling us at meetings, on the phone and, now, in producer attitude research, that they don’t know enough about how their checkoff dollars are being spent.

"But producers have worked together to develop an industry plan that calls for us to turn around beef’s sliding demand by 2001. We can’t do that without checkoff dollars. It’s in the best interest of future generations of beef producers that the checkoff works. And producers want to know that it is working," Carlson said.

Carlson’s comments came in response to a Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) release critical of CBB and NCBA decisions to step up producer communications. Both CBB and NCBA boards, during the Beef Industry Summer Conference held in Denver July 16-19, discussed and approved increased spending to provide beef producers with information about the checkoff. The plan includes $968,000 from NCBA non-checkoff reserves for stepped up communications and research, to better understand producer concerns and information needs, and $1.935 million from the Beef Board for producer communications during the remainder of this fiscal year and into next year. In addition to seven separate producer board and committee approvals, the checkoff-funded portion of the plan also required USDA approval. USDA last week approved the plan despite LMA objections.

"Let’s put things in context. Tough times heighten producer concern for how their checkoff dollars are spent," Carlson added, "but if not for the checkoff, I believe we would be faced with even lower prices and more rapidly declining demand. I don’t think producers blame the checkoff for market conditions created by oversupply and drought."

Carlson believes much of the criticism aimed at the checkoff is based on misinformation or a lack of information. He said producer communications budgets were slashed several years ago because "we thought we were preaching to the choir. We thought producers knew all they wanted to know about the checkoff and their dollars could be better spent elsewhere. That decision, in hindsight, was wrong. It created an information vacuum. Our action last month simply reinstated producer communications to previous levels.

"I call it the Four R Plan," Carlson said, "which stands for ‘restoring the responsibility of reporting results’ and that’s no more than we are morally and legally obligated to do."

Carlson wonders why LMA apparently would prefer to have checkoff-funded producer communications programs shut down. "Producers have a right to know how their checkoff dollars are being invested," he noted. "I can’t believe that LMA would want producers to remain uninformed."

The Beef Promotion and Research Act was part of the 1985 Farm Bill, and requires cattle producers to contribute $1 per head for promotion and research programs to improve the marketing environment for beef. The program was approved by 79 percent of beef producers in a 1988 national referendum.

Producer communications programs are funded through the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Beef Board. This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Initiated in 1898, NCBA is the marketing organization and trade association for America’s one million cattle ranchers and farmers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.

— NCBA —