DENVER — The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) announced this week that it plans to invest approximately $38.5 million in beef promotion and research programs which include consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2023.
The Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) approved checkoff funding for 13 grant proposals that will start on Oct. 1, 2023. The committee includes 10 producers from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 producers from the Federation of State Beef Councils.
Nine contractors and three subcontractors brought 14 Authorization Requests worth $48 million to the BPOC this week, nearly $9.5 million more than the funds available from the CBB budget.
“Producers are behind all the decisions that the BPOC makes during these meetings each September,” said Norman Voyles Jr., CBB and BPOC chair. “We carefully consider every Authorization Request to determine how to use Checkoff dollars to drive beef demand and provide producers with the best possible return on their Checkoff investments.”
CBB listed the following national beef organizations that will receive money from the budget:
- American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture – $900,000
- Cattlemen’s Beef Board – $1,850,000
- Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education – $450,000
- Meat Import Council of America / Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative – $550,000
- National Cattlemen’s Beef Association – $25,720,000
- National Institute for Animal Agriculture – $70,000
- North American Meat Institute – $360,000
- United States Cattlemen’s Association – $450,000
- United States Meat Export Federation – $8,200,000
CBB also detailed some of the areas in the beef industry that it plans to focus on in the coming year. The group will invest $9.4 million for promotion programs, including beef and veal campaigns focusing on beef’s nutritional value, eating experience, convenience, and production.
CBB said $9 million would go to research programs focusing on pre- and post-harvest beef safety, scientific affairs, nutrition, sustainability, product quality, culinary technical expertise, and consumer perceptions.
More than $7.4 million will focus on consumer information programs including a Northeast public relations initiative and national consumer public relations.
Industrial information programs will make around $2.6 million of the budget. Groups plan to use the money for “dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter misinformation from anti-beef groups and others, as well as funding for Checkoff participation in the annual national industrywide symposium about antibiotic use.”
About $8.2 million targeted foreign marketing and education in 90 countries and 13 regions.
Finally, $1.8 million will be earmarked for producer communication. This includes investor outreach with national communications and direct communications to producers and importers about checkoff results.
“As we expected, the proposals we reviewed this week were remarkably innovative, containing many thought-provoking ideas and concepts,” Voyles added. “Our challenge is balancing the budget while also distributing our limited amount of Checkoff dollars in a manner that we believe will best drive beef demand. I’d like to thank all our contractors and committee members for their hard work and careful consideration as we all work together to advance the entire beef industry.”
