DENVER — The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) announced plans to invest approximately $38 million in various beef promotional activities during the fiscal year 2024.
The Beef Promotion Operating Committee (BPOC) approved checkoff funding for 12 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.
CBB plans to use the funding for beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communication.
“We’re consistently impressed with the proposals that our contractors bring forward each year, and choosing which initiatives to fund is a real challenge,” said Jimmy Taylor, chair of CBB and BPOC. “Our budget amounts to slightly less each year because of inflation. To put it in perspective, $1 in 1985 is worth just 35¢ today. That means we simply don’t have the buying power that we had when this program first started.”
Nine contractors and three subcontractors brought 15 authorization requests worth $49 million to the BPOC, nearly $11 million more than the funds available from the CBB budget.
“Our committee did a great job of balancing our budget and distributing our limited funds in what we believe is the most optimal way possible. I personally thank our contractors and committee members for all their hard work, and I look forward to future Checkoff successes throughout FY24,” Taylor added.
CBB listed the following national beef organizations that will receive money from the budget:
- American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture – $800,000
- Cattlemen’s Beef Board – $1,800,000
- Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education – $500,000
- Meat Import Council of America / Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative – $900,000
- National Cattlemen’s Beef Association – $25,405,000
- National Institute for Animal Agriculture – $60,000
- North American Meat Institute – $330,000
- United States Meat Export Federation – $8,150,000
The board also explained the other areas of the beef industry it will focus on during 2024.
CBB will finance around $9.3 million for promotion programs, including beef and veal campaigns focusing on beef’s nutritional value, eating experience, convenience and production. The group noted that $8.3 million would be for research programs focusing on pre- and post-harvest beef safety, scientific affairs, nutrition, sustainability, product quality, culinary technical expertise, and consumer perceptions.
More than $7.6 million will focus on consumer information programs including a Northeast public relations initiative and national consumer public relations. Around $8.2 million will target foreign marketing and education in 90 countries and 13 regions.
The last expenditure was $1.8 million earmarked for producer communication. This includes investor outreach with national communications and direct communications to producers and importers about checkoff results.
