The Beef Promotion Operating Committee has recommended a $42 million Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget for Fiscal 2012, reflecting a 2.1 percent decrease from the Fiscal 2011 budget and down more than 20 percent from 2007.
The 2012 budget recommendation still must be approved by the full Beef Board, which administers the national checkoff program, and by USDA. As recommended by the Operating Committee on June 15, the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2011 includes:
- $17.8 million for promotion, including advertising, foodservice, retail and veal promotion, and new-product development.
- $5.8 million for research programs, including beef safety, product enhancement, nutrition research, and market research.
- $4.4 million for consumer information programs, which includes consumer public relations and information, outreach to nutrition influencers, and the “Telling the Beef Story” initiative.
- $3.1 million for industry information programs, including beef and veal quality assurance and issues management.
- $6.4 million for foreign marketing, including promotion and public-relations programs around the globe.
- $1.8 million for producer communications, including trade advertising, media relations, and direct communications to producers about the results of their checkoff investments.
- $225,000 for evaluation of checkoff programs.
- $180,000 for program development.
- $250,000 for USDA oversight.
- $2 million for administration, which includes costs for Board meetings, legal fees, travel costs, office rental, supplies, equipment, and administrative staff compensation.
“Once again, we’re looking at doing more with less next year,” said Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones, a producer from Arkansas who also chairs the Operating Committee. “We really depend on our evaluation process to help us make some decisions about which programs are most effective and which may be less so. But we’re to the point where we are being forced to make some tough decisions about which effective programs to trim back yet again.”
