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February 2, 2001

Checkoff:
'Small investment, big results'

An attempt by the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) to force a referendum on the Beef Promotion and Research Act, more commonly known as the beef checkoff, has failed, according to the Agriculture Department.

According to USDA, 107,883 producers, or 10 percent of all cattle producers in the United States, needed to sign the LMA petition for a referendum to be called.

The accounting firm Price-Waterhouse Coopers estimates no more than 83,464 votes of the 127,927 actual signatures on the petition were valid.

"Texas beef producers should breathe a collective sigh of relief," said Texas Farm Bureau president Donald Patman. "The beef checkoff is working and is a small investment per producer that is producing big results."

Patman, who raises cattle and farms near Waxahachie, noted that the checkoff is designed to increase demand for beef.

"It's doing the job," he said. "We've had a turnaround in consumption the last two years. In fact, beef consumption is up 5 percent over last year."

The president of the state's largest farm organization noted different checkoff-supported programs that are benefitting cattlemen.

Perhaps the most important factor in increased demand is that checkoff dollars have been spent to develop new "heat and eat" beef products, he said.

"Mom comes home from work, pops a beef dish in the microwave and dinner's ready in 10 minutes," Patman said. "These convenient products weren't available two years ago."

Research efforts have also produced great results for beef as it relates to food safety and nutrition. In addition, checkoff dollars are used to promote beef in foreign markets.

"The lack of support for a referendum is testimony that beef cattle producers know a good, self-help program when they see one," Patman said. "Continued efforts as a result of the Beef Promotion and Research Act demonstrate our ability to move the demand for beef in a positive direction."

'Beef Express' makes debut

The Texas Beef Council (TBC) launched the industry's first mobile consumer outreach program designed to promote new, fully-cooked beef products at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth on Jan. 25. Called the Beef Express, the customized 24-foot Winnebago looks like a giant microwave and is equipped with cooking appliances to prepare large numbers of beef samples for Texas consumers.

The Beef Express, a beef checkoff-funded project, was developed by TBC to help continue to increase beef demand by showcasing convenient new products at large consumer events across the state. Many of these microwaveable products add value to chuck and round cuts, both of which have decreased in value by an average of 22 percent over the last seven years but have increased since introduction of the industry's many new products.

"The Beef Express is mobile, and will go to at least five consumer events in Texas starting with Fort Worth," said Hope Huffman, a McGregor beef producer who serves on TBC's board of directors. "Each event will be located in a major Texas city, so hundreds of thousands of consumers will sample our many new products in this year alone."

Besides offering samples of convenient, heat-and-serve beef items, the Beef Express also will serve as a beef information center for consumers. They will be guided to TBC's website, www.txbeef.org, for recipe ideas. They also will receive coupons that can be redeemed for the convenient beef products as well as recipe brochures.

In addition to the Fort Worth Livestock Show, the Beef Express has confirmed stops at: San Antonio-area H-E-B stores, Feb. 6-8; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Feb. 13 to March 4; Visions for Women Show, Sept. 11-12 in Dallas; and the State Fair of Texas, Sept. 28-Oct. 21, also in Dallas. Texas beef producers, who funded the Beef Express with their beef checkoff investments, can see how it operates at the livestock shows or at the annual conventions of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Feb. 1-3, in San Antonio, and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, March 25-28, in Austin.

Pork checkoff gets reprieve

A U.S. District Court in Western Michigan has granted the National Pork Producers Council and other plaintiffs a temporary restraining order prohibiting the U.S. Department of Agriculture from publishing a final rule to end the pork checkoff program.

On Jan. 11, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman ordered the pork checkoff terminated after a referendum of pork producers voted against it. The pork checkoff program requires farmers to pay 45 cents for every $100 worth of hog sales into a fund administered by the National Pork Board.

In accordance with the court order, the Pork Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Order is still in effect and pork producers and importers must continue to pay checkoff assessments.

"People say, 'Well, gosh, the election was so close, nothing will happen, except for finger pointing and name calling and bitterness.' I'm here to tell the country that things will get done, that we're going to rise above expectations, that both Republicans and Democrats will come together to do what's right for America."

—President George W. Bush, in remarks at a congressional luncheon shortly following his swearing in. So what was one of his first actions? He suspended a round of last-minute executive orders from his predecessor, blocking the Federal Register from printing new rules—a step required for rules to be put in place.