Perspective

By Michael Kelsey

 

 

The 2007 Nebraska Cattlemen Annual Convention was a great success! Attendance and participation were excellent! Over 500 beef producers attended the event. Jay Wolf, NC immediate past president, put it best when he said, “There is no event that a cattleman can attend where he will receive more information about his business and industry than the NC Annual Convention.”

All six of NC’s policy committees and each of the four councils took time to discuss important issues relevant to their committee. In the general business meeting, members debated and voted on policies and resolutions forwarded from each of the committees. The sheer number of policies and resolutions that each committee considered illustrates just how active and broad NC is as an association. Here is a quick glimpse of each committee’s work:

         Animal Health and Nutrition – 12

   Brand – 10

   Education – 10

   Marketing and Commerce – 17

   Taxation – 15

By my cowboy math, there were 84 policy and resolution statements that NC membership debated and voted on during the convention. You can easily see that NC is a multi-issue organization dedicated to addressing all issues that affect beef producers.

While NC members discussed many important issues at convention, the beef checkoff took center stage in the Marketing and Commerce Committee as well as several council meetings. After lengthy discussion and debate, they passed the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Beef Checkoff Program has for twenty years planned, carried out and evaluated effective and successful beef demand building strategies; and

WHEREAS, the Beef Checkoff Program is consistently supported by more than 70% of beef producers; and

WHEREAS, there has been no modifications to the Beef Act and/or Order since the program was adopted in 1986; and

WHEREAS, Nebraska Cattlemen have consistently supported the Beef Checkoff Program including serving as intervener in the USDA v. LMA Checkoff lawsuit in which the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Beef Checkoff Program is constitutional.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, Nebraska Cattlemen supports the following modifications to the Beef Checkoff Program:

1. Any reference to the charter date of an established national non-profit industry governed organization should be eliminated.

2. There should be a validation process to provide beef producers the opportunity to petition for a referendum on continuing the Beef Checkoff Program.

3. There should be a process to provide beef producers the opportunity to petition for a referendum on increasing the Beef Checkoff.

4. The Act and Order should be modified to allow checkoff dollars to promote U.S. beef.

 The most important characteristic of this resolution is not the wording or actual topic that it addresses, but the philosophy it conveys. Simply put, producers should be in control of any changes, specifically an increase, to the beef checkoff. It may be accurately stated that producers are in control of how checkoff dollars are spent. Both at the state and national levels, producers make the decisions regarding checkoff spending priorities and the programs that are funded.

Most producers are aware of the discussion about increasing the checkoff. What has been absent in the discussion, though, is fundamentally addressed by this resolution. The discussion regarding an increase to the checkoff should center on who makes the decision to increase it and how that should be done. Popular strategy and thinking would indicate that our industry should lobby congress to change the section regarding collections in the Beef Act from $1 to $2. However, creating a process where producers drive the increase through a petition and referendum process is long-term positive. With this strategy, producers decide when, producers decide how much and, well, producers decide, period.

Let’s be honest. The discussion of an increase will always be on the horizon. Inflation has a mean habit of eroding buying power. Additionally, we may decide our industry needs more resources to combat a problem or address an issue. Going to Congress each time to request an increase would be burdensome, costly and unpredictable. (Don’t forget that when an Act is opened, everyone, including those interests diabolically opposed to our own, have opportunity to influence modifications.)

 

The next step for this new policy will be taken in February when NC carries it to the Cattle Industry Annual Convention in Reno, Nev. NC leadership will work to influence NCBA’s checkoff policy to be similar. Like our own convention, that event will be addressing multiple issues, so we must be on top of our game to have Nebraska representation in each discussion. I know that will not be difficult, though. … Our convention has prepared us! Y Michael Kelsey is NC’s executive vice president.