The Agriculture Department could ask for suggestions as early as this week on how to structure a new beef checkoff program, said an official at the largest U.S. farm group. The request for ideas would appear as a Federal Register notice, said Dale Moore of the American Farm Bureau Federation. AFBF is among 10 groups that have met informally over the past three years to discuss potential reforms to the $1 per head checkoff. The revisions would be coupled with a doubling of the checkoff.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a few weeks ago that USDA would act under its own authority to draft a separate beef checkoff because of disunity among livestock and farm groups over the research and promotion program. Groups such as the National Farmers Union say checkoff funds ought to go to independent contractors and that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association gets too large a share of the money.