USDA won’t proceed with its proposal for a new and separate beef checkoff program, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in DTN interview, acceding to congressional opposition. Vilsack said, perhaps tongue in cheek, “That’s the first time in three years they (the beef industry) have agreed on anything.” He proposed the new checkoff when informal discussions over reforms to the current $1-a-head program bogged down. Lawmakers included language in the $1 trillion government funding bill telling USDA not to create the checkoff.
Unresolved is the deadlock over modernizing the current checkoff. Income is down because of the decline in cattle numbers. A proposal to double the checkoff was tied up with calls to prevent advocacy groups from carrying out research and market promotion work funded by the checkoff. At present, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association gets the lion’s share of the funds. The checkoff generates about $80 million a year.