Agricultural News
Concerns About NCBA Making Decisions on How Beef Checkoff Monies Are Spent Raised in Letter to USDA's Tom Vilsack
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:06:01 CDT
A coalition of ag organizations headed by the nation’s largest farm group has written to USDA expressing its “grave concerns” about a National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) governance plan’s impact on the national beef check-off. (The picture here is from San Antonio as the vote on the new structure for NCBA was being passed by delegates)
Colleague Stewart Doan with Agri-Pulse has worked this story and gives us the latest as this group of organizations, led by the American Farm Bureau, the National Farmers Union and the Livestock Marketing Association, have sent a four page letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack detailing their concerns about the policy side of NCBA getting even closer to the Checkoff or Federation side of the group. In the letter, the groups say they are strong supporters of the checkoff, but "We believe the new governance structure will move the check-off towards more exclusivity rather than inclusivity."
We have Stewart's report on today's Beef Buzz- as heard below- as well as comments from Steve Fogelsong, President of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association who we talked with exclusively on this subject at the TSCRA convention in Ft. Worth this past Saturday. Fogelsong is unhappy that the groups sent the letter to the USDA without talking privately with NCBA since the vote was taken in San Antonio on the new governance for the cattle organization. He believes that it is an internal matter and should not concern the groups that are crying foul. Fogelsong says that he will be in Washington this week, and plans on meeting with AFBF President Bob Stallman on this issue at that time.
Click here to read the full letter as written by the groups to USDA.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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