Agricultural News
NCBA's Colin Woodall Pushes Back on OCM's False, Inflammatory Claims Regarding Checkoff Funding
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 11:51:14 CDT
The new Chief Executive Officer of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and longtime lobbyist for the organization, Colin Woodall, made one of his first actions as CEO this past week in his decision to push back on derogatory claims against NCBA by the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM).
"The OCM is a fringe group that is supported by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). They go around saying they represent producers and talk about what they do for producers," Woodall said. "But what everybody needs to understand is that OCM and HSUS do not have the best interests of producers at heart. They never have and they never will. OCM's CEO, a guy by the name of Joe Maxwell, used to work for HSUS. He's not a producer and he is somebody who spends his time now, funded with HSUS dollars, attacking NCBA."
According to Woodall, OCM this past week issued a press release alleging that NCBA "granted" itself $27 million in Checkoff funds. Woodall refuted those claims in a press release of his own, clarifying that the funds in which OCM was referring to were actually appropriated by the producer leaders that serve on the Beef Checkoff Operating Committee, which published its budget for the coming fiscal year. As a legitimate contractor to the Checkoff, NCBA was awarded operational expenses by the Checkoff to fund committee approved projects on the Checkoff's behalf and for the good and further advancement of the US beef industry.
"It's just a great example of where OCM knows nothing about our industry. They know nothing about the Checkoff. But they are doing HSUS' bidding in trying to take down NCBA and take down our industry. They know they can't do it in one big piece of legislation in Washington, DC. So, the other way to do it is piece by piece and that is exactly what they are trying to accomplish, trying to get producers to fight with each other. They are just using this as another opportunity to try to tear us all down," he said. "That's why we felt we needed to step up and start saying something because we have not pushed back against OCM near enough. We are going to change that, and we started that with our press release."
Listen to Woodall refute OCM's claims regarding the recent Checkoff funding awarded to NCBA on today's Beef Buzz with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is 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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