The U.S Beef Check-Off Program was started in 1986 as a producer funded marketing and research program that assesses one-dollar per beef animal at the time the animal is sold, but with today’s smaller cow herd, there simply isn’t as much money being raised.Add female calves being held back to rebuild the herd, and check-off revenue continues to be impacted negatively. Last year Texas beef producers created a check-off of their own that so far has been embraced overwhelmingly. Richard Wortham is Executive Vice President of the Texas Beef Council.
“If producers don’t want to invest money into their product, whether it’s beef or cattle, nobody else is going to do that, and that’s what the check off has been able to do for more than twenty-eight years. Right now there are fourteen other states that have an additional state checkoff, and there are probably four or five that are looking at it.”
Wortham points out that producers who don’t want to participate can ask for a refund.
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