The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, granted an extension on the one-year deadline for gathering signatures of cattle producers who desire an up or down vote on the Beef Checkoff. With the added time, the signatures will be due Oct. 3, 2021.
The deadline was granted to granted the South Dakota Livestock Auction Markets Association and Steve Stratford of Kansas, who initiated the referendum in July of 2020.
Reva, South Dakota Angus and Red Angus producer Vaughn Meyer, who served on both the South Dakota Beef Industry Council and also the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, said that because of COVID challenges, he would have liked a longer extension, but he hopes all producers can be made aware of the petition.
The petition must be signed by a minimum of 10 percent of the number of cattle producers nationwide. According to USDA 2017 census data, 882,692 cattle producers exist, which means 88,269 eligible signatures will be needed on the petition in order to propel USDA to carry out a referendum (a vote on whether or not to continue the Beef Checkoff) of producers nationwide. A recent R-CALF USA news release said that online petition at http://www.checkoffvote.com has gathered about 18,790 thus far.
Meyer believes that the Beef Checkoff is outdated and is not serving the needs of the US cattle producer. “The Checkoff isn’t supposed to be used for lobbying purposes but it was always said that if we want changes, we need to get those changes…
