Missouri’s Director of Agriculture thinks timing played a role in the failure of a proposed state beef checkoff, last month.
Cattle (photo courtesy; Aubrey Fletcher via Missouri Department of Agriculture)
Beef producers voted against a state $1-per-head checkoff on top of the $1-per-head checkoff already collected nationally. The state checkoff money would have gone to promotion and research to support Missouri’s beef industry.
State Ag Director Richard Fordyce says the vote came just as the cattle market took a steep drop.
“I think when the decision was made by the checkoff entity in Missouri, which is the Beef Industry Council … I think that they were thinking positively and I think they were thinking toward the future, and I don’t think at the time when they made that decision, I don’t think that was too aggressive,” said Fordyce.
He says a lot of cattle producers voted.
“It was a resounding defeat. I personally was disappointed, but I was actually reassured when you talk about the number of folks that had registered,” said Fordyce.
He says more than 6,000 Missouri cattle producers voted in that referendum.
Fordyce doesn’t expect another attempt to create a state beef checkoff in the near future.
Julie Harker, Brownfield Ag News, contributed to this story.