The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (ODAFF) announced on Nov. 9, that the refundable Oklahoma Beef Checkoff referendum failed with 2,506 no votes and 1,998 yes votes.
“As a rancher, I face challenges every day,” said Weston Givens, rancher and president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association (OKA). “Unfortunately, those daily challenges are nothing compared to the growing challenges that our industry faces such as: aggressive anti-meat activist groups trying to remove beef from the menu and misleading claims about food safety and animal care. It is disheartening that the Oklahoma Beef Checkoff was defeated, but I’m still proud of the strong collaborative effort of the Vote Yes Coalition and our grassroots campaign.”
OKA Executive Vice President Michael Kelsey called the vote an unfortunate loss for the beef industry in Oklahoma, saying, “Investing in a state-level beef checkoff would have greatly increased the opportunities to market, promote and educate consumers about beef and beef producers. We ran a good campaign that worked hard to reach out and educate beef producers, but ultimately we were defeated today by the same out-of-state activists that defeated State Question 777 last fall.”
Voting was conducted by early ballot, between Oct. 2-20, and in-person voting on Nov. 1 at county extension offices. All ballots were received, tabulated, verified and sampled by a third-party auditor and delivered directly to the Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture, Jim Reese. Eligible voters included all Oklahoma beef producers and those who would be required to pay the $1 assessment.
Producers will still be required to pay the $1-per-head National Beef Checkoff. Of that, 50 cents of each dollar collected is sent directly to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB); the remaining money is allocated for state beef promotion efforts by the Oklahoma Beef Council board of directors.
If approved, collection of the additional dollar would have started May 1, 2018. The additional assessment would have been fully refundable if a request was made within 60 days of the dollar being collected.
Texas most recently adopted the state level checkoff in 2014 by two-thirds with 7,080 Texas producers voting.
In Montana, the beef checkoff is operating under a preliminary court injunction issued in June that challenged the legality of the checkoff and claimed it is “government speech.” As previously reported, funds must still be collected in Montana but the entire $1 must be forwarded to the CBB per the court ruling. Producers who want their half of the checkoff money to remain in the state must complete an “opt-in” form. According to the Montana Stockgrowers Association, as of last week, just over 1,300 producers had opted in. — WLJ
