PROMOTION CHECK-OFF DEBATE HEATS UP

By DON STONEMAN

It's turning into a hot time  in the meeting halls where
cattlemen gather this winter.
The heat gets generated when they talk about the checkoff
taken on sales at auction yards and at packing plants.
The province's producers are split on the issue,
depending on the type of operation that they run.
Under provincial law, a fee is levied on the sale of
every beef animal in the province. That fee goes into the
coffers of the Guelph-based Ontario Cattlemen's
Association (OCA). Part of it is used to run the
association's business - lobbying government and funding
research. The rest goes to help fund a national promotion
program under the auspices of the Beef Information
Centre, with most of the money going to advertising and
the rest split between the Canada Beef Export Federation
and the Beef Industry Research Council.
Every province in Canada kicks in a different amount to
the promotion fund. There' s a proposal afoot now for a
national promotion checkoff that would be separate from
the organization funding. It will be based on a flat fee
per head.
The OCA's fee is now based on a percentage of the value
of the animal, and while it pleases some beef producers
it makes others less than happy.
The OCA's take is calculated based on one-quarter of one
per cent of the animal's value, about $2.50 on $1,000
worth of cattle. A cow-calf operator marketing a calf for
$660 pays $1.65 in checkoff. A feedlot operator growing
out the same animal to 1,400 pounds and selling it for
$1,260 pays $3.15 in checkoff.
A national promotion checkoff would be based on a flat
rate of $1 a head. Making two calculations per lot of
cattle at sales barns is cumbersome, so the OCA wants to
change its checkoff to $2.50 per animal regardless of its
value.
This concept is widely accepted in western Ontario's
feedlot country but meets strong resistance among the
strong calf raising counties in the east. "We expected
that," says OCA president Harvey Graham, who raises
calves and finishes them at Blackstock, northeast of
Toronto. For several years feedlot operators have
proposed changing  the checkoff at the OCA's annual
meeting in Toronto. A strong cow-calf group rejects it.
Graham sympathizes with cow-calf producers. "They don't
want to pay more, especially in times of depressed calf
prices. At least this year they will find the stick of a
higher checkoff has been sweetened with a carrot.
Standardized promotional funding across the country means
that the federal government can levy  promotional
checkoff on imported beef as well. Graham says that based
on an animal equivalent formula, imports of high quality
and manufacturing beef will bring another $750,000 into
the Beef Information Centre promotional fund. Last year
BIC's budget stood at $5.5 million. Ontario's
contribution was $1.73 million. The total OCA budget from
checkoff was $2.68 million. Actual revenue came in a
little under that, Graham says.

The Canadian Beef Export Federation is extending its
probes into potentially profitable Asian Rim markets. 
Last month, it announced openings of its new market
representative offices in Seoul, South Korea, and Hong
Kong. The federation opened its first office in Tokyo,
Japan in 1990.
"In-country presentation is a vital requirement to
pursuing our export goals," says Jim Graham, Beef Export
Federation president. Graham is a past president of the
Canadian Cattlemen's Association, and the Alberta Cattle
Commission. Elected last year as president of the
federation, he runs a diverse farm and ranching operation
near Brooks, Alta.
Until now, Asian market development programs outside
Japan have been run from offices in Calgary. Ted Haney,
executive director, says the presence of officers in
Asian countries insures "that the Canadian beef and veal
agenda are put forward every working day of the year."
He says the federation is now in position to work towards
the goal of exporting 105 million kg, about $630 million
worth of Canadian beef and veal to Asia by the year 2000.
With last year's shipments, total exports were expected
to approach 12,000 tonnes, worth $72 million to Japan,
and 4,600 tonnes, worth $18 million to other Asian
countries.
The federation estimates this represents production from
100,000 beef cows. 
   

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