Beef Council Directors Approve Budget and Elect Officers for FY2017

PIERRE, SD - The South Dakota Beef Industry Council (SDBIC) board of directors held the organization’s annual meeting Sat., Sept. 17 on the South Dakota State University (SDSU) campus. Directors approved a $3.39 million budget for fiscal year 2017.

The SDBIC is responsible to collect and administer the $1 beef checkoff on all cattle sold in South Dakota. The beef council is required to direct $0.50 of every dollar to the Cattleman’s Beef Board for national programs. On both the national and state level, Checkoff funds are used strictly for promotion, research and education.

The SDBIC board of directors set the FY2017 budget to include the following:

• Research -  $91,252 which includes ongoing and new projects with SDSU
  
• Promotion - $344,020 which will fund a number of projects including a wide variety of promotional events; print, radio, online and social media marketing; and out-of-state projects hosted by Northeast Region of the United States.
  
• Consumer Information - $259,159 which will fund American Heart Association events, foodservice and retail programs, Team BEEF, and health and nutrition influencers programming.
  
• Industry Information and Producer Communications - $112,454 which includes the Beef 2020 program, Beef Crawls, Farm Tours and outreach to checkoff investors.
  

The SDBIC will send approximately $1.4 million to Cattlemen’s Beef Board in 2017, $322,712 to the Federation of State Beef Councils with $117,200 designated for the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) to focus on increasing global beef demand.

Directors also elected officers. Wayne Tupper (Kimball, SD), President; Eric Sumption (Frederick, SD), Vice President; Laurie Johnson (South Shore, SD), Treasurer, will all serve a second year in their respective offices. Gary Deering (Hereford, SD) and Laurie Johnson (South Shore, SD) were elected to serve as directors for the Federation of State Beef Councils, joining Scott Jones (Midland, SD), and Becky Walth (Glenham, SD) who continue their terms. Mike Gebhart (Meadow, SD) was elected as a representative to USMEF. Wayne Tupper and John Symens (Amherst,SD) will continue as USMEF representatives.