The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced July 1 that it will be adding two new domestic cattle producer members to the Beef Promotion and Research Board and reapportioning representation to reflect shifts in cattle inventory levels.
Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin have each gained one member, while Alabama and Georgia will become stand-alone states. The Southeast Unit, which was formerly made up of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, will be dissolved, and South Carolina will be added to the Mid-Atlantic Unit with West Virginia.
Maryland will move from the Mid-Atlantic Unit to the Northeast Unit with Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont. In order to be represented on the board, states or units are required to have 500,000 head of cattle, the USDA said in a release.
The board, which oversees about $42 million in annual checkoff assessments from a dollar-per-head collected on every head of cattle sold or imported into the U.S., is required by the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 to review the geographic distribution of U.S. cattle inventories and reapportion board membership accordingly. The process is supposed to happen at least every three years, but not more than every two years. The last board reapportionment happened in 2017.
The changes will go into effect on July 31.
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