In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays speaks with Dr. Nancy Jackson, chair of the Federation of State Beef Councils, who explains the structure, purpose, and grassroots strength behind the Federation. Dr. Jackson, a Mississippi veterinarian and cattle producer, notes that many folks struggle to understand how the Federation fits within NCBA. As she puts it, “It is tough because as a Federation… we still have cattle producers as our base focus,” while NCBA separately manages the policy and lobbying work.

Dr. Jackson emphasizes that the Federation maintains its own identity even though it operates within NCBA’s building. “It is voluntary, the Federation—that’s why it’s called a Federation—is separate from NCBA,” she says. Each state with a Qualified State Beef Council invests checkoff dollars into the Federation, which she says helps “make a much stronger way of utilizing that checkoff dollar and leveraging it.” Hundreds of volunteers keep the system moving, with Jackson highlighting that “nationwide, there’s over 700 board members” serving on state beef councils.

One of Jackson’s major responsibilities as chair is serving on the Beef Operating Committee, the group that allocates the national 50 cents of each checkoff dollar. She calls it “the very hardest part” of her role, explaining that the committee’s 20 members—half from the Federation and half from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board—must make “the extreme difficult decision of how to budget for the national 50 cents.” She acknowledges the process can be confusing, but stresses that it is transparent and producer-driven.

Jackson is especially proud of how her home state of Mississippi has benefited from Federation-funded resources. She points to recipe photography, nutrition research, and educational toolkits, saying, “We don’t have a photographer or a communications person in our office, but as a member of the Federation, we have access to that.” She also highlights successful e-commerce beef promotions with national retailers, noting her state saw “a 56-to-1 return on our investment.”

When asked about critics who claim the checkoff is influenced by packers or controlled by NCBA, Dr. Jackson pushes back firmly. “We are transparent,” she says, referencing publicly available investor reports and third-party evaluations of return on investment. She often reminds producers of the value of export work alone, saying, “It’s almost $400 a return on export value, that’s huge, $400 per animal.” For Jackson, the grassroots, volunteer-driven nature of the Federation is the true picture of how checkoff dollars are handled.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

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