Oklahoma Farm Report: Bill Bullard Explains the Injunction in Place Against Montana Beef Council Which Could be Expanded to Cover Other State Beef Councils
R-CALF USA is expanding their war on the Beef Checkoff by asking for a preliminary injunction now in place against the Montana Beef Council to be extended onto the state beef council’s part of the checkoff in 13 additional states. The group announced on Thursday that it is going back to U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana- hoping to expand the court order and potentially cripple the work of the additional 13 Beef Councils at the state level.
The list of states in the litigation announced on Thursday by R Calf includes the three largest beef checkoff states (in terms of dollars remitted to the Beef Board)- Texas, Kansas and Nebraska. Together, they sent $12.328 million dollars to the Beef Board in Fiscal Year 2017, 36% of the monies submitted from qualified state beef councils. Based on the Checkoff rules that has the qaulified State Beef Councils keeping fifty cents of every dollar they collect, that would mean a similar amount would be up for grabs because of this attack on these three key state beef councils by R-CALF USA. The current injunction has required the Montana Beef Council to send all of the collected dollar to the Beef Board- and then get their part of the dollar that was submitted by producers who then give a written okay for the state council to utilize it.
The current injunction against collection of checkoff funds, upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in April, only applies to collection of checkoff funds in Montana. R-CALF USA is now asking for a halt to checkoff funds in Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
On today’s Beef Buzz- we turn the clock back and hear from the CEO of the populist cattle group R-CALF, Bill Bullard, as he describes for us what exactly the litigation against the Montana Beef Council has delivered to the opponents of the Beef Checkoff program. Bullard talked with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays when he was in Oklahoma last October when he was in the state for an organizational meeting of the Oklahoma Independent Stock Growers Association.
Click or tap here to read the complete request filed in the Montana Federal District Court by R CALF USA as they hope to essentially cripple the work of the State Beef Councils named in the litigation, even though many of the Beef Councils named have entered into a MOU with the US Department of Ag establishing oversight for the state programs that have been developed by the State Beef Councils.
There is a lot of debate over the protection that this Memorandum provides a qualified state beef council- in fact- that was a major part of the conversation back in April in Portland by the Appelate Court that allowed the Preliminary Injunction to stay in place against the Montana Beef Council. There is actually a video recording of the hearing regarding the injunction- you can watch it by clicking on the PLAY button in the Video Box below.