Federation of State Beef Councils Reports Successful Six Months

Laurie Munns, along with her husband, Tim, owns and operates a ranch in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho.  She also just finished her first six months as chair of the Federation of State Beef Councils, which represents and supports state beef councils at the Beef Checkoff’s national level.  Munns said one of the things she has enjoyed about having the role has been interacting with beef producers around the country.

“I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to go into some of the state beef councils; an opportunity for them to meet the Federation, to put a face on the Federation, and an opportunity for me to put a face on the state beef councils; to see where they’re coming from. We’re so diverse in the United States. Something that’s affecting us at home in Utah doesn’t have relevance in Michigan. And so, the opportunity to see their challenges, their trials, their successes and learn from them, and bring them back, so that maybe we as a whole as a Federation can help those individual state beef councils as they face their challenges. I think that’s the beauty of the Federation.”

Munns added it’s a partnership that has benefits both nationally and in individual states.

“We’re one group. And we’re able to help each other out with the services, with the different ideas, the opportunity to network and communicate with each other and learn. We have seven regions within NCBA, and within those regions, they’re able to brainstorm and come together with different ideas as they feed off what maybe their neighboring state has done, they’re able to build that program into their own, and so they’re not reinventing the wheel. They’re taking some of the successes that another state has had and building upon that and building a program that works for their state.”

A recent independent study conducted through the Cattlemen’s Beef Board shows the $1-per-head investment of the national checkoff investment returns $11.91 for producers.

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