What the Heck is Federation of State Beef Councils?
Jul 30, 2026 · 23 min · 11 segments
Speaking with Travis Maddock, Chair Federation
- Speakers
Travis MaddockGuest
Jeff SherfieldHost
- Show signals
- Audience≈5k followers
Jul 30, 2026 · 23 min · 11 segments
Speaking with Travis Maddock, Chair Federation
Travis MaddockGuestJeff SherfieldHost
So explain to our listeners, 'cause I can assure you there's a lot that don't understand this, exactly what is the Federation of State Beef Councils?
So the, the, the Federation of State Beef Councils came out of the old Livestock and Meat Board.
So prior to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, there was an organization called the Livestock and Meat Board that was a contractor to the Checkoff, so to the National Checkoff Cattlemen's Beef Board.
In 1996, the National Cattlemen's Association and the Livestock and Meat Board merged, um, operations and, and I, I should back up just...
The beef cattle portion of the Livestock and Meat Board merged with the National Cattlemen's Association and formed the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, with the intent of bringing, uh, a lot of the stuff under one roof to have an organization that represents from the consumer all the way back to the, the, uh, producer and, uh, that can, you know, create demand, create a better working environment for all beef cattle producers in the US.
The Federation itself, um, functions as, as a governance arm of the Checkoff.
Uh, big part of the Checkoff, of course, is done by the Cattlemen's Beef Board, and every state that sells cattle has representation on the Cattlemen's Beef Board, um, and that's required under law.
I might get them wrong, but I think there's 44 qualified state beef councils right now.
Some states don't have one, like Rhode Island or Vermont, so to say, so to speak, the smaller states that don't have many cattle.
But I believe there's 44 qualified state beef councils, and I believe 41 of them elect to participate in the Federation.
Um, and they pay dues into the Federation, and, uh, those dues then are used to, um, uh, conduct Checkoff activities, uh, through the, the Federation.
Um, it's a way for larger livestock states like, say, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, even North Dakota Uh, which North Dakota only has about 750,000 people, but we traditionally run between 900 and a million c- 900,000 and a million cows.
To say, "Hey, here's an opportunity for us to take some of these checkoff dollars, and as opposed to sending them to the CBB, we're gonna send them to the federation, and then we have representation as a qualified state beef council on the federation, and we can have a say in where those dollars are gonna go." And so the federation functions as a, uh, as a contractor to the beef checkoff through NCBA, but it also participates in governance.
Part of that is that a lot of the duties of the checkoff are split equally between the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the federation.
Um, the committee structure, the grassroots committees where the, the producers from around the country, they, uh, evaluate the proposals and, and projects that contractors bring forth to the checkoff.
Half of the operating committee comes from the federation, half comes from the CBB.
So what it is, is it's, it's a little bit of a redundancy though, that allows state beef councils to participate at a closer level to what's going on with the national beef checkoff, as opposed to having representatives from each state serve on CBB and having them alone make the decisions around the checkoff.
So explain to our listeners, 'cause I can assure you there's a lot that don't understand this, exactly what is the Federation of State Beef Councils?
So the, the, the Federation of State Beef Councils came out of the old Livestock and Meat Board.
So prior to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, there was an organization called the Livestock and Meat Board that was a contractor to the Checkoff, so to the National Checkoff Cattlemen's Beef Board.
In 1996, the National Cattlemen's Association and the Livestock and Meat Board merged, um, operations and, and I, I should back up just...
The beef cattle portion of the Livestock and Meat Board merged with the National Cattlemen's Association and formed the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, with the intent of bringing, uh, a lot of the stuff under one roof to have an organization that represents from the consumer all the way back to the, the, uh, producer and, uh, that can, you know, create demand, create a better working environment for all beef cattle producers in the US.
The Federation itself, um, functions as, as a governance arm of the Checkoff.
Uh, big part of the Checkoff, of course, is done by the Cattlemen's Beef Board, and every state that sells cattle has representation on the Cattlemen's Beef Board, um, and that's required under law.
I might get them wrong, but I think there's 44 qualified state beef councils right now.
Some states don't have one, like Rhode Island or Vermont, so to say, so to speak, the smaller states that don't have many cattle.
But I believe there's 44 qualified state beef councils, and I believe 41 of them elect to participate in the Federation.
Um, and they pay dues into the Federation, and, uh, those dues then are used to, um, uh, conduct Checkoff activities, uh, through the, the Federation.
Um, it's a way for larger livestock states like, say, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, even North Dakota Uh, which North Dakota only has about 750,000 people, but we traditionally run between 900 and a million c- 900,000 and a million cows.
To say, "Hey, here's an opportunity for us to take some of these checkoff dollars, and as opposed to sending them to the CBB, we're gonna send them to the federation, and then we have representation as a qualified state beef council on the federation, and we can have a say in where those dollars are gonna go." And so the federation functions as a, uh, as a contractor to the beef checkoff through NCBA, but it also participates in governance.
Part of that is that a lot of the duties of the checkoff are split equally between the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the federation.
Um, the committee structure, the grassroots committees where the, the producers from around the country, they, uh, evaluate the proposals and, and projects that contractors bring forth to the checkoff.
Half of the operating committee comes from the federation, half comes from the CBB.
So what it is, is it's, it's a little bit of a redundancy though, that allows state beef councils to participate at a closer level to what's going on with the national beef checkoff, as opposed to having representatives from each state serve on CBB and having them alone make the decisions around the checkoff.
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