Dear Editor:
Hold on to your wallet if you are a Missouri beef producer. The National Beef Council is trying to pick your pocket for another dollar every time you take a beef cow, calf or bull through the auction. The Missouri Beef Council, the state arm of the National Beef Council, has petitioned the state of Missouri Department of Agriculture for a "state check off dollar" to be collected at the time of sale for every beef you sell. So now, every time you sell a beef cow, calf or bull your pocket is picked for $2 dollars instead of one.
It seems that there is no end to the government oversight and grabbing of money from hard-working people. The Missouri Beef Council claims that the money collected is to be spent promoting beef to consumers. They claim that for every dollar they collect and spend they created $11 dollars of value for me. I say "Bull Poop." If that 1 to 11 ratio is correct then why don't they grab $100 from me when I sell a beef calf return $1,100 in value to me. If the 1:11 ratio were true then maybe the cattle business would not be a "rat hole without a bottom."
Like so many other quasi-government funded organizations, this is a good idea that has gone bad and does not do anything for me as a beef producer but cost me money. The reality is beef is an established commodity that has a large consumer base because it is good to eat, nutritious and just taste good. Picking my pocket at the sale barn to run a Sam Elliot voice over "What's For Dinner" ad is ridiculous! The only one that benefits from this is Sam Elliot and the advertising agency that charged the National Beef Council millions of dollars to make the ad and then run it.
I hope that Missouri cattlemen are fed up with having their pockets picked by your government-sponsored Beef Council. It is time to say no and express your opinion to the Missouri Beef Council and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. In my opinion, the Missouri Beef Council needs to be dissolved and the government and their quasi- puppets stay out of our business.
If you would like your voice heard, email me, [email protected]
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