The funding deal struck between Alberta Beef Producers and the Canadian Cattle Association earlier this year won’t mean drastic changes for either organization in the short term, says the chair of the provincial cattle group.
But his organization won’t be reining in its efforts to dissuade feedlots and producers from requesting checkoff refunds, said Brodie Haugan.
The new deal means the amount given to the Canadian Cattle Association will no longer be based on how many checkoff dollars Alberta Beef Producers collect, but rather on how much is left after refunds are paid out.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
“It’s making the approach more fair,” said Haugan “CCA can stay at a consistent budget that they’ve been able to stay at the past couple of years. The only difference is they likely won’t have as many reserve funds set aside for a rainy day.
“And that goes for ABP as well. We’ve cut a tremendous amount out of our budget the past couple of years, trying to get down to a balanced budget. We need to try to find efficiencies. There are cuts on both sides to try to be more efficient here.”
The checkoff fee of $4.50 per head is divided into two parts — a non-refundable national fee of $2.50 (much of it going to the Beef Cattle Research Council and Canada Beef) and a refundable $2 provincial levy.
“We were actually contributing over 90 cents per $2 that we were collecting to pay the CCA assessment,” said Haugan. “We were coming up to about $500,000 to $600,000 short because of our refunds.”
The ABP board considered using reserve funds to bridge the shortfall but decided that short-term fix wasn’t a wise move, he added.
“That’s why we pushed so hard for this new agreement. Because we’d rather balance our books and pay on what we collect,” he said.
“We also realize that this is an Albertan issue, but we need a strong Alberta as well as a strong CCA. It was a shared approach. As we move towards what a fully funded industry looks like, we need to be working towards that.”
Refunds have been topping $3 million annually for many years and exceeded $3.7 million in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
Though the new three-year deal brings financial stability to both organizations, ABP is still searching for a way to persuade those requesting refunds (feedlots account for a big share) to change their minds.
“Continued communication is one of the ways,” said ABP finance chair Fred Lozeman. “Maybe we weren’t doing that as well as we should have a few years ago. As a result, maybe some producers weren’t as aware of what was going on.
“Every producer is different. They have their reasons for leaving their money with ABP or CCA or taking the refund.”
But if the choice is a refund, his group’s board members and delegates would like to hear the reasons why, said Lozeman, who has a cow-calf operation and a small feedlot near Claresholm.
“We hear producers talk about value and accountability,” he said. “Accountability is a two-way street. If you’re going to take your refund back, it would be more constructive if you explain the reasons why you’re taking it back.”
The organization has “tried to be extremely transparent” about its finances and the impact of the refunds, added Haugan, who was previously the finance chair.
“A bigger part of that was letting people know what the checkoff dollars actually go toward and what they help support,” he said. “There was quite a bit of confusion about the national levy — (the) $2.50 compared to the $2.”
The new three-year deal with the CCA doesn’t solve the issue, Haugan said.
“This is the start of the next phase where we try to figure out what a fully funded industry really looks like and how producers really want to engage with the association,” he said. “And what they may see it look like in the future so we can contribute fully to CCA and many other initiatives that we’re investing producer dollars into.”
