Rotunda Roundup 2025

TELL LEGISLATORS:

Send HB 119 back to the drawing board

Let legislators know HB 119 – Establish the Montana Cattle Committee – needs to go back to the drawing board because it’s unclear how the additional assessment fee would benefit producers.

What the bill does: Provides for a committee that would collect an assessment fee of $1 from Montana Cattle producers upon a referendum vote. (Read the bill here.) Montana Farmers Union opposed the bill in committee.

Concern 1: Unclear what goals this 2nd dollar would achieve that can’t be achieved by the current beef check off. 

a. Montana feeder calves already get a premium over other states in the market. 

b. The breed associations already promote their own breeders’ cattle

c. We could allocate funds to the MT Beef Council and instruct them to use it at our land grant university for research.

Concern 2: If additional funding is truly needed for the purposes outlined in the bill, we should allow the current MT Beef Council to administer it with clearly defined parameters. 

a.       This cattle committee is duplicating administration done by the MT Beef Council. 40% of Montana’s share of the checkoff dollar covers the cost of administration.

b.      It would be more efficient than two different committees basically doing the same thing.

Concern 3: The Montana Beef Council (which predates the national beef checkoff) represents the industry better than what is proposed in HB 119, which asks for a politically appointed committee with no districts or representation requirements.

Concern 4: The referendum vote needs some requirements and clarifications. This bill only has a majority vote requirement.

a.       It should be clarified that a majority vote be defined as 50% plus 1 of all Montana cattle producers would need to vote yes for this to pass — meaning about 4,900 producers would need to vote yes on this referendum.

b.      There should be a time limit on the first referendum voting period — if the threshold is not met in 30 days it fails. 

Concern 5: A problem many Montana livestock producers have with the current checkoff is the majority of the funds end up with the National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA). Even though checkoff dollars are not to be used for lobbying purposes, the NCBA lobbies on behalf of the packers. The funds from the cattle committee could also be sent to the NCBA. There should be a restriction in place to prevent funds from going to the NCBA.