Producers endorse cut in checkoff

DENVER – The National Pork Board will recommend the U.S. secretary of agriculture cut the pork checkoff rate to 40 cents per $100 of value from 45 cents per $100 of value.

At today’s market prices, the reduction in the pork checkoff rate will result in reducing pork producers’ total checkoff assessments by $5 million to $6 million per year.

Final authority for the pork checkoff rests with the USDA. Timing of the rate reduction will be determined by the department, which oversees the pork checkoff program.

Voluntary assessment. Pork board delegates, however, are also supporting a voluntary producer assessment to fund public policy and advocacy programs.

The assessment, called “producer consent,” would be 10 cents per $100 of value and half the money would stay in the state in which it was collected.

The producer consent program could be implemented as early as this year. In the interim, pork producers supported an immediate 10-cent voluntary assessment per $100 of value to fund public policy programs.