Alabama Cattlemen’s Association Approves 2026 Beef Checkoff Marketing Plan
The Alabama Cattlemen’s Association Checkoff Council has officially approved its 2026 Beef Checkoff marketing plan, setting priorities and budgets for the year ahead. The decision came during the council’s final quarterly board meeting of the year, a meeting traditionally focused on planning for the future of beef promotion and education in the state.
We caught up with Erin Beasley with the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association to learn more about the process and what producers can expect.
“Our Beef Checkoff Council had its final quarterly board meeting of the year and as is always the case in December, the task is to look ahead to 2026 and pass our Beef Checkoff marketing plan along with the budgets that are associated with that. So that group did get together last week, evaluated the checkoff collections over the last couple years knowing that cow herd numbers are down and really just trying to forecast a little bit going into next year.”
Despite challenges tied to lower cow herd numbers and softer checkoff collections, the council approved a comprehensive plan that continues to support a wide range of programs.
“But overall a very nice marketing plan that covers all of the different program areas from consumer information and education all the way through our youth programs and our producer programs that focus on education and also for our young cattlemen’s leadership program.”
While some financial adjustments were necessary, council members worked to limit the impact on core initiatives.
“So all in all, we did have to make some cuts to the budget just with the way that the numbers and the collections are going. However, Checkoff Council did agree that we did not want to make significant cuts.”
Transparency and producer engagement remain a priority for the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association. Producers are encouraged to review the approved marketing plan and learn more about how checkoff dollars are used.
“That marketing plan can be viewed on BamaBeef.org and of course any questions that a producer may have about how the beef checkoff dollars are collected, how they are spent, that absolutely can be directed to our office. We’ll be glad to walk through that with any producer.”
Beasley also expressed appreciation to producers who provided input during the planning process.
“And we also want to say thanks to all of the producers that took time to complete our survey leading up to this process which provided a lot of valuable feedback for us as we created a draft and then finally got to a finished product.”
The approved 2026 plan reflects a continued commitment to promoting beef, educating consumers, and supporting Alabama cattle producers through strategic and carefully managed checkoff investments.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.