The Florida Beef Council is looking ahead to an important week for the beef industry as National Beef Checkoff meetings take place during the 2026 CattleCon in Nashville, Tennessee. The meetings, held through the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, bring together industry leaders from across the country to evaluate how checkoff dollars are being invested and to help guide future priorities.
Deanne Maples shared her expectations for the upcoming meetings and emphasized the collaborative nature of the committee structure.
“Yeah, so they come together through Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
These committees, they might represent different things like product innovation and safety or maybe nutrition, domestic marketing, things like that. So these committees will get together and review, evaluate some of the programs that the checkoff has been funding, promotion, research, industry information, really to be sure that those programs are delivering results.”
Florida plays an active role in those discussions, offering regional insight that reflects the needs and experiences of Southeastern cattle producers.
“And Florida plays an active role in those conversations.
We bring a Southeast perspective and help guide future investments that matter to cattle producers, maybe talking about things that have worked well for us down here in Florida, maybe speaking on behalf of what our producers might like to see.”
Beyond participation, the Florida Beef Council also focuses on bringing timely information back home to apply it in real-world programming.
“And we bring this information back that we learn at the meetings. Of course, it’s always timely.
We bring these things back and, you know, it might be consumer demand, market conditions, maybe how beef connects with today’s consumers. And we bring that information back. We don’t just talk about this stuff.
We put it to work.”
That approach will be especially important as the organization heads into a busy year.
“And as soon as we get back, we’ll green flag and go rolling into a really busy 2026 calendar that’s already jam-packed with exciting events aimed at driving beef demand.”
As the National Beef Checkoff meetings get underway at CattleCon 2026, Florida’s involvement underscores the importance of producer-driven input, accountability, and turning national discussions into meaningful action at the state level.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.