Press Releases
State beef assessment referendum set November 20
For Immediate Release
Monday, September 22, 2014
For more information contact:
Ted Sloan
(502) 564-1138
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A referendum on whether Kentucky cattle producers may be assessed $1 per head on cattle marketed in Kentucky is scheduled for Nov. 20, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association have announced.
The referendum will ask Kentucky cattle producers: “Shall the producers of bovine animals assess themselves an additional ONE DOLLAR ($1.00) per head sold, and use the funds so collected by the Kentucky Beef Promotion Council to finance a program to promote and stimulate by research, market development, and education, the use and sale, domestic and foreign, of bovine animal products?”
The referendum will be held from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. local time at all county Extension offices. All cattle producers involved in the marketing or sale of cattle in Kentucky are eligible to vote.
To vote by absentee ballot, a request form must be completed and sent to the commissioner of agriculture at least 10 days in advance of the referendum date. The request form may be obtained from any Extension office, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, or the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association. Completed request forms should be sent to Steve Kelly, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, 105 Corporate Dr., Frankfort, KY 40601.
Following the referendum, the department will tabulate the votes and announce the results. If producers vote in favor of the state check off, it will become effective April 1, 2015.
Producers will be able to get a refund for the assessment within 30 days of the date on which the assessment is collected.
The Kentucky State Board of Agriculture in August approved the KCA’s request for a referendum. State law requires the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to carry out a referendum at the direction of the board.
For more information, contact Dave Maples, executive director of the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, at (859) 278-0899 or dmaples@kycattle.org, or the KDA’s Steve Kelly at (502) 573-0450 or steve.kelly@ky.gov.
