OSIA News
85 PERCENT APPROVAL FOR AMERICAN LAMB PROMOTION
Denver, Colo. - By an astounding margin of 85.1 percent, the members of the U.S. sheep industry voted to continue the deduction on sheep sales to support the marketing of American lamb.
These are the certified results of the nationwide vote that was conducted at U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency offices during February 2009 and announced today by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.
"This is the second referendum since the inception of the program in 2002 and both have recorded overwhelming approval for an industry’Äìfunded lamb promotion," remarks Peter Orwick, executive director for the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI). "Sheep producer volunteers encouraged a yes vote in the referendum to keep this valuable tool alive in the fight for a piece of the meat market in the United States.
"This promotion effort is designed for American lamb only and is the key to providing additional visibility for domestically grown lamb in the meat cases of the nation's retailers as well as in the restaurant trade," Orwick adds.
ASI President Glen Fisher, a Texas sheep producer, comments that the lamb program is the only livestock checkoff program that has producers, feeders and meat packers all contributing funds to the promotion effort. He relays that the vote had to be approved on both the individual votes as well as the volume of sheep represented. In the volume vote, a record setting 93 percent supported the referendum.
A 13-member volunteer board, known as the American Lamb Board, representing these segments of the industry collects the funds and administers all the programs.
"The promotion board and its programs deliver benefits to the lamb market and it has also been extremely successful in avoiding conflict among industry segments, so much so that the principal concern around the referendum was motivating folks to vote when there was little to no controversy over the issue," Fisher concludes.
ASI is a national trade organization supported by 45 state sheep associations, benefiting the interests of more than 82,000 sheep producers.
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009--The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that lamb producers, feeders, seedstock producers, and first handlers of lamb and lamb products who voted in a national referendum, Feb. 2-27, 2009, have approved the continuation of the Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order, commonly known as the Lamb Checkoff Program.
Of the 1,971 valid ballots cast, 1,678 or 85.1 percent favored the program. Opposing ballots totaled 293 or 14.9 percent. Additionally, of those persons who cast valid ballots in the referendum, those who favored continuing the program, accounted for 93 percent of the total production voted, and those opposed accounted for 7 percent of the total production voted.
For the program to continue, it must have been approved by at least a majority of those persons voting for approval who were engaged in the production, feeding, or slaughter of lambs during calendar year 2008 and who also represent a majority of the volume of lambs produced, fed, or slaughtered.
The goal of the Lamb Checkoff Program is to strengthen the position of, and to develop and expand the markets for, ovine animals and ovine products. Under the program, producers, seedstock producers (breeders), feeders, and exporters are required to pay an assessment of one-half cent ($.005) per pound when live ovine animals are sold. The first handler, primarily packers, pays an additional 30 cents per head on ovine animals purchased for slaughter. Importers are not assessed. AMS oversees activities carried out under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996, which authorizes the order.
A notice of the results of the referendum will be published soon in the Federal Register. For copies, contact Kenneth R. Payne, Chief, Marketing Programs Branch, Livestock and Seed Program, AMS, USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., STOP-0251, Room 2628-S, Washington, D.C. 20090-0251; telephone 202/720-1115; fax 202/720-1125; or e-mail Kenneth.Payne@usda.gov.