Cattle ranchers statewide will have the opportunity to vote to keep the Fifty Cent State Beef Checkoff program.

Polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at each county Extension office in the state. All cattle owners are eligible to vote in person regardless of their county of residence or the county where they own cattle. No proxy or absentee voting will be allowed.

Cattle ranchers in Alabama contribute to the Fifty Cent State Beef Checkoff program, which works to increase learning opportunities for the young people involved in the cattle business.

“When we reactivated our state checkoff program five years ago, there was a strong call from our Board of Directors to do more to involve and educate the youth of our industry,” said Dr. Billy Powell, executive vice president of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association. “The reaction to that call has been to hire a staff person to work directly with rural youth and fund programs targeting those young people.”

To date, that decision to invest in the young people of the industry is continuing to pay dividends. With efforts aimed at involving more young people in new and existing activities, participation in junior cattlemen events at the local and state level has increased.

“We started by reorganizing the junior cattlemen’s association to get more kids involved and that train of thought continued from there. Now that we have the state checkoff to fund more youth programs, we’ve been able to help existing programs through Alabama 4-H and Alabama FFA,” said Reid Blossom, youth programs coordinator of the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. “As well, new programs like the AJCA Round-Up and B.E.E.F. U have been very popular and successful in getting more kids involved.”

The AJCA Round-Up being held next week in Montgomery is expected to draw more than 170 youth from 34 counties around the state to compete in a variety of contests aimed at educating the next generation of cattlemen in Alabama.

“This will be the second year we’ve had the Round-Up and it’s definitely growing as more folks hear what a great event it is,” said Brad Baker, AJCA president from Ariton. “I hope we can keep the state checkoff program so that we can keep having the Round-Up and other events we’ve been able to start in the last few years.”

The 2008 Checkoff Marketing Plan, detailing exactly how and where checkoff dollars are spent, can be viewed by visiting the Beef Checkoff link on www.bamabeef.org or by calling the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association at (334) 265-1867.