“I’m disappointed that there’s been a difference of perception about the appropriateness of some of the expenditures,” said Dan Dierschke, the chairman of the beef board. He said that for the first time in recent years, the review was done by an outside accounting firm, Clifton Gunderson, rather than the board’s staff.

Officials of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association acknowledged that some mistakes had been made, but they also disputed several of the findings. They said guidelines on how the marketing money should be spent were often unclear.

In a written response that challenged some of the report’s conclusions, the association said it expected the review would result in less than $20,000 in reimbursements. The report did not give a total dollar amount for its findings, but it listed at least $90,000 in questionable or poorly documented transactions.

“We spend an awful lot of time trying to make sure that firewall is maintained,” said Steve Foglesong, an Illinois rancher and feedlot operator who is president of the cattlemen’s association. “As a producer I want my dollars to be spent exactly as they’re supposed to be spent.”