In 1951 Beattie was chosen as Secretary of the Omagh branch of the UFU. In June 1952, he attended a meeting of the County Tyrone Committee of the Ulster Farmers' Union at which he complained that a consignment of potatoes had been sent to Londonderry and left on the quay for six weeks before the Ministry had rejected them. Beattie's willingness to take up grievances led the UFU to select him to be a new member of its delegation to the Tyrone Committee of Agriculture.