As Congress reviews the state of the cattle industry, farm country is offering its suggestions for change, and those ideas run the gamut.
Following a year of processor bottlenecks, market volatility, and now uncertainty due to drought, cattle producers are calling on legislators for help.
During a producer panel at a recent Sand Hills Ranch Expo, livestock auctioneer Matt Lowery called the current market tough, all the way around.
According to Lowery, “It’s a little scary right now. Our margins of profit, there is none. There is none right now. Nobody’s making any money, nobody. The man raising them, the man feeding them, the guy that’s making money right now is the man killing them, and not to throw them under the bus-- we need them too. But, we need to figure out how to share a piece of pie a bit differently than what we’re doing right now.”
South Dakota cattle feeder, Brett Kenzy echoed that sentiment and outlined three points he considers priority for an overhaul, that includes the Beef Checkoff, which he says was a great idea when it first began.
“But as it always goes, by the time it gets to Washington DC, the sausage makers, it gets watered down and it becomes pretty ineffective,” Kenzy states.
He also called for increased competition and market transparency through a practice of 50/14: “That’s 50 percent of the transactions have to be in the open market, 14-day delivery, plant by plant.”
Also, he wants to see mandatory country of origin labeling back on the table.
“Because it’s common sense. It creates a bridge between the consumer and the producer, and leaves the packer out of that conversation for the first time,” he adds.
M-COOL was in place from 2008 to 2015 until the World Trade Organization ruled it violated international trade laws.
Related:
Current hardships facing the cattle industry: drought and market concentration
NCBA supports USDA’s review of “Product of the USA” label
Canada getting nervous about M-COOL
Senator Marshall is focused on cattle market reform
NCBA on cattle market manipulation hearing