Cattle industry trade press takes sides following Fort Collins meeting

Monday we reported opinions at the Fort Collins, Colo., meeting about anti-trust issues in the agriculture industry garnered mixed opinions from the 2,000 participants. Subsequent commentary about the meeting illustrate that split. "Much of the officials’ opening remarks made clear that they recognize Rural America is in crisis and that young people who want to farm or ranch should be able to do so and make a fair profit, and that to correct the situation, there must be an open, public dialogue on these very complex, but important issues," cattle-industry group R-Calf USA writes in a news release.

R-Calf cites statistics from U.S. Department of Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack as justification for its position: "the Top 4 cattle packers control roughly 80 percent of steer and heifer procurement, and the Top 4 hog packers control roughly 65 percent of the market." R-CALF Region VI President Max Thonsberry said in the release, "R-CALF USA members are fortunate to finally have the opportunity to make our voices heard in an effort to make sure we preserve a competitive market capable of generating a fair, competitive profit from our efforts. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we must seize it to correct these producer issues now. If we don’t, there likely won’t be a U.S. cattle industry comprised of independent cattle producers in another decade or so." (Read more)

Not everyone agreed with R-CALF's position. "Those words in the rules that hint that there are legitimate reasons for price differentiation have their meaning mostly stripped away by the fact that the rule's primary focus is to make it possible for anybody to sue any time any price differentiation takes place," Troy Marshall writes for BEEF Magazine of the proposed Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration rule. "The meeting in Fort Collins will inevitably be looked back on as a colossal waste of time and energy; it will do nothing to effect real opportunities like building beef demand. The meeting might be a sideshow, but the rules and their effects are anything but." (Read more)