Meat Packers Respond to Cattle Industry's Call for Change, Further Investigation

As six major cattle and livestock groups making unprecedented calls for change, it's an issue centered around meat packing margins climbing, while some cattle producers say they are struggling to break even. And a meeting among the six groups- including Livestock Marketing Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, United States Cattlemen's Association, R-CALF, National Farmers Union and American Farm Bureau Federation-  is now drawing a response from the meat packing industry. 

The groups are pushing for the DOJ to further its investigation into possible price imbalances in the cattle markets.The North American Meat Institute, which is the largest trade association representing packers and processors, responded this week blaming the market action on a couple black swan events that hit the cattle industry in two years. 

"In July 2020, USDA analyzed the effects of the 2019 Holcomb facility fire and the pandemic, finding no wrong-doing and confirming the disruption in the beef markets was due to devastating and unprecedented events," Sarah Little, vice President of Communications for the North American Meat Institute told AgDay. 

The Meat Institute also responded to the cattle groups' call for more slaughter capacity. The Institute pointed to several announcements to build new packing facilities or expand capacity, which would increase slaughter by about 4%  The Meat Institute says labor issues the industry still faces because of COVID are also impacting capacity. 

The Meat Institute Also says the income from marketing all cattle was down 4.7% and was 4.4% below the 2016-2019 average, but saying when you add in producer payments under CFAP, producers netted 5% more revenue than in 2019.