Opinion
The revenue side of the business always gets the most attention. To that end, producers generally equate the marketing check to the financial health of the operation.
Our inflationary situation is solvable. Energy costs are the most significant driver to inflation across the beef supply chain – gasoline at the pump for consumers and diesel fuel for production and distribution.
Sen. Chuck Grassley sees his “years-long beef with Big Cattle” soon to be settled. The policy he touts is meant to normalize packer margins, but the market’s swinging pendulum is doing that without government intrusion.
The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association president says the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act needs support from ranchers to get the legislation across the finish line.
Monday morning packers are convinced the solution to low cattle prices is more carcass hooks. Reality, however, suggests proposed new packing plants are out of step with cattle inventories and available labor.
Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.
When it comes to feeder cattle prices, 2014 was a year to remember. What if we apply those prices to today’s cattle feeding scenario? How would margins fair?
International trade is an essential part of the U.S. beef industry. It’s also the topic that seemingly generates more interest among producers than any other major issue within the business.
With the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act top of mind for many cattle producers, director of government relations at the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Cora Fox, shares her thoughts on the bill.
Plenty of folks are scared of the chickenization scenario, in which first come formulas, then come production contracts, then come “no other options.” Which sounds pretty awful. Is it?
A “beef import problem” does not exist, says Nevil Speer. Actually, beef imports don’t introduce competition – they establish complementarity and the ensuing value creation benefits both consumers AND producers.
On May 26th USDA announced three initiatives as the first of a “suite of major actions under the Biden Administration to create fairer marketplaces for poultry, livestock, and hog producers.”
Trade across national boundaries is a positive-sum activity; both trading partners gain or it wouldn’t occur. Any sort of intervention disrupts that premise and artificially establishes a system of winners and losers.
When disruptions and ‘shortages’ occur, consumer buying habits shift in fear of the marketplace. Interestingly, the current infant formula shortage has striking similarities to the pandemic beef industry.
Imports and exports create value and provide opportunity for all trading partners, thereby underpinning the very reason international trade exists and it is integral to economic freedom.
Growing a successful, sustainable ranching operation is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes commitment, vision, long-term planning and the forethought to know that your decisions will affect the operation for generations.
Why are we importing beef, especially processed beef, from Brazil? Why aren’t we and all the environmental groups working together to hit DC like Jan. 6, demanding we stop importing that stuff.
In production agriculture, the output is largely a commodity. But whether the output is commodity or differentiated, the system of how the output is produced matters as much as the output itself.
“Don’t shoot where the duck is. Shoot where he’s going to be.” It’s a lesson Steve Cornett thinks some young cattle folk need to consider.
With exploding populations, our working lands are developed, subdivided and converted to other uses diminishing these benefits. As a result, it is harder for cattle raisers to find affordable rangeland for livestock.
A proposed Clean Water Act regulation that could affect millions of acres of farmland is moving forward. Still, SCOTUS will hear a case that will clarify what CWA covers, likely sending it back to the drawing board.
Undoubtedly, consumers increasingly want more transparency. But reference to “where food comes from” invokes very specific connotations – beyond just country-of-origin.
Rather than running to the politicians to solve a problem, perhaps the better strategy might be to gather a plan to create a better understanding of the economics of the industry.
All four bosspackers testified in Washington this week, and none of our elected congressbeings made anybody squirm.
A review of the data shows widening packer margins during the past several years have occurred for multiple reasons. The timing of that occurrence post-COOL is coincidental.
When everybody you know seems to agree on something, it’s a lot easier to believe it, too. And believe it more!
Next week will be a good one for folks with good internet access and a few free hours who want to see some rhetorical fireworks about cattle price discovery.
Seven years after repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling, a proposal has been introduced for the Secretary of Agriculture to “determine a means of reinstating” COOL, despite evidence of “no measurable benefits.”
There’s irony in R-CALF’s recent Market Reform bill 180-degree about face. The ranch group “presumably figured out what we’ve known all along: the cure is worse than the disease,” writes columnist Nevil Spear.
Regional processing plants are not likely to be an easy success, but we need them so badly. So much more badly than we need crabs-in-a-bucket laws telling big feeders their marketing methods are too efficient to be fair.