R-CALF USA membership in Kentucky has been growing steadily over the past few years, but Day said there are still many producers unfamiliar with the organization and issues like Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL), animal identification and international trade agreements.

“The 60-plus crowd in London was very receptive to Bill’s discussion, as well as very enthusiastic” Day said. “These folks are very involved and very motivated farmers and they asked good questions.

Day said the 100-plus participants at the meeting in Flemingsburg seemed to have a good awareness of the issues and also were receptive to R-CALF USA’s message.

“There was a lot of discussion of the issues during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting, and producers were excited to learn how R-CALF is different in respect to other organizations,” Day explained.

Chris Cannon, son of Chuck Cannon, commented after the Flemingsburg event that he has not talked with anyone that was not impressed with the program presented.

“Many said it was the most informative beef meeting they had ever attended and that Bill presented a totally different view of the issues facing cattle producers,” Cannon said. “Most were interested in Mandatory COOL and the proposed increase in the Beef Checkoff to $2 per head. I feel that, for first time, the information on how much the packers control the market really opened a lot of eyes.”

Bullard gave a brief history of the organization: R-CALF USA was formed in 1999 by cattle producers who recognized that independent live cattle producers were the only segment of the U.S. beef-supply chain who did not have a national organization to exclusively represent their economic interests. He said R-CALF USA’s mission is to ensure the continued profitability and viability of independent U.S. cattle producers.

Bullard said in just seven years, R-CALF USA has begun to change the direction of the U.S. cattle industry by taking actions that have helped to improve the competitiveness of independent producers. For example, R-CALF USA helped to pass Mandatory COOL, which was recently implemented for fish, although the implementation of beef labeling has been temporarily delayed. R-CALF USA also held the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) accountable when the agency violated its own import rules by allowing into the U.S. ground beef and processed beef from Canada after USDA had banned these items from import due to Canada’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) problem.

“The current framework of import policies, laws and regulations that define how our industry operates was established, and has evolved, under the guidance of the nation’s meatpackers,” Bullard pointed out. “That framework is designed to allow meatpackers to maximize profits, minimize risks, and enhance their competitiveness. We must change both producers’ roles within this framework, as well as to make changes to the framework itself so producers can engage in competition for their competitive share of the consumers’ beef dollar, and their competitive share of the domestic and international beef markets.

“Currently, the producers’ role is relegated to a secondary position within the hierarchy of the U.S. beef-supply chain, Bullard continued. “To change this, R-CALF USA members must build their organization so it is large enough and strong enough to put the producers’ voice on a level equal to the meatpackers’ voice.”

He explained that in 2003 a radical change occurred to this framework that defines our industry. When the border closed to Canadian beef and cattle, the largest beef packers could no longer access the imported beef supplies and imported live cattle that they had been using to satisfy growing beef consumption and growing demand for live cattle, a tactic which had given the packers the ability to manage U.S. cattle prices. As a result, the control the meatpackers had over U.S. cattle prices literally slipped through their fingers, and U.S. cattle producers began receiving higher prices for their cattle.

Bullard said the challenge for the U.S. cattle industry is to retain the positive effects this extraordinary 2003 event had on our industry. The positive effect was that the border closure caused demand for beef to translate into a direct demand for U.S. cattle.

“The most important question for the domestic cattle industry today is to determine how to create demand for beef derived exclusively from USA cattle,” Bullard emphasized. “But a note of caution – it is not in the economic interests of any of the other segments of the U.S. beef-supply chain to allow you to accomplish this. If it is to be done, it must be done by cattle producers themselves.”

He said R-CALF USA’s plan to accomplish this for cattle producers consists of four goals:

1. Implement Mandatory COOL so the U.S. can maintain the separate identity of the U.S. cattle herd, and beef from its herd can be differentiated from foreign beef.

2. Prevent the packers from using their packer-owned and other captive-supply cattle to minimize their exposure to the live cattle market by strengthening the Packers and Stockyards Act.

3. Include safeguards in trade agreements that reflect the import sensitivity of the U.S. cattle industry.

4. Maintain the highest health and safety import standards to prevent imports from countries that may introduce foreign animal diseases into the U.S. herd.

“Only by standing together under a national organization that exclusively represents the economic interests of independent producers can we hope to maximize producer profits, minimize producer risks and enhance producer competitiveness in this global beef market,” Bullard concluded. “It’s time for independent producers to begin aggressively competing for their competitive share of the consumers beef dollar and for their competitive share of the domestic and international beef market.”

TheBeefSite.com News Desk