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FEEDERS ADDRESS WIDE RANGE OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL ISSUES AT ANNUAL MEETING by CCA Director of Communications Katie Roberti Of all the annual meetings and events CCA puts on, there probably isn’t one that packs more business, speakers and fun into a short schedule than Feeder Meeting. The 2022 event held May 25-27 in San Diego was evidence of that again. After being canceled in 2020 and postponed to August in 2021, this year’s meeting resumed being held in May and attendance was back to the level it had been at prior to the onset of the pandemic. A little entertainment was also welcomed back with the 2022 Welcome Party sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim being held on the Toyota Beach in Petco Park’s outfield during a San Diego Padres baseball game. For the program, over a dozen speakers were on the agenda including well-known meat advocates on social media, leaders from Mexico and Brazil’s beef industries and CattleFax’s Duane Lenz—an annual speaker at the event. CCA Second Vice President and former chair of CCA’s Feeder Council Trevor Freitas, Tipton, says getting all the feeders together and tackling some of the issues facing the industry is the goal of the annual meeting. Months of preparation and planning from the leadership of CCA’s Feeder Council and CCA staff went into organizing this year’s event that offered timely updates, relevant discussions and the opportunity to connect with those in the industry in California and globally. Two updates this year specifically focused on giving attendees a look at beef industries in other countries: Mexico and Brazil. SilvaTeam’s Marcelo Manella spoke about beef production in Brazil and the country’s current industry issues. “Everything is a worldwide market now,” Freitas said. “You almost have to bring in those international speakers to cover what’s going on in those regions.” From Mexico, Juan Ley, president of the Mexican Beef Exporters Association and Rogelio Perez, director of the Mexican Beef Exporters Association, explained the current state of the beef industry in Mexico and how the country ranks worldwide in beef production. Perez’s presentation showed that Mexico ranks 10th among countries for beef and veal exports. Another fact he touched on is that together, North and South America produce almost 50 percent of beef and veal worldwide, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Following the updates on Mexico and Brazil, the three speakers engaged attendees by taking questions on a panel moderated by CCA Feeder Council Chair Jesse Larios, Brawley. For Larios, what stood out to him from the updates and discussion is how aligned Mexico and Brazil’s issues are with ones the U.S. beef industry is facing. “We have to know what’s [happening] on the other side 42 California Cattleman July • August 2022
of the world to understand how we are going to tackle the issues, not just in California or as the United States but as a worldwide industry,” Larios said. Another timely presentation on the impact of events happening abroad came from Rabo AgriFinance’s Vice President Analyst Andrick de la Payen Diaz Vega. This update provided a look into the “grain drain” occurring due to the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine. “It’s a lot of moving parts right now in the feeding industry in regards to what is going on worldwide,” Freitas said. The impacts of unrest in the Ukraine weren’t the only red flag for feed commodities discussed while gathered in San Diego. In California, freight costs and feed delays are two realities feeders currently face with few solutions. “One thing that came up in the side conversations is freight costs,” Larios said. “Freight is killing every level of the industry—it is adding so many costs. Before, you could ship calves from California to anywhere in the U.S., but now you’re having a hard time because freight costs so much.” Larios says the same issue is true for shipping live cattle right now. In addition to the extra costs, recent railroad delays in feed deliveries are causing feeders across the state to anticipate and be prepared for the possibility of shipments arriving late—sometimes two or more weeks later than planned. “The last six months have been really bad as far as feed deliveries from the Midwest coming out to California in both the Imperial Valley and the Central Valley,” Freitas said. ‘We’ve all been struggling. At times it’s been literally within hours of running out of corn in either the Imperial Valley or the Central Valley.” CCA has helped organize meetings with high-level officials in California with hopes of mitigating delays in the future, but the need to seek federal assistance is now likely. Freitas says the issue, stemming from primarily a lack of labor, is difficult to tackle because Union Pacific is a private company. “I know cattle feeders in the Imperial Valley [who] came so close that they had to call other feedyards and say, ‘Can I borrow corn, because I am running out.’” Larios says “It’s changed the way we have all started operating— stockpiling corn like we’ve never seen,” Freitas says. With volatile cattle markets and prices dominating industry discussions over the last two years, a few presentations on issues within those subjects also made their way onto the agenda. Beef industry expert Cassandra Fish gave a presentation titled “Current State of U.S. Fed Cattle Processing Capacity and Its Implications.” Following
