CATTLEMEN’S COLUMN GREETINGS FELLOW CATTLEMEN AND FRIENDS

by CCA First Vice President Rick Roberti

I recently had the privilege of taking a trip to New Orleans to attend the 2023 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Tradeshow. I know many of you reading this are not NCBA members for various reasons, and I may agree with you in some cases. People in our industry wish that the government would just leave us alone so we could do what we do best, but that just isn’t going to happen. We need someone fighting for us every day in Washington because we can’t do it alone.

This was my fifth time attending the national convention and I’ve always found them to be well-run and enjoyable. Our leaders know what they are talking about on important issues, they get to the point, and there is plenty of time and opportunity for the average cow/calf producer to be heard. The main topic of concern this year is traceability, and after hearing about foot and mouth disease in other countries, we learned it could easily spread here. If that happens it would make the mad cow scare we went through seem small. To be ready, we need to tackle the traceability issue as soon as possible.

Louisiana is quite a rich agriculture state: soybeans, cotton, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and about 450,000 cows, to name a few things produced there. The state ranks number one in crawfish, shrimp, alligator and oysters, and the city of New Orleans is a one-of-a-kind place. There is so much history, diverse culture, good food and entertainment everywhere—I’d encourage you to go next time the convention is in “N’awlings.” Off the Gulf of Mexico, there is a lot of seafood and swamp creatures to eat, and you might think beef would be hard to find. That was not the case. We ate at several local restaurants and beef was always front and center on the menu.

You may also think that with all the lies and anti-livestock propaganda on the news and social media that beef is doomed, but Americans love good beef and are willing to pay for it. Some folks think that most city people dislike ranchers for destroying the environment, but that’s not what I observed in New Orleans. From the people I talked to (and I like to talk to strangers, Uber drivers, hotel workers, and the musicians on the street corners), most like beef and ranchers, they just don’t know what we do.

On the airplane ride home, a man asked me what we do at those conventions. “Mostly, we find ways to keep the government out of our business,” I said. He said, “Yep, I thought so.” He’s probably been watching Yellowstone As I reflected on that conversation, I realized I love where I live, and my roots go deep into its soil, but I’m sad about the direction my state is headed (and it doesn’t have to be this way).

Things are quite a bit different in Louisiana.

• They have too much water most of the time. In California, we don’t have enough water most years, and our government continues to take more of what we do have.

• In the South they have all kinds of predators, and they care about the problem (I heard one of the problems could be taken care of for $20). In our state, predators are put on a list and millions of dollars are spent and lost.

• We both have wildfires. They put their fires out, whereas in my area we lived through a “let it burn” policy to the tune of a fire that burned close to a million acres.

• In the area of transportation, we have a bullet train (well, maybe—kind of, someday).

All states have their share of problems, but sometimes it seems we don’t really want to solve ours.

Three years of drought has taken a toll on all of us in the West, and here is the good news. Finally, we got some rain, and we learned that weather forecasters predict the El Niño pattern is coming back. Cow numbers are down, and calf prices should be good for some time. Maybe 2023 is the year we’ve been waiting for.

On behalf of the officers and staff of California Cattlemen’s Association, I say thank you for all your support and hard work for this fine industry. We care about our members’ concerns and hope to hear from you and see you throughout the year.