DUES DOLLARS AT WORK
CCA WELL-REPRESENTED AT 2021 CATTLE INDUSTRY CONVENTION by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur When CCA staff and members departed San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 8, 2020 at the close of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s annual Cattle Industry Convention, none could have predicted how long it would be before we were reunited. In the months to come, the COVID-19 pandemic would upend the industry, bottlenecking the beef supply chain, disrupting cattle markets and leaving state and federal policymakers scrambling to provide relief as agricultural producers nationwide worked tirelessly to sustain their livelihoods. And, of course, COVID-19 upended our ability to gather with our friends and colleagues. NCBA’s Legislative Conference – scheduled for March 2020 – was the first to fall. CCA was forced to cancel our annual Steak and Eggs Legislative Breakfast and lobby day, as well as the 2020 Midyear Meeting. CCA’s Annual Convention went virtual, as did countless other local, state and national gatherings. As the pandemic dragged well into 2020 with no end in sight, NCBA delayed its 2021 Cattle Industry Convention. So, when the opportunity finally came last month for ranchers nationwide to finally gather again in Nashville, Tenn., between Tuesday, August 10 and Thursday, August 12, more than 6,000 beef producers – including your CCA staff and dozens of California cattlemen and women – jumped at the opportunity. And while it was a wonderful opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the company of friends and colleagues longseparated, it was also an opportunity for ranchers nationwide to get up to speed on pressing issues facing the industry and to set important policy priorities. Below are some of the highlights from each of the three days of the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention.
– regarding NCBA support for voluntary negotiated grid base pricing of fed cattle. According to NCBA’s Director of Government Affairs and Market Regulatory Policy, Tanner Beymer, CCA’s policy proposal was one of “about five resolutions that got submitted ahead of this meeting for consideration by the Committee.” What emerged from the Live Cattle Marketing meeting was something of a composite of the various policies advanced by state affiliates: “What they ended up doing is saying, ‘look, we’ve made significant progress on price discovery…but we need to start looking at some of these other market drivers: transparency, confidentiality, some of those types of issues,’” said Beymer. “So the policy that was adopted by the committee…directs the [NCBA] staff to put together a working group of producers to explore some of the non-price-discovery-related market drivers so that we can, again, add more arrows into the quiver of what is going to be a multi-faceted approach to trying to bring about a better cattle marketing environment.” Among other marketing updates – including ongoing federal efforts to increase beef processing capacity – the Live Cattle Marketing meeting also highlighted two new reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service that will enhance market transparency. The first, the National Daily Direct Formula Base Cattle report, will report base prices for formula ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
Live Cattle Marketing Likely the most popular policy committee meeting of the Cattle Industry Convention was the Live Cattle Marketing Committee meeting. Held on Tuesday afternoon, the Live Cattle Marketing meeting was standing-roomonly, with healthy representation from the California delegation, including CCA’s Price Discovery Subcommittee Chair Seth Scribner, Paso Robles. Ahead of the Cattle Industry Convention, CCA submitted a policy for consideration by NCBA’s Live Cattle Marketing Committee – initially developed by The Live Cattle Marketing Meeting left standing-room-only during the Cattle Industry CCA’s Price Discovery Subcommittee Convention in Nashville, Tenn. 8 California Cattleman September 2021
