Livestock “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL JULY 15, 2010 •
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Digest I Volume 52 • No. 7
NCBA In Retreat by Lee Pitts anchers should honor June 25, 2010, as an important date in history. In the war over who will control the cattle industry going forward, that date will be remembered as the day the NCBA waved the white flag and called for a truce. The NCBA attempted a sneak attack to steal the checkoff, were repelled, and the last time we looked, the NCBA was in full retreat. If an army marches on its stomach, the fuel for an industry group like the NCBA is cold hard cash. Now what will they do after the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) has changed the combination to the checkoff safe?
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Tough Or Toothless?
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
We were busy preparing what we thought was the biggest story of the year, and perhaps the young century, namely, that the USDA, the Justice Department and the Packers & Stockyards Administration were finally going to do something about packer concentration. But that story was kicked off the front page by an even bigger one! While we were writing about captive supplies the NCBA was suffering the single biggest defeat in its young life at the hands of the Farm Bureau, Livestock Marketing Association, R-CALF, WORC, National
“Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.” Farmers Union, United Cattlemen’s Association, the USDA and many other groups, among them the Beef Board. In our last issue we speculated that Ag Secretary, Tom Vilsack, was different from recent models because he vowed to defend and serve the farmers and ranchers of this country, not just big multinational corporations. We wondered aloud if Vilsack and the Justice Department just talked tough but were toothless. Well, early results are in and we’re elated to report that Vilsack has a full set of choppers! Thanks to him the good guys in their sweatstained white cowboy hats have
finally won one. We are happy to report that there really is a new Sheriff in town and this one isn’t bought and paid for by some big company he plans to go to work for when his work at the USDA is done. When the NCBA sent their dog and pony show to Washington to sweet talk and bedazzle the bureaucrats like they have in the past, they fell flatter than a cow pie on concrete. Let’s just say it wasn’t old home week as usual and the red carpet was definitely not rolled out. Instead they were told in no uncertain terms that this USDA and this Ag Secretary would not
look the other way as the NCBA tried to heist the part of the checkoff they don’t already get to spend.
One Plan, One Voice, One Dollar As we’ve reported for two years now, the NCBA has been devising a new governance structure that would allow them to completely take over the cash belonging to the Federation of State Beef Councils. They came up with a plan to render the Federation a figurehead, while they’d come up with ways to spend the half dollar of every buck the Federation can legally keep. The only problem was that mixing the nonpolitical checkoff with the very political NCBA is against the law! But that didn’t stop the always-broke NCBA, who desperately needs the cash despite the infusions of checkoff bucks they already get as the largest contractor for checkoff dollars. The NCBA says their new governance structure was necessary so that the industry could move forward, so it could become more streamlined and efficient. They urged everyone to continued on page two
USDA livestock rule draws mixed reaction by TOM STEEVER, BROWNFIELD
he Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is proposing rule changes that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says will protect producers against unfair or retaliatory practices in livestock marketing. In a conference call in mid June, the Secretary said the proposed rule addresses fairness. “It’s about making sure the playing field is level for the people that put in, in some cases, most of the capital and a great deal of the labor, and have seen over the course of time their margins squeezed considerably,” said Secretary Vilsack, speaking from USDA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We’ve seen a rather substantial decline in the number of people who can compete, and who can produce, and who can participate in what they want to do, which is to farm.”
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Riding Herd
Among other things, Vilsack says specifically, the rule will improve transparency by making sample contracts available for producers to view online. The proposed rule announced on June 19, 2010 would provide: ■ Provide further definition to practices that are unfair, unjustly discriminatory or deceptive, including outlining actions that are retaliatory in nature, efforts that would limit a producer’s legal rights, or representations that would be fraudulent or misleading. Additionally, the proposed rule reiterates USDA’s position that a producer need not overcome unnecessary obstacles and have to always prove a harm to competition when they have suffered a violation under the Act; ■ Define undue or unreasonable preferences or advantages; continued on page four
by LEE PITTS
Speechless
have always been fascinated by the possibility of talking to animals. Like most ranchers, sheepherders and pig persons, I feel I have this special ability to know what animals are thinking and often I seem to communicate better with cattle and sheep than I do my wife. Don’t lock me in the looney bin, but I feel strongly that animals speak to us. Oh, they may not use the proper syntax and pronunciation but when they say arf arf, meow, moo or baa, I feel they are trying to tell us something. About the only reason I’d like to live another 100 years is because I bet that in that time frame, using computers, translators and decoder rings, we’ll be able to ask animals questions and get back answers. But I won’t be around, so please ask these questions for me. I’d like to ask a donkey if he’s offended when we call a politician by his family name? I want to know what breed of dogs that sheep hate the most and I’d like to know chicken’s innermost thoughts, if they have any. I’d ask pigs if they believe in God and, if so, what religion are they? Also, to what political party would most hogs belong if they could join? (Although sometimes I think they already have.) I’d like to ask a sow nursing 12 babies if, given the opportunity, she didn’t ever want to just sneak away in the dark of night? I’d also like to know how they feel about their heart valves being used to save people they didn’t even know, or were related to, and if they’d voluntarily fill out an organ donor card if they could? I have a ton of questions I’d like to ask dairy cattle. Such as . . . Do you consider milking machines foreplay and do they turn you on? When a milker strips your teats do you feel violated? How do you feel about artificial insemination and would you outlaw it if you could? Do you understand Spanish or English better? I’d like to ask a Mad Cow if she really does feel crazy and I’d follow up with, “Are you the brains behind PETA because it sure seems like it?” continued on page seven
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