THEE Hot Barn Report!
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Welcome to America’s Hot Barn Report now heard coast to coast and border to border
It is official, we have just confirmed our 12th reporting barn for the big fall run. We now blanket the great Northern beef belt from Motely, Minnesota to Torrington, Wyoming.
The Hot Barn Report is a fast paced and entertaining daily program covering the latest news and trends in the cattle industry, hosted by Monte James, a veteran rodeo announcer, radio host and industry expert! The Hot Barn Report features interviews with industry leaders, market analysts, producers and ranchers and features True Price Discovery from salebarns in Great Northern Beef Belt and across the nation.
One of the definitions of “neutered” is to render ineffective; deprive of vigor or force. Welcome to this special Friday edition of the Hot Barn Report.
What I continue to learn is that political strategy is not singular. Infact, there are multiple ways to play the political chess board and it seems that big ag has created a checkmate against small producers yet again.
Just when we had an administration giving increased attention and scrutiny to anti-trust in the ag sector, especially the meat packing sector, we find powerful corporate ag lobby has flexed and created another barrier to enforcement of laws that the small-town America, farmers and ranchers were depending on.
According to American Ag Network, “The FY24 Agriculture Appropriations bill passed out of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations with a policy rider that prevents the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from “promulgating, implementing, or enforcing” its proposed rules to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act). The bill passed along party lines with a vote of 34-27.
The P&S Act is a landmark law intended to protect farmers and ranchers from abusive and anti-competitive behavior. It successfully leveled the economic playing field for decades, until the erosion of its power by courts in the 1980s allowed corporations to gain unprecedented control over meat and poultry production.”
Just ahead of the final vote, 102 grassroots ag organizations signed a letter urging Congress to strike this rider but the voice of rural America was ignored.
Just when the American farmer and rancher was getting close to having a government agency actually stand for them, Congress, the very people that are supposed to represent you and I, has essentially “neutered” the USDA from doing what they were intended to do and that is to protect the American farmer and rancher by ensuring a fair and competitive marketplace.
Even a blind man can see this glutting of P&S enforcement only serves the global corporations that were going to have to play by a fair set of rules. Now Congress has benched the refs and burned the rules!
These global ag conglomerates cannot vote, so I find it interesting how Congress continues to represent them and their lobbying interests so well while turning their back on American food producers who are struggling to stay afloat amid rising input costs, increased corporate consolidation, and decreasing market access.
Is mandatory country of origin labeling on beef, transparent use of Checkoff dollars, and enforcement of laws on the books really too much to ask? It feels like the American cattle producer has become “a man with no country”!
Hot markets and awesome customer service at our Diamond Dozen Hot Barns: Stockmens Livestock, Lemmon Livestock, North Platte Stockyards, St. Onge/Newell, Platte Livestock Market, Tri County Stockyards, Torrington Livestock, Creighton Livestock Market, Bassett Livestock Auction, Mobridge Livestock, Ogallala Livestock Auction Market, and Presho Livestock. Catch them all on CattleUSA.com.
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