Welcome to the Friday edition of the HOT BARN REPORT
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!
Karina Jones, Field Director for R-Calf USA joins us each Friday from her ranch in the heart of Nebraska covering what’s new and important to the family farm and ranch.
“The Land of the Compromised”
They compromised and the cattle industry lost. Welcome to this Friday edition of Hot Barn Report!
Now that the cards are dealt and the new Fisher/Grassley bill has been put on the table, it is easy to see, we have been duped. This should be called the “compromised bill” because that is exactly what this bill does, it compromises our future in the cattle industry and sets a dangerous precedence to regionalize our country when regarding other future laws.
All along, part of the strength of 50/14 was its simplicity. All Big 4 plants, regardless of location would by law have to acquire half of their cattle purchased, in the spot cash market. SIMPLE, right. As regional talk died down and then reared back up, folks like me asked a lot of questions. How could this possible work? You realize there are Big 4 plants outside of the USDA reporting regions, don’t you? Our questions and concerns were ignored. And this compromised bill is what they birthed. And in that moment, it became clear to me. It was never really about working on behalf of the cattle industry. How could it be? When more than half of the JBS plants in America will be EXEMPT in this bill and 1/3 of the Tyson and Cargill plants will be exempt, how does that serve the cattle industry. Those exempt plants can go full steam ahead to 100% captive supply and why wouldn’t they?!?! And how about that little 300% detail that no one is really talking about? Where the highest region can not be any more than 3 times the lowest region. This will literally drag Iowa, the gold standard for negotiated cash trade, back to a floor of around 40%, when they usually operate over 50%? Why are we hitching Iowa to the ball and chain TX region? Why not say TX has to buy cash cattle at a rate comparable to IA? Let’s set a standard for conduct here, not stifle competition! Was anyone else shocked about the timeline of this bill? It won’t even be implemented for another 2 years, even if it is signed into law. 2 years?!?! How many independent feeders have another 2 years left on their balance sheet? S. 949 the 50/14 Spot Market Bill is still on the table, so continue to have heart when others have compromised our industry. Let’s forge ahead, together!
Speaking of compromised, thanks to Senator Tester for observing the danger of continuing to import beef from Brazil. According to Senator Tester social media posts, he has introduced a bill that ban imports of Brazilian beef. I will keep my eyes open for more details and report back to you next week!
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