While the NCBA has No Ideas, They Blame the Rest of the Cattle Industry for Bad Ideas
By Mackenzie Johnston
Last week, NCBA’s president elect, Jerry Bohn, was featured on the radio talk show, AgriTalk. Mr. Bohn explained NCBA’s stance on recent negotiated cash trade proposals, specifically the bill proposed by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Jon Tester of Montana. According to the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, this bill would require U.S. meat processing facilities that slaughter over 125,000 head of cattle each year to purchase 50% of their weekly volume of beef slaughter on the cash market.
Mr. Bohn explained that Covid-19 has caused price discovery to evaporate within our markets and producers have become “price takers.” He then stated, “All the bad ideas that have ever been born in the industry are showing up again.” Was he referring to the numerous ideas brought forth by the American cattlemen who are concerned about their livelihoods while they experience substantial losses? If the ideas that have been brought to the table over the past few weeks are bad, I’d sure like to hear NCBA’s good idea. I admire all the individuals who are willing to put forth the time to come up with these ideas and stick their neck out in hopes of holding this industry together.
Mr. Bohn then went on to explain that value based marketing has allowed producers to be rewarded for the quality they produce. Cattle producers in America do produce the highest quality beef in the world, however, they haven’t seen increased profits for their product, and instead, they’ve dealt with struggling markets for years. According to Brownfield Ag News, agriculture bankruptcies are up 23% year-to-year. Potential future increases in this number are not out of the realm of possibility due to the price manipulation associated with Covid-19.
Mr. Bohn reiterated that NCBA does not support anything government-mandated. In most circumstances, limited government involvement is positive. However, our cattle industry is dealing with packer monopolies threatening to take over and anti-trust laws that are comparable to a toothless dog.
Furthermore, it may be beneficial to remind Mr. Bohn of the government-mandated beef checkoff. According to an article published by Drovers in September of 2019, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee approved $27,383,347 checkoff dollars to be given to the NCBA for the 2020 fiscal year. NCBA was also a proponent of doubling these checkoff dollars, according to an article published by AgWeb in 2015.
When asked about direct government aid payments, Mr. Bohn said that the organization is “waiting with bated breath.” NCBA is strongly against government mandates, however, they’re chomping at the bit for these direct aid payments to be disbursed. They would also like to see the pay cap raised for these programs. These funds will help producers continue to operate in the short term, but the industry needs a long-term fix. The last thing we want to do is become a government subsidized industry.
It is awfully disheartening for a cattle organization to discredit the possible ideas that have been brought forth to fix our cattle markets. I’m not saying that increased negotiated cash trade is a silver bullet; there are no silver bullets in this situation. I do know our industry is dangerously close to becoming vertically integrated and time is of the essence. Big changes need to be made and all ideas need to be considered.
Mackenzie Johnston ranches with her family near Milburn, Nebraska. She is also working for Tri-State Livestock News.
