US Farmers and Rancher Alliance (USFRA): The Veeder Pool of Public Policy

by Randy Stevenson, President The value of history is the lessons learned from it. In looking at the activities of beef industry today, one of the best history lesson comes from certain events around the turn of the last century. The Sherman Antitrust Act had been passed in 1890. In the following decade it was mostly ignored by the Executive Branch of the federal government. In about 1885, prior to the passage of the Sherman Act, a pool Read More …

The GIPSA Bubble

by Randy Stevenson, President When the market moves, there is usually more than one single factor involved. This is especially true the more long-term we look at the market. But it is also common that one factor or another may have a stronger influence at any given time on the status of the market. It seems strange that over the past few months a rise of price in the cattle market has coincided with concern over the new Read More …

Time to Start Discussing a Solution

by Randy Stevenson, President Controversy has erupted over the proposed new GIPSA rules. This disagreement is not unusual in a discussion of the details of the role of government in the marketplace. Nearly everybody agrees that government involvement ought to be “just right”, and not too much nor too little. The disagreement comes over what constitutes “just right”. One argument brought forth by both sides is that the nature of the marketplace has changed. Whereas cattle for slaughter Read More …

Put Up or Shut Up: Wanted, Documented Evidence of the Existance of Competition

by Randy Stevenson, President We have listened for quite a long time to a number of experts expound on the virtues and flaws of the cattle market. We’ve seen surveys (some masquerading as “studies”) that purport to give us a picture of what is happening in the cattle market. But we have a couple of questions we would like to put out to the public to see what kind of response we can get. The important issue in Read More …

Common Sense is Where You find It

by Randy Stevenson, President When people engage in debate about the market, there is frequently an almost mediate division based on the left-right political spectrum. This remains true even though we can see many examples of error from both sides. On the other hand, those who engage in detailed conversation about what the markets should look like and what role government should have in the marketplace ultimately find a great deal of agreement. The disagreement, it seems, comes mostly Read More …

One Sick Puppy

Published in The Stevenson Report by Randy Stevenson Rumor has it that some vet techs will write the abbreviation A.D.G. as the diagnosis of an animal they have briefly looked at and admitted into their care. Further inquiry enlightens us that A.D.G. simply stands for “Ain’t Doing Good.” There is scarcely a real cattleman that can’t look at a pen full of cattle and pick out the weak and sick ones. In both of these cases, the person Read More …