January 25, 2016 It can be said by those in the livestock industry that these are the worst of times. Whether you are an American cattleman, hog producer or poultry grower, you have felt the continued squeeze on your bottom line. It is beyond anything you have had to endure in the past. It is clear the big packers, through their industrial factory farming practices, have tightened their stranglehold on our markets driving down farm gate income. The Read More …
Organization for Competitive Markets In the early 80’s, after several years of losing market share to other meats, especially chicken,U.S. beef cattle producers initiated a Beef Checkoff Program (Checkoff Program) to promote beef. The program came into being on the third referendum and was included in the Farm Bill in 1985 as the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985. In 1996, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) became the prime contractor of the Checkoff Program, receiving the Read More …
“You should be suing Walmart [instead of IBP], they are the problem. They tell us what they will pay and we have no choice but to pay you less” – John Tyson was at the 2002 NCBA convention to announce his intent to purchase IBP, the biggest beef packer in the world. Callicrate informed him of the cattlemen’s lawsuit against IBP for unfair market practices. “It has been brought to such a high degree of concentration that it Read More …
October 15, 2015 For Immediate Release: OIG Reconfirms Commitment to Produce Audit Documents Today, before a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, and the attorneys for OCM, OIG reconfirmed their commitment to produce thousands of documents related to the 2013-2014 audit report. This assurance was issued today during a status hearing a little more than a year after the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) filed a complaint for injunctive relief in U. S. District Read More …
USDA Approval of Brazilian Beef Imports Coming Soon?? by Jim Eichstadt | The Milkweed – Dairy’s best information and insights | Issue No. 431 • June 2015 Foot & Mouth Disease Threat Alert! USDA appears to be gearing up to do the unthinkable: allowing fresh beef imports from Brazil, a country contaminated with highly contagious Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). No sane person would dare risk this “nuclear option.” Exposing U.S. livestock herds to an FMD outbreak could devastate millions Read More …
As of June 10, 2015 the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2393 which will deny all Americans from knowing where their beef, chicken or pork comes from. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) of our food is essentially on its way out, if we don’t fight to stop the greed of Multi National companies. Three hundred of our U.S. Representatives have already caved to greed of Multi National Meat Packers and foreign trade tribunals (WTO). My Congressman, Texas Read More …
By Lee Pitts, Livestock Market Digest Sometimes you have to really dig to find a story. And then sometimes it finds you. In the past few weeks I’ve received several phone calls from people associated with the beef checkoff. This alone is a minor miracle because I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms with these folks. Suffice it to say, I’m not on the Christmas card list of the NCBA or the Beef Board. At first I was Read More …
– by Lee Pitts, Livestock Market Digest Sometimes you have to really dig to find a story. And then sometimes it finds you. In the past few weeks I’ve received several phone calls from people associated with the beef checkoff. This alone is a minor miracle because I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms with these folks. Suffice it to say, I’m not on the Christmas card list of the NCBA or the Beef Board. At first I Read More …