Mandating Cattle Marketing Solutions Dangerous For Individual Operations

WASHINGTON, DC – At the start of the coronavirus lockdown in the U.S., a run on the meat counter left grocery store shelves bare and the cattle industry maimed. As packers reaped the benefit of higher prices through skyrocketing demand, cattlemen were left with very low prices at the auction gate. This event caused serious damage to an industry that relies on every segment in the supply chain to make a profit most of the time. Since that obviously didn’t occur, there have been conversations about how to market cattle in the United States and the focus has been on increasing price discovery. Some ideas call for establishing a minimum threshold for transactions. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) agrees that the industry should promote a more robust price discovery system, but not at the expense of producers’ ability to utilize value-based, consumer-driven marketing arrangements. Writing in a recent Market Intel piece, economist Michael Nepveux argues that producers, not the federal government, know the best course of action for their individual operations and that there is no easy one-size-fits-all solution. The National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) appointed a working group to study the options one year ago and are pressing toward industry alternatives.
(SOURCE: American Farm Bureau Federation)