Current Cattle Markets Daily Headlines: Thursday May 14, 2020

Mackenzie Johnston

6 years ago

NCBA opposes government mandate restricting cattle marketing options

NCBA released a statement yesterday in response to the bill introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Jon Tester that would require a minimum of 50% of a meat packer’s volume of beef slaughter to be purchased on the cash market.
NCBA feels that government mandates, like the one proposed, would arbitrarily force many cattle producers to change the way they do business.
The cattlemens organization feels that the bill being proposed would restrict a producer’s freedom to pursue various marketing avenues.

To compensate for the beef shortage we are seeing here in America, Mexican steaks and other beef cuts are headed north. These shipments will hopefully offset the widespread shortages that grocery stores and restaurants are now facing, but American cattle producers are less than thrilled with this news.
These shipments were made possible by new safety measures being adopted in Mexican processing plants. Smaller scale plants have also kept up with processing demands and have been able to keep infections away.
Even before Covid-19, imports of Mexican beef were strong. Imports are now expected to see double-digit growth in 2020, according to Juan Ley, president of Mexico’s main cattle growers association.
In 2019, Mexico was the third largest foreign beef supplier to the U.S., with exports reaching 232,000 tonnes. The U.S. accounted for approximately 86% of total Mexican beef exports, worth $1.3 billion.
As we all know, here in America we have the four major beef packing companies- Cargill, Tyson, JBS, and National Beef Packing. In comparison, Mexico has 30 federally regulated processing plants of varying sizes.

Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota have come forward with a resolution to support Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) for U.S. beef products. Senator Steve Daines of Montana, John Thune of South Dakota, and Cory Booker of New Jersey also joined with Tester and Rounds on this supportive resolution.
According to Senator Tester, MCOOL is needed for consumers to distinguish between high quality American beef, and lesser quality imported beef. He feels that MCOOL would give American cattle producers the upper hand by allowing them to showcase their quality product that was raised here within our borders.
Covid-19 has shown the importance of food security, transparency for consumers and food supply chain issues. Senator Rounds feels these reasons are enough to reinstate MCOOL. “This is not only misleading to consumers when they purchase meat at the grocery store, it puts our producers at a competitive disadvantage when marketing their products. This is a win-win for producers and consumers,” said Rounds.

R-Calf released a statement on Wednesday regarding the resolution proposal by Senator Tester and Rounds saying that they were disappointed with the proposal.
Currently, over 375,000 signatures have been retrieved for the petition urging Congress and President Trump to pass new MCOOL legislation.
Bill Bullard said this resolution wouldn’t provide U.S. cattle producers any relief from imported cattle and beef arriving from approximately 20 foreign countries.