According to Jerod McDaniel, there are multiple issues across the entire cattle industry and they are layered in through the generations. Along with these issues, there are producers that don’t feel the need to do more than they already do to try to help themselves. The majority of the problems in the industry fall at the producer’s feet because they have refused to take the bull by the horns and say we aren’t going to take this anymore. It’s clear that the system is rigged, but for some reason, we all continue to play it. 

The mess that we have in the industry is one that can’t be untangled. The legislative angle has been tried for so long and we are no further along than we were years ago. There aren’t any cattle producers climbing the ladder. What’s the upward mobility of becoming a rancher right now? We’re all servants, myself included, but I’m going to do my best to find a way to sell direct or fall in with other people who are more aligned with that approach, stated McDaniel. 

We continue to see per capita consumption of beef increase and consumers are paying more for beef, but producers are seeing less and less of the consumer dollar as time goes on. This is an obvious, glaring failure in the cattle industry. With the way our industry is heading today, we will eventually become vertically integrated like the hog and poultry industries. 

Our cattle organizations are supposed to be working for producers, but instead they are acting like a bunch of little kids throwing rocks at each other. The people within our organizations are great people, but they focus too much on assigning the blame, which they think will make everything better. All this has done is turn into a pissing contest to see who can blame whom. Cattle organizations are chasing after missions that aren’t accomplishable with their current plans, so no one is going anywhere. 

Fake meat will most likely continue to gain some traction because it is so well funded. Right now people want to fund “feel good” organizations, and there are several of these organizations that are adamantly opposed to beef. We essentially have a political party coming against beef and a climate organization that is specifically targeting beef. The crazy thing about all of this is that the beef processors aren’t the ones taking the hit, instead, it’s coming down on the producers as more and more regulations are put in place against cattle. 

When it comes to agriculture, the Biden administration will most likely throw a pile of money at the industry. Former President Trump was already doing this; we’re going to see the Biden administration pick up that torch and send as much money to the heartland as possible. This will further disrupt the markets and allow people to overproduce, which will take prices down and we’ll be right back where we started.