R-Calf USA is warning of catastrophic consequences if the 2023 Farm Bill doesn’t include reforms.  CEO Bill Bullard said the future important infrastructure components to remain competitive such as participants, cattle and markets are in jeopardy.

 

“And for decades we've seen steep declines in the number of each of those three critical elements to our competitive infrastructure," Bullard noted.  "It also demonstrates that over the same timeframe of about a little over a generation, the returns to cattle producers have likewise been steadily declining with a long-term downward trajectory.”

 

Bullard said because of ongoing declines in the sector, he fears the cattle industry will pass the point of no return soon, if the government doesn’t restore competition to the U.S cattle markets.

 

“Meaning we have to offer them a choice, and the only way to do that is to distinguish the USA beef product from among the twenty different countries that we import the from.  So the first step we need to do is to restore mandatory country of origin labeling for beef, and once we've done that, we have to force those highly concentrated meatpackers to begin competing in the cattle market."

 

Bullard noted a recent report that indicated that the cattle industry will suffer the same disastrous decline of the U.S. hog and poultry industries if recommendations aren’t taken seriously.  Check out that entire report by visiting R-Calf's Website.

 

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