Agricultural News
Tanner Beymer Says NCBA Pleased with Messages Delivered to Congress by Volunteer Cattle Leaders of the Group
Thu, 28 Apr 2022 11:48:57 CDT
After two days of hearings on the cattle markets, mandated cash cattle trade and the big four meat packers- Oklahoma Farm Report's Ron Hays talked with Tanner Beymer, Senior Director for Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association about what he heard from the many hours of testimony that came from both the Senate Ag Committee and House Ag Commitee hearings.
Beymer told Hays that he appreciated the questions raised by the ranking member of the Senate Ag Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, about Senate Bill 4030 which has been revised multiple times by its authors, Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa. "Prior to a few weeks ago, the would have imposed only regional negotiated trade mandates on the USDA Five Area- but the most recent iteration of the bill actually would require that the entire continental United States be divided into 5 to 7 geographic regions and each of those would be subject to some sort of regional mandate of what the bill is called an approved pricing mechanism."
Senator Boozman quizzed the USDA officials testifying about how that might be implemented and seemed disatisfied with their answers- Beymet says he think the doubts raised by Seantor Boozman are really valid points.
Beymer says NCBA member Shawn Tiffany of Kansas offered strong arguments why the organization opposes the cattle trade mandates that are featured in the Grassley- Fischer Bill.
Meanwhile in the House- the Ag Commitee had a producer panel that included NCBA President Don Schiefelbein- followed by a panel that featured the CEOs of the four largest beef processors in the United States. Beymer says that NCBA was a little disappointed in the direction that the hearing headed in the House- "It's unfortunate I think that the subject in the House was on the meat packers- I think that there a host of more pressing issues like inflation and input costs that we could have talked about and our President Don Schiefelbein mentioned in his opening statement as well."
Beymer adds that when it comes to the meat packers- NCBA is taking a wait and see approach on their behavior and what might be done to make sure they aare playing fair with cattle producers until the Department of Justice reports on their investigation- he points out that Don Schiefelbein's testimony and later his answers to questions from the Senators both decried the slowness of the investigation by the DOJ by the Big Four Beef Packers. We don't have the results of that investigation and I didn't hear anything in the hearing that really gives us any concrete evidence one way or another. So it's critical that the DOJ investigation wrap up and I think it's important that cattle producers know the results of that investigation and that was one of the messages that our President delivered yesterday."
Listen to the full conversation that Hays and Beymer had on the two Congerssional hearings of this week on Cattle Markets by Clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
Click here for the link to the Seante Ag Committee Hearing
Click here for the link to the House Ag Committee Hearing.
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