In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays features comments from National Cattlemen’s Beef Association lead lobbyist Ethan Lane, who recently joined farm broadcasters from across the country to discuss the latest issues facing the beef industry. Lane talks about tight cattle supplies, consumer demand, the Farm Bill, and what he hopes comes from the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Tight Cattle Supplies and Strong Beef Demand
“There’s a lot of headline news, a lot of social media hot takes,” Lane said. “We continue to see pretty heavy fixation on herd size, right? 75-year low.”
Lane says that focus can overlook how much beef the U.S. cattle industry is actually producing. “You know what gets missed in that conversation is the volume of beef we’ve been putting out,” Lane said. “We’re putting out more beef in the supply chain than we were in 2015. The efficiency of those animals, the efficiency of the supply chain is different. The quality is exponentially greater.”
He says those improvements are helping support demand for beef. “I think we’re capturing something like 74% of every new protein dollar right now amongst our competitors in the protein space,” Lane said. “That’s a function, even at today’s prices, of the fact that what American cattle producers are putting out the door really resonates with consumers, and is something that they still want to see at the center of their plate.”
Lane Says Cattle Producers Want Less Government Help
Lane talked about the attention cattle producers are receiving from Washington, D.C., as the industry deals with tight supplies and strong cattle prices. “It has truly felt, I think, to a lot of producers like there’s been a lot of effort to break something that was finally helping cattle producers with their bottom line, help them with some higher cattle prices,” Lane said.
Lane says building consumer demand has taken years of work from the cattle industry. “Building a relationship with consumers, driving demand for that product is a feature of sustained work over a long period of time by the U.S. cattle industry to build trust, to build confidence in our product,” Lane said.
He says cattle producers are now watching closely as policymakers consider ways to address issues in the industry. “What we’re hearing most from cattle country right now is, gosh, could we please get less help from the federal government, whether that be from the administration or from Congress,” Lane said.
Frustration Over the Farm Bill
Lane also discussed the Farm Bill and the differences between the House and Senate approaches. “We’ve been long vocal supporters of the House-passed version of the Farm Bill,” Lane said. “I think G.T. Thompson and his team, and quite frankly, folks in ag policy on the House side generally deserve a lot of credit for putting together a bipartisan product.”
But Lane says the Senate Agriculture Committee took a different approach that has created frustration for livestock interests. “The Senate Ag Committee took a very different approach,” Lane said. “They seem to have kind of focused on trying to upset as many different parts of agriculture as possible with their process.”
For cattle producers, Lane says the industry did not ask for much from the legislation. “You know, we didn’t ask much from this bill, and instead we feel like we’ve sort of been the way they’re trying to balance the ledger with some of these other priorities,” Lane said.
What Does Lane Hope Comes From Trump-Xi Meeting?
Lane also spoke about the meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and what it could mean for the beef industry. “I think we’re just hoping for it to go relatively smoothly as far as the president’s meeting with Xi,” Lane said.
Lane says there are significant concerns surrounding international relationships and global supply chains, including the relationship between the United States and China. “We have had at various points in the last few years since the Phase One China deal access to that market that’s been beneficial for our export footprint,” Lane said. “I think we’d like to get back to that at some point in some form.”
Lane says the cattle industry would like to see existing issues addressed without creating additional problems. “Maybe get through it without unlocking any new wrinkles or any new complications, but see if you can put some things to bed and get some issues solved,” Lane said. “Rather than opening up new ones, I think that would probably be welcome news for us in the cattle side.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
