At CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to talk with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall. The two men covered many topics including the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, the repeal of the Packers and Stockyards Act proposal, and anti-animal agriculture groups.
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“She’s a fellow Texas and a fellow Aggie,” Woodall said. “We think she’s going to do a fantastic job. The thing we like about Brooke is she knows policy issues, and which end of the animal does what. That is a great thing to be Secretary of Agriculture. I think she’s going to be a tremendous advocate for everybody in ag, but especially for the cattle business.” Rollins’s own children show cattle.
During all 12 years of former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s two terms in office, NCBA has battled his desire to implement a Fairness Rule which would remove premiums on higher-quality cattle and carcasses to create a level playing field for cattlemen. While it may sound like a noble endeavor at first glance, it would remove all incentives to produce a high-quality product for consumers. Vilsack backed away from this pursuit in the time leading up to the 2024 election season.
“We have to be fair in thanking [Secretary Vilsack] for making that decision,” Woodall said. “He finally realized that what he was proposing was going to fundamentally change everything that this industry has done to put in branded beef programs. Forty years, we’ve been working on this, and his proposal was going to take all of that out because, in essence, anything that you were going to do to differentiate your product was going to be a liability under the Packers and Stockyard’s Act.”
Both Hays and Woodall were surprised that Secretary Vilsack actively pulled his proposal from consideration rather than allowing it to expire or get set aside by the Trump administration.
“I’m hoping that he finally realized that when you are talking about competition, you can’t lump us all together,” Woodall said. “Our concerns are different from those of our friends in the poultry and the pork industry. When you lump everybody together, someone is going to get the short end of the stick.”
The topic of the Humane Society of the United States’s decision to change its name supposedly due to the negative connotations that the original name has become associated with was brought up.
Woodall said that he was not surprised. “We, and others in agriculture, have done a really good job of exposing them for the frauds that they are,” he said pointing out how NCBA has helped to hurt the organization’s fundraising efforts by exposing how little of their budget they spend actually helping animals.
“They are desperate for the money, and they are hoping that this name change will fool people into thinking that they are somebody new,” he said. “They’ll come out and ask for $19 per month, again, and we are going to make sure everybody understands that this is just the same wolf in a different sheep’s clothing.”
Woodall expects anti-animal agriculture groups to continue to engage on the farm bill, especially on the Opportunity for Fairness in Farming Act which has more to do with restructuring checkoffs than opportunity, fairness, or farming.
“The reason why they are attacking the checkoffs, especially the National Beef Checkoff has been very successful in increasing beef demand,” Woodall explained. “The last thing they want is more people eating beef. They hope that by attacking the checkoff, they can hit that.”
In addition to HSUS, ASPCA is another organization masquerading as an animal rights group while using the money for activism and Woodall intends to continue to expose them and groups like them as the frauds they have been proven to be.
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 at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
