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KCA represented at congressional field hearing
Kansas On June 5, members of Congress held a field hearing in Salina to get a better idea as to the Kansas agriculture industry and the challenges producers face. KCA Board member Lee Robbins was invited to provide testimony. As a fourth generation cow-calf producer, Robbins indicated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented rules that are detrimental to producers and that his biggest challenge as a producer is the current market structure. "I am convinced that the four major packers control USDA whenever a meat issue is at stake. For example, USDA did not allow Creekstone Farms to individually test for BSE for export to Southeast Asia as they requested. The demand there is huge. Kansas State University did a study after losing our export markets to Southeast Asia and estimated that it cost us 14-15 percent of our (U.S. producers') beef's value." "Another recent example of USDA working against me as a producer is trying to tie mandatory identification to country of origin labeling. A simple hot iron brand will suffice for COOL identification and costs producers very little. Individual I.D. would be much more expensive to producers, is hard to implement, and would stop COOL in the long run. Our beef customers and producers want mandatory COOL implemented in the USA and deserve it," Robbins contended. Robbins also stressed how captive supply depresses the live cattle market. He explained that without captive supply, packers would still have the same volume of cattle; they just have to buy them in an open and fair market rather than setting the price themselves and taking advantage of the producer who has no leverage to negotiate. As Robbins closed his testimony, he emphasized that the consolidation and vertical integration of the packing industry has hurt production agriculture and rural communities. "If we stay on the same trail as we have been on, then rural America will suffer even more. We must make some changes to improve producers' profits."
0 None Date: 6/8/07
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