By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard points out that independent cattlemen are often overlooked in the “whole scheme” of things that trails to feedlots, meatpackers and others. He believes ranchers working together will accomplish more than working on their own. -- Photo courtesy of David Smith

Feb. 16, 2006 - Although the United States has the highest quality, safest and most wholesome beef in the world, Bill Bullard, CEO of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), believes there is much U.S. producers can do to make things better.

On Feb. 14, more than 60 cattle producers from 19 states went to Washington, D.C. for the annual “fly in,” in order to talk with members of Congress, the administration, trade officials, and officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As the R-CALF members “stampeded” the groups, the major items for discussion were topics such as the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL), the National Amimal Identification System (NAIS), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) standards and other animal health standards, along with internatioonal free trade agreements. 

Obviously, R-CALF is most interested in safeguards for cattle and beef.

Texans were among those representing R-CALF in Washington. Other members are from California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota and Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

“For too long, Congress has been led to believe that the meatpackers are the appropriate representatives for the entire beef-suppy chain, and that what is good for the packers must, also, be good for the producers,” said R-CALF National Membership Co-Chair Margene Eiguren of Oregon. “Only by joining R-CALF USA and participating in events such as this fly-in can we change this misperception. That’s why this is such an important opportunity for us as U.S. cattle producers.”

R-CALF President and Region V Director Chuck Kiker, of Beaumont, noted, “ ... to compete effectively on a global basis, U.S. cattle producers must have the ability to differentiate their products from beef products derived from othr counties. We, also, need Congress to help us keep our domestic markets competitive, and to restore that sort of competitiveness, we’ll have to work with the Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) to make sure there’s transparency throughout the different segments of the beef-supply chain.”

Bullard has recently been speaking at meetings around Texas, as well as in other states, speaking to individual beef producers, explaining how he believes R-CALF can help them continue to keep the high standards for health and safety, as well as generate the top dollar to owners. Bullard tells the groups he visits that there are several steps beef producers can take to insure that they continue to get “top dollar” in domestic and export markets. This includes all of the above subjects discussed in Washington during the “fly-in.”

R-CALF, a national, non-profit organization, represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on domestic and international trade and marketing issues. Bullard explained that in 2005, 8,000 new members joined R-CALF. The group now has a total of 18,000 members within 47 states. He said the goal for this year is to add 7,000 more members to the organization in order to create the largest influence in the cattle industry, for individual ranchers.

Bullard, who is influential in his presentations because of his knowledge of the cattle industry, explained that things in the business changed in 2003 with the discovery of BSE in America. Bullard noted that between 1990 and 2002, the number of U.S. cattle was around 8 million head, and, today, the count shows the smallest number of cattle in the United States since the 1950s. Around 120,000 producers have left the cattle industry, he cited.

Even with all the negative factors, he said cattle prices today, up more than $20 per hundredweight (cwt), reflect the biggest jump in three decades. Bullard urged producers to find a “meaningful way” to handle both the domestic and foreign markets. He urged producers to band together and demand safeguards and trade agreements for imports.

Bullock cited the fact that independent cattlemen are often overlooked in the “whole scheme” of things that trails to feedlots, meatpackers and others. He believes that if the beef cattle ranchers work together, they will be able to accomplish more than working on their own when it comes to changing the way things have been working.

A major point of contention with Bullard concerns the USDA. He pointed out that R-CALF is intent upon preventing the USDA from relaxing food safety standards, just because Canada and Japan have refused U.S. beef. 

Bullock noted that individual beef producers need to elevate their influence with meatpackers, and one way to do that is to bind together to force such changes.

U.S. beef is the safe, and U.S. consusmers continue to be the number one beef consumer nation. For producers, that’s good news. Even with tighter supplies of beef in the past few years, Bullard noted, the demand has continued to increase, even though there were 57 countries that closed imports to the United States over the past years.