The group in question is Food & Water Watch, which regularly attacks agriculture on the issues of animal rights and the environment.  R-CALF has partnered with Food & Water Watch in support of the proposed GIPSA livestock marketing rules.  NCBA issued a news release criticizing R-CALF for that affiliation.

R-CALF president Bill Bullard calls NCBA’s criticism “absurd”.  He says the partnership with Food & Water Watch and other consumer groups not only helps R-CALF attain its goals. He says it also gives cattlemen the opportunity to educate those groups on the safety and wholesomeness of beef and to explain the industry’s production practices.

In its parting shot, R-CALF calls NCBA’s criticism “a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association stands accused of cheating and misusing government-mandated Beef Checkoff Program dollars.”

Attorney General Chris Koster says the settlement provides a firm schedule under which modern technology will be installed in hog barns operated by the company, and Koster says the agreement also includes $1 million in voluntary payments by the company. PSF will pay $100,000 each to the local county school funds for the counties of Gentry, Daviess, Mercer, Sullivan and Putnam. PSF will pay a total of $500,000 to the county road funds for the following amounts: Daviess ($90,000), Gentry ($90,000), Grundy ($50,000), Mercer ($90,000), Putnam ($90,000) and Sullivan ($90,000).

Considering the penalties, the Missouri AG is confident PSF will meet the deadlines set in the settlement, $2,000 per day, per barn, for the first 30-days of noncompliance, the penalty goes to $4,000 for the next 30 days of noncompliance and then $6,000 per day for 60 days and beyond of noncompliance.

“Now, no company is going to eat those kinds of penalties when the other option is simply to apply the modern technologies to the barn as required,” said Koster.

Premium Standards Farm President Bill Homan calls the time-line aggressive, but says the company will install the $7.5 million in equipment on time. And Homan says the settlement should finally resolve the dispute which he says put 1,100 jobs in jeopardy.

“I think it is just a great bit of news for our employees and for the economy here in north Missouri,” Homan said.

Boxed beef cutout values were higher at midday, choice beef is up .33 at 162.95, and select is .55 higher at 157.41.

Cattle receipts at the Huss Platte Valley Auction in Nebraska on Wednesday totaled 1800 head. Compared with two weeks ago, based on a narrow test steers trended fully steady and heifers were steady. Demand and trade activity was moderate to good. Slaughter cows and bulls trended fully steady. Feeder cattle medium and large 1; 618 steers averaging 871 pounds traded at 113.46 per hundredweight. 1443 heifers weighing 828 pounds brought 108.73.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota trade opened 1.02 lower; the West is down .87 with both at 77.00 on a carcass basis. Eastern direct trade is .71 lower at 76.38. Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady to 1.00 lower from 73.00 to 74.00. Nationally on a live basis barrows and gilts are 2.43 higher from 58.50 to 64.00, with a weighted average of 63.27.

Iowa barrows and gilts last week averaged 265.6 pounds, 1 pound lighter than the previous week, and1.4 pounds below 2009.  The scale house is having a tough time finding the seasonal bottom as smaller market hogs reflect the ravages of the hot summer as well as very current finishing floors.

Boxed beef cutout values were mixed at midday, with choice beef down .61 at 163.03, and select up .20 at 157.08.

At the Ozarks regional Stockyards at West plains, Missouri on Tuesday, feeder cattle receipts totaled 5556 head. Compared to last week, steers and heifers traded 2.00 to 5.00 lower, with spots of 8.00 to 10.00 lower. Feeder steers medium and large 1 and 1-2 weighing 500 to 600 pounds traded from 108.00 to 122.00, 7 to 8 weights from 103.00 to 114.00 per hundredweight. 500 to 600 pound heifers brought 102.50 to 114.00 and 7 to 8 weights from 97.50 to 104.00.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade are 1.65 lower, and the west is down 1.46, both are at 77.63 on a carcass basis, the East is .44 lower at 77.12.The Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady at 74.00.

 Many hog buyers remain short bought at midweek, forcing them to ignore plunging product prices. Ready numbers remain tighter than most expected. Furthermore, the Saturday kill may be larger than first thought, perhaps as high as 60,000 head.

For updated market information throughout the day tune to your favorite Brownfield affiliate radio station.

According to NCBA, R-CALF and Food and Water Watch have joined forces on the campaign to support the proposed GIPSA rule on livestock marketing.  NCBA president Steve Foglesong says that Food and Water Watch is one of the groups working “obstruct the success of U.S. agriculture and its efforts to feed a growing global population.”  Foglesong says it is concerning that another cattle organization “is admittedly partnering with a group that spreads fiction as fact to 98 percent of the population removed from production agriculture.”

FDA says several buildings had openings allowing flies, rodents, wild animals and other birds to enter the facilities.  At one farm, hens outside their cages were tracking manure throughout their facilities.  Investigators also found that employees going from house to house did not change protective clothing and that equipment moved from site to site was not being sanitized.

Feedstuffs.com quotes FDA deputy commissioner Mike Taylor as saying there is no reason to believe that the conditions at the two farms are indicative of industry-wide practices.  The two farms are owned by the same individual.

Taylor also called for passage of food safety legislation in Congress that would give FDA more access to records and mandatory recall authority.

Boxed beef cutout values were mixed at midday, with the choice up .32 at 164.06, and select down .33 at 157.25.

Tri-State Livestock Auction, Mc Cook, Nebraska had receipts of 1200 cattle on Monday. There was no comparison with last week due to weight differences. Feeder steers medium and large 1, 200 head described as fancy averaging 534 pounds traded at 146.00. 108 heifers averaging 715 pounds traded at 113.28 per hundredweight.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade opened 2.49 higher at 79.82 on a carcass basis, the West was up 2.36 at 79.74, and the east was down 1.27 at 77.62. Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady to 1.00 lower at 74.00.

Although early week hog sales were lower on Monday, country movement was quite slow with national volume no more than 10,817 head. Packers may find it necessary to try harder if they want to put together sufficient numbers for a profitable slaughter schedule before breaking for the long weekend.

For updated livestock information throughout the day tune to your local Brownfield affiliate radio station.

At the recent ag competition workshop in Colorado, Vilsack cited statistics showing that the spot market for hogs has declined from 62 percent in 1994 to less than four percent today.  And he says trends indicate the cash cattle market is headed that way as well.

 “In 1999, the spot market for cattle was 68 percent.  Today it’s closer to 52 percent nationally and we know, in some parts of the country, it’s less than 30 percent,” Vilsack says. “This thinning spot market is a concern because it sets the base prices in marketing contracts.” 

But James Herring of Friona Industries in Texas, one of the nation’s largest cattle feeding operations, says the cash markets are a very poor method of determining value in cattle—and that’s why they are on the decline.

 “Cattlemen are just getting smarter about determining value for the product,” says Herring, “and believe me, since all our formulas are based on the cash, if the industry ever sees the cash market becoming a poor mechanism for value transmissions, the industry participants will solve the problem—not the government.” 

The president of the Iowa Farmers Union, pork producer Chris Petersen of Clear Lake, Iowa, believes the contraction of the cash market has opened the door to market manipulation by the packers. 

“A hundred-thousand hog a day on the spot market—half of those spot transactions are packer-to-packer.  Isn’t that amazing?” says Petersen. “I’ve really been convinced for a long time that something’s going on here.” 

Analysts say as the use of formula pricing and grid pricing contracts has increased, cash hog markets have declined in importance.  However, they remain an important formula in determining the base price for those contracts.

Ohio agriculture director Robert Boggs tells the Columbus Dispatch that he considers the agreement brokered by Ohio ag interests and The Humane Society of the United States to be “non-binding”.  And Boggs says it’s still up to the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to decide if it wants to follow the deal or not. 

Meanwhile, HSUS head Wayne Pacelle has reminded members of the Livestock Care Standards Board that HSUS could still proceed with an animal welfare ballot initiative in Ohio.  He says that will depend on what the board does as it works through tough policy issues related to confinement of swine and poultry.

At the recent ag competition workshop in Colorado, Marquette, Kansas cattle feeder Allan Sents said he doesn’t buy that argument.

“One of the biggest disagreements we have is with the critics of this rule change saying that it’s all about procuring quality cattle,” Sents said. “That has nothing to do with it. The largest supply agreements have had everything to do with supply and controlling that inventory, and nothing to do with quality cattle—and that’s been show by numerous studies and examples.”

AUDIO: Allan Sents (3:30 MP3)

But the man in charge of the fourth largest cattle feeding operation in the U.S., James Herring of Friona Industries in Amarillo, Texas, says alternative marketing arrangements allow producers to get paid for the value they add.

“As sorted as our cattle are, it’s nothing for us to see $400 a head difference in a single pen,” says Herring. “So with that diversity in the herd, calling those animals the same in value is almost laughable.  That’s like saying that all cars out in this parking lot are the same because they’ve got four wheels.  It’s just silly.”

AUDIO: James Herring (9 min MP3)

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says new liabilities associated with the proposed GIPSA rule will likely cause cattle buyers to withdraw marketing arrangements rather than run the risk of litigation.