News

Policy to require cash cattle marketing ‘a long shot’

Cattlemen are not in agreement about how to maintain price discovery in the marketing of cattle.  During the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Region III meeting at the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, Iowa cattleman Brad Kooima (pictured, right, discussing the issue with Jason McCann) told those at the meeting that he would like NCBA policy to mirror Iowa Cattlemen’s Association policy requiring that at least half of fed cattle be marketed on a cash basis.

“We’re passionate that we need to trade more cash cattle,” Kooima told Brownfield Ag News following the meeting among cattlemen from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin.  “We’re just trying to figure out a way to get that message out there.”

The message, according to Kooima, is that too few fed cattle are being marketed to determine what the cattle are worth.

Kooima, who raises cattle near Rock Valley, in the northwestern corner of Iowa, didn’t get much support at the regional meeting, but there was at least empathy from Missouri cattleman Jason McCann.

“We can’t turn a blind eye to these problems,” said McCann after he had addressed the meeting in opposition to the policy proposal from Iowa, “but I don’t know right now a way through that fits both my free-enterpriser, and the understanding that there’s a lot of skin in the game, there’s a lot of people involved, there’s lots of capital.”

The controversy revolves around the part of the policy making cash marketing a requirement for at least half of market ready cattle, and even Kooima concedes it’s unlikely that it would become national policy.

“This is a long shot that this is going to pass,” said Kooima, “a long shot.”

AUDIO: Brad Kooima (4 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Jason McCann (2 min. MP3)