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RCALF urges emergency relief for cattle producers

The head of RCALF USA has sent what he calls an “emergency” letter to President Trump urging stopgap and permanent measures to help cattle producers avert the collapse of their industry.

Bill Bullard tells Brownfield Ag News they are urging the decision to allow raw Brazilian beef into the U.S. be suspended, “Because this announcement that Brazilian beef would soon enter the United States was one of the first stages of the further collapse of our marketplace even before the coronavirus was even mentioned for the United States.”

Bullard says RCALF has also asked the president to direct the Department of Justice to investigate the activities in the marketplace, “To determine the cause of this inexplicable volatility in the marketplace that’s marked by severely depressed cattle prices while wholesale beef prices are hitting skyrocketing levels.”

RCALF wants limits on the percentage of cattle that packers can procure which would undermine the market and labels saying where animals from which beef is derived was born, raised and harvested.

RCALF is also asking Trump to direct lenders to grant emergency extensions of loan repayment deadlines and provide emergency operating funds; to provide capital gains tax relief ; and, eliminate red tape for small beef packers that are state inspected to allow them to immediately ship beef across state lines to relieve the bottleneck that’s slowing beef to consumers.

Bullard says the government has for too long ignored real reform in the cattle industry. He is asking for a face to face meeting with Trump.