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R-CALF’s Bullard sees ‘firestorm’ developing
The CEO of cattle group R-CALF USA, Bill Bullard, says he’s been warning about “broken markets” in the cattle industry for nearly two decades. And he thinks producers are finally starting to listen.
“I think we’ve hit the point of the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’, and that was the August 9th fire in Holcomb, Kansas that caused our already declining prices to collapse even further,” Bullard says. “That’s caught the attention and created a virtual firestorm within our industry.”
Bullard says cattle producers are realizing that the marketplace is not producing a competitive price for their animals.
“And this at a time when we have strong beef demand, strong exports, and consumers paying near-record prices for beef—and all of that is now equating to severely depressed prices paid to producers. Producers are realizing that something is systemically wrong with our industry.”
Bullard was one of the speakers at this week’s rally for fair cattle markets in Omaha. Organizers estimated over 500 people attended the event.
Tags: beef, beef packers, beef plant fire, Bill Bullard, cattle, Cattle markets, Markets, R-CALF USA
The day when all livestock producers become one single corporation will make slaughter houses pay the fair market value of the animal! If we continue to allow the meat packers to dictate market price and not the natural economic course, we the producers will always struggle to survive! Slaughter houses/meat packers do not suffer what we do!