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Rally speakers issue warning to cattle producers

Several speakers at Wednesday’s rally for fair cattle markets in Omaha warned that the cattle industry could go the way of hogs and poultry.

Chris Peterson, an independent pork producer from Iowa, told the 500 people in attendance that what happened to the pork industry in the 90’s could happen to them.

“We’re being mined, and they want to turn us all into serfs. Good little producers who answer to the corporations,” Peterson said. “Don’t let that happen to your cattle guys. Don’t. They’ve done it to the chickens, they’ve done it to the pigs. Now they’re after the cattle.”

Zack Buttram runs a cow-calf operation in northeast Alabama. He says his family used to be big in the chicken business, but they were blackballed after speaking out against the company they grew chickens for.

“I don’t want the same thing happening to the cattle market,” Buttram says. “Once these big packers can get total control of it, then it’s bad news for everybody. Because when they don’t have competition, you may pay five dollars for hamburger meat today, but when they get rid of us, it may be 15 or 20 dollars per pound. You never know.”

The groups that sponsored this rally, including OCM and R-CALF, are calling on President Trump to take action to rein in the big beef packers.