By Harold Brummett

Star Denmark Route

 

Jimmy White sent me a text reminding me of the Lafayette County Cattleman Association meeting that was held on Jan. 30. I had already RSVP’d but appreciated the reminder Jimmy sent. 

The speaker was Corbitt Hall, a well-known commercial cattle manager and market analyst. Corbitt gives daily market updates on the internet and speaks frequently around the country on the cattle industry markets and trends. 

Angie and I signed in and talked to several folks. The steak supper was excellent – nobody can cook a steak like a cattleman. 

I had never heard of Corbitt Wall, but the assembled cattlemen from Lafayette and several other counties knew him and he was considered a star. I listened to his presentation and was intrigued by his evidence and assertions. 

Corbitt explained we have lost 107,000 cattle farms and ranches in the past 5 years. The U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been in 70 years. Corbitt indicated that the problem lay with the large corporate packers and their plans to control the market. 

He said the poultry industry was the first to fall victim to corporate manipulation. In that model the farmer signs a contract to build poultry houses and the big corporations deliver the chicks and feed. The poultry farmer owns nothing but his labor and the debt. The corporations control what they pay for the finished birds and in this way keep the poultry farmer ‘on the plantation.’

The pork industry was next. The large packers, with help from big AG and government regulatory rules, manipulated prices to run the small pork producers out of business. Standards set supposedly for the public good (where have we heard that before?) but requiring investments in facilities that the smaller producers could not meet. 

Not just inflation caused the cost of bacon to go up. The only ones going out of business were the small farmers. Large packers and corporations like Smithfield (owned by the Chinese) are doing quite well.  

Now, the cattle industry is next on the chopping block. Using the model (slightly modified) of the poultry and pork industries, the beef industry is being compromised. 

Wall indicated that the free market in the cattle industry is in peril. One tool for control of the small farmer/cattleman is the mandating of the electronic ear tags to track cattle from calves to slaughter. 

Electronic tracking is expensive, unnecessary and once again touted as for the public good.

Fifteen million taxpayer dollars are allocated for the green new deal scheme to track cattle. This will without a doubt be used to limit beef production and help the corporate meat packers to run the cattle business from calf to slaughter. 

As we walked to the car the rainy mist set the mood for our ride home. I like a good steak every now and again, as long as I can afford it.