Disappointed CICA Director Sends Letter to USDA

Secretary Ed Schafer

United States Department of Agriculture

Washington, DC

(Via E-mail)

Dear Secretary Schafer,

I've just returned home from selling our calves at the local auction. The sale results reminded me of some of the things I've been meaning to write to you about.

My calves were headlined by the sale owner and auctioneer as the "premier" calves of today's sale. My 677# Angus cross black steers sold for 83.50cwt. That's less than $600.00 each for my years work and I obviously did a good job as two buyers as well as many others commented on the quality of my "premier" calves.

The cattle business is not regulated by supply and demand. It is a manipulated market. I don't exclusively blame the USDA for the sorry mess we cattle producers are in, but many of us in the business see the USDA in complicity with the NCBA, and packers. Why do we say this? Please continue with me.

How many years ago was it that COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) was enacted by congress? We finally get labels in the stores October 1, 2008 - and still not labeled product of the USA. "Product of USA, Canada or Mexico"? Does anyone actually think that was the intent of the law? Why bother?

Our very own United States Department of Agriculture has decided that they will import every BSE infected Canadian bovine critter they can, as fast as they can. So much for decisions based on science. We can't imagine why the foreign markets don't trust the safety of US beef... They don't know what country it came from, even after MCOOL. Of course the US consumer doesn't either.

The USDA has so far spent millions (well over 100 million dollars?) to inflict NAIS (National Animal Identification System) upon the US cattleman and other US citizens. We can use Australia's endeavor to employ a very similar ID system and see that the producer pays over $35.00/head for the honor of using the national electronic ear tag that is unreliable at best and they couldn't track a cow if it was healthy and in the pen in front of the house, let alone sick and down the road someplace. In Australia, national animal ID is a bureaucratic nightmare just like it will be here. We do see it as a big jobs program for the USDA and NCBA though.

The beef board and NCBA want US cattle producers to pay double for the check-off fee. That's a pretty good deal for the packer so the US beef producer can pay extra to promote cheep generic foreign imported beef. And, does the NCBA get some of that extra money for administrative fees or something?

And then there's the Brazilian JBS-Swift deal. Five Rivers feeds over 800,000 head of cattle. You think the Batistas couldn't control our cattle market holding this many fed cattle? But then the NCBA says it would be a good deal for international trade. You bet, for the packers, not too good for the cowboys.

Let's don't get started on "free" trade and the globalized economy. Importing most of our oil hasn't worked too well for us. We can't wait until all our food is imported. If our market doesn't support a fair price for safe, high quality domestic calves, why do we even need imports? The beef that the packers import costs the same price for the consumers in the grocery store as domestic, and the consumer still can't tell the Mexican or Canadian imports from the USA raised beef.

Have you ever wondered how R-CALF USA has built membership and raised enough money to take the USDA to court in their relative short time in existence? Have you ever wondered why new state independent cattlemen's associations like the Colorado Independent Cattlegrowers Association have successfully formed and become effective in the political process when the NCBA and Colorado Cattlemen's Association have been around for a long, long time?

The small rancher needed a unified voice before the cattle business went the way of the chicken and hog industry. The old guard seems to be complicit in sharing the handout money from the USDA to push NAIS, sell electronic ear tags, and regulate the small rancher out of business. Make way for corporate farms. Think EXXON farms?

Sincerely,

Tom Moulden

2135 M Rd.

Grand Junction, CO 81505

Good Neighbor Committee
P.O. Box 155 - La Salle, CO  80645
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