Ranchers might have to spend more to promote beef consumption

Kevin Smith was one of the speakers during the annual Cattlemen’s Workshop Saturday in La Grande. (Baker City Herald/Ed Merriman)

That, along with advice on beef production practices, warnings about the potentially negative impacts of looming environmental regulation and the importance of ranchers telling their own stories of sustainable land, water and animal care and handling practices, was presented to 120 young ranchers from five Northwest colleges in Baker City Friday, and to more than 400 cattlemen attending the annual Cattlemen’s Workshop Saturday in La Grande.

Forrest Roberts, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said a 2003 case of BSE, or mad cow disease, sent beef demand plunging nationally and among export markets, which led ranchers to cull cattle, shrinking the U.S. cattle herd and slashing National Beef Checkoff funds from a high of $50 million a decade ago to about $40 million this year.

Cattlemen pay $1 on every head of cattle sold to National Beef Checkoff program, which retains half of the money to promote national beef sales, while state cattle associations retain 50 cents for in-state beef and cattle industry promotions.

To offset those declines and inject more funding into the National Beef Checkoff, Roberts told those attending the meetings in Baker City and La Grande that ranchers attending the NCBA’s annual convention this week may be asked to consider doubling the beef checkoff to $2 a head, although implementing that increase would require passage of a national referendum ranchers.

“We are working closely with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board on this issue. The NCBA is looking to counties and state groups for input,” Roberts said.

He said conversations at the national convention in San Antonio, Texas, will look at what an increase to $2 per head or higher would do to boost beef demand and potentially improve beef prices.

Kevin Smith, director of Export Services for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said the main message he wanted ranchers from Oregon, Washington and Idaho to take away from his presentation is that “we can’t market our product overseas if we don’t have access.”

He said every segment of the U.S. beef industry, from the cow/calf producer to the feedlot packer, processor and distributors and marketers, needs to work together to be successful and produce the highest quality beef products, and fight legislation that unfairly restricts other countries from our markets, which in turn triggers barriers to American exports.

Megan Eiseleizgya, a student at Oregon State University and member of the young cattlemen’s group attending the meeting in Baker City, posed one of the tougher questions of the evening when she asked NCBA officials to respond to allegations that they capitulate to the four major national packing companies that dominate the U.S. beef industry and prices received by feedlots and cattle producers.

She said she read a book called “Raising the Stakes” that “describes the NCBA as the propaganda wing of the Big Four packers” and asked “what is your response.?”

Tom Field, NCBA executive director of producer education, responded, saying the packers represent just 8 percent of the NCBA budget, that neither the NCBA or the packers could survive unless the cattle producers survive, so they want them to do well and have their best interests at heart.    

Roberts said NCBA membership has dropped from a peak of almost 37,000 a decade ago to a low of about 29,000, prompting the organization to propose possible dues increases at next week’s national convention even though membership has been rebounding lately to about 32,000.

When it comes to federal legislation affecting cattlemen, Roberts noted that he moved into the NCBA position about the same time Barack Obama was elected president.

Under the Obama administration, Roberts said the Democratically controlled Congress is forging ahead with a variety of environmental measures that could have negative effects on ranchers, from cap and trade legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gases to changes in water rights and animal welfare bills.

Other speakers advised cattlemen to look at animal welfare and other aspects of their ranching operations through the eyes of the housewife in L.A. or New York City who want livestock treated humanely, but who aren’t part of the extremist camp pushing to put them out of business.

Dave Daley, a fifth-generation California rancher and professor at Cal-State Chico, said he lives and works with a liberal urban population who care about animal welfare but also care about ranchers and want to see family ranching traditions continue.

The key to keeping environmental and animal welfare laws reasonable enough so ranchers can survive is winning over that sector of the urban population and thus the legislators who represent them, Daley said.

“We tend to be defensive and like to fight,” Daley said. “That may have been good enough for my dad and for me, but it’s not good enough for our kids or the next generation.”

By telling their stories about their sustainable environmental and animal welfare practices on the ranch, Daley said cattlemen can build bridges and win over the “people who don’t understand what we do.”

“We need to help them understand what it is that we do,” Daley said, adding that most people he’s encountered in the urban population want to protect open spaces.

Ranchers need to explain to those populations that if cattle ranching ends, millions of acres would be open to housing developments.

“There’s more friends out there than you think,” Daley said.

Professor Bernie Rolland described himself as a Brooklyn Jew who has written 15 books on animal welfare and is on a mission to explain the ranching view to the urban public.

Rolland also encouraged ranchers take a positive approach to telling their stories. Educating the public will win over more support being defensive of every environmental law that is proposed, he said.

“I really do like the cow-calf producer,” Rolland said. “The biggest problem you guys have is you do not know how to fight the people you have to fight.

“What I have done since 1980 is teach the kids how to fight ... so my kids can go out and defend their way of life and their livelihood,” Rolland said.

He said most cow/calf producers are doing things right, and they can win the fight against extremists who want to put them out of business.

“In a world where politics and the world economy and marketing conditions are changing faster they they ever have before,  forums like we have here keep our producers in the game,” said John Wilson, an owner of Beef Northwest Feeders, which was one of the primary organizers and sponsors of the Cattlemen’s Workshop Saturday in La Grande, and the Young Cattlemen’s Conference and tour that convened for the first time Friday in Baker City.

Wilson said the workshop and conference provided ranchers from Oregon, Washington and Idaho with an opportunity to hear some of the cattle industry’s top national speakers.

“It helps educate all of us and helps us stay in business,” Wilson said.

Bill Moore, who ranches in Baker County near Unity and recently stepped down after concluding his second year as president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, credited Julie Laird, chairman of the OCA’s Young Cattlemen’s Committee, with organizing the young cattlemen’s tour and stop in Baker City.

Participants visited the Thomas Angus, Harrell Herefords and Mackenzie ranches.

“For a long time we all scratched our heads about how to get young people interested and involved, besides coming to meetings and hearing us old timers fight and discuss,” Moore said.

He said the average age of farmers and ranchers in the United States is 59 and getting older by the day, so getting young ranchers interested in carrying on the ranching traditions is critical to the industry’s future.

Over the past few decades, Moore said returns from ranching have been so low, and the hassles with regulations so onerous, that many in his generation of 50-something and older ranchers have encouraged their children to “get an education and go do something else.”

However, he said as a result the cattle industry has experienced a “brain drain” that is becoming a big concern for the future of the cattle industry.

Moore said there’s a new focus on encouraging bright young ranchers to learn as much as they can about raising and marketing cattle so they can return to the ranch and have a better chance of making a good living and continuing the ranching way of life.