 |
||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
The president of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association has a beef with pork barrel politics bailout programs. Richard McDonald, President and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, said the administration's bailout of floundering hog programs is a waste of time and resources since it doesn't address the problem of too much meat in the marketplace. Hog producers will be eligible for direct cash payments under the $50 million program. Producers will not be paid for hogs marketed under a marketing arrangement for the packer, according to the USDA. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman said the funds will come out of a federal program used to buy surplus commodities for distribution to federal food programs. "We don't think it will come anywhere close to accomplishing anything," McDonald said of the program. "All it is, is a payment to them. It has nothing to do with reducing the surplus of hogs that are out there. It has nothing to do with improving prices." He said the administration or USDA needs to look at ways of reducing the surplus meat in the marketplace or to improve prices. Cattle producers have lost four times the equity of hog producers over the last few years. "There's no doubt that cattlemen have lost a lot more than hog farmers," McDonald said. "If you look back, we've basically been in a negative situation for nearly three years. The pork industry has been in a negative situation for only the last couple months of 1998. It's short term for them where it's been long term for us." Even then, McDonald said he does not believe direct payments to producers are beneficial because that does not solve the problem. "The way you solve the problem," he said, "is to work on the surplus production we have." He said that would have to be done by expanding exports. There are things that can be done, McDonald said, that would help solve the supply problem without costing the taxpayers anything, unlike the bailout for the pork industry. For example, McDonald said he hopes the administration will work on the EU ban of beef. "We know that the European Union has held beef out of their countries for many years now," McDonald said. "That needs to be corrected. That is something that the administration can really get on and accomplish." The government will have a chance to do that in May when European Union nations are scheduled to open their markets to U.S. beef. There remains a question whether they actually will and what actions the U.S. government will take. McDonald also said that cattlemen have been at a competitive disadvantage with poultry producers concerning inspections. TCFA joined the National Cattlemen's Beef Association earlier this month in complaining about a new rule USDA is proposing to reduce the inequities between poultry and beef inspections. The proposed rule, McDonald said, does not resolve the red meat and poultry inequity issue with regard to water weight allowances that poultry carcasses have been historically afforded. "The labeling alternative to allow necessary water retention," TCFA said in written comments to the USDA, "is not a solution to resolving this inequity issue, but rather appears to be a gimmick which allows the poultry industry to sell water to the consumer." NCBA said the consumer would benefit from such a move, particularly when consumers are paying up to five dollars per gallon for added water when they buy poultry at the grocery store. McDonald also said that Canadian cattle are coming into the U.S. for direct slaughter and are graded by the USDA. "Since that is not a U.S. product, it should not be allowed to have USDA grades," he said. |
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
All information is copywrited by Feed Lot magazine and cannot be printed or re-printed
without the publishers express consent. Please contact
Feed Lot Magazine for reprint and copy authorization.
|
||||