R - Calf

[amazed]

R-calf has stated they will launch a lawsuit against the USDA if the US border opens to Canadian live cattle.

In the next breath R-calf is supporting Creekstone who wants to BSE test cattle they slaughter for Japan. Creekstone also wants the border open to live Canadian cattle.

Doesn't sound like R-calf is taking care of business, but is instead busy chasing their tail.

[rsomer]

This clip from Animalnet has the NCBA reaction to R-Calf. The clip also includes some hints on how the NCBA sees the border opening to Canadian live cattle.

NCBA executive committee opposes litigation that threatens opening of international markets: R-calf tactic ignores science, overall industry goals
April 19, 2004
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
http://www.beef.org/dsp/dsp_content.cfm?locationId=45&contentTypeId=2&cont entId=2604
Efforts to build a global market for U.S. beef based on science would be harmed by frivolous litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to close the U.S. border to Canadian beef and cattle, according to the officers and executive committee of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). R-Calf/United Stockgrowers of America has threatened to sue the USDA to keep the border closed until Canada is recognized internationally as “BSE-Free.”
Passed in an NCBA Executive Committee teleconference last Friday was the following statement: “The NCBA Executive Committee, comprised of cattlemen from across the country, opposes this type of lawsuit that restricts the opportunity to reopen international markets that benefit U.S. cattle producers.”
According to NCBA President Jan Lyons, a cattle and beef producer from Manhattan, Kan., efforts to recapture the $13-15 per hundredweight lost to beef exports following the Dec. 23 incident in Washington state would suffer as a result of R-Calf’s action.
“We really can’t expect our export partners to base their decisions on science if we’re not willing to do the same thing with those who export products to us,” Lyons says. “When it comes to Canada, we expect that border to be opened in such a way that it would not harm our domestic market, that Canadian heifers be permanently identified and not allowed to enter the U.S. breeding herd through feedlots, and that Canada abide by equivalency principles on cattle and beef so that we have unrestricted movement of cattle and beef to Canada.
“At the same time, we want to assure that Japan and other importing countries abide by internationally accepted science in their trade with the United States. We firmly believe the science provides assurances to all beef consumers, both here and abroad, that U.S. beef is safe. We simply cannot address international trade one country at a time.”
Lyons says the best way to recapture losses due to trade sanctions against the U.S. is to show the world how to conduct trade based on science, not to work overtime to create new trade sanctions against countries.
“This lawsuit threat is consistent with other R-Calf isolationist actions that would ultimately prove detrimental to cattlemen,” according to Lyons. “It appears to be a membership-generating effort that ignores the value of U.S. beef exports to cattlemen. It also ignores science that shows the border can be reopened safely, and done without harm to U.S. cattlemen if done properly.
“If we applied the R-Calf criteria of ‘prohibiting imports of live cattle or beef from countries with BSE in their herds,’ then other countries, like Japan, would apply the same standard to us – regardless of the animal’s origin,” Lyons says.

[cowman]

I wonder how much less money the American rancher is getting for his feeder calf since Japan shut the door over BSE? The fact is someone definitely makes money on beef shipped to Japan...but is it the American cow/calf producer?
And I also wonder how much more money the American cow/calf producer got for his feeder calf when the border closed to Canada last May? And how much more money he got for his cull cow?
These people would be complete idiots if they welcomed an open border! What would happen?...Well right off the bat their cow price would drop like a rock? And I assume so would their feeder cattle? For what? The promise that they are going to share in the lucrative Japanese market? I don't think so and I don't think they are that dumb to ever believe that. The fact is they won't get one nickel more for their calf, whether a Japanese eats it or an American!
Somehow R-calf is portrayed as this bunch of radicals, when in reality they are just a bunch of old boys trying to protect their life? I guess they need to be sent away for "re-education" because they haven't bought into the idea of globalism? Somehow we're all supposed to believe that "globalism" is a good thing and we will all be better off. In fact what will globalism mean for you and me? It will mean we get to live by the lowest common denominator....which could be tricky! Living in a mud hut at 40 below could be fairly raw?

[cswilson]

R-Calf is nothing but a bunch of ill informed protectionists-case in point-Leo McDonell while fervently espousing antiCanadian views manages to swallow his pride and cash my cheque for a bull I purchased in Midland. Pat Goggins another good old robber baron has no trouble taking Canadian royalty cheques on semen he sells up here. They are so full of crap they stink. They have not made the average producer one red cent with all the posturing. The majority of my ranch friends in Wyoming and Montana wish they'd just shut up.

[Willowcreek]

One thing you have to say though about R-CALF- they are developing a grassroots backing amongst cattlemen. 629 new members in the months of Jan. and Feb. alone.

And the Creekstone testing issue with the USDA and NCBA's support of the USDA is not playing well with many old NCBA members. Look for it to be a huge recruitment bonus for R-CALF.

[Willowcreek]

I'd tend to agree with wilson on this one. These guys are not just out to look after their cow and feeder prices, (which I question are being fueled completely by the border closure) but out to line their own pockets. I have yet to see an organisation of so called capitalists who do what is best for the grass roots.

This Goggins fellow wrote an amazing article in his own newspaper last October about how Canadian Ranchers would be kicking the Americans Ranchers asses if the shoe were on the other foot. I wrote him and asked if lepers like us Canadians would ever be welcome to advertise in his paper again. What do you think his response was.

I would like to bet that the border closure and all of it's affect on new Rcalf members has had a velvet lining for Goggins and his band of merry men.

Sure we need a bit more than the complete lack of protectionism that Canada offers, but to say these R calf hipocrites are doing any more than helping themselves ---- come on!

[cowman]

I suspect a lot of these "ignorant protectionists" aren't really all that ignorant but are trying to protect their interests? When the day comes that South American beef can enter our country I wonder if we will be such staunch free traders?...Sure you can sell your 50 cent grass fed beef here boys! Come on in!...that sort of thing?
If you find these R-calf types so offensive why are you still dealing with them?
Perhaps these ignorant farmers have gotten fed up with their National Cattle Associations? Sort of like how a lot of people are up here with the ABP/CCA? Maybe they think the National Cattlemans Ass. doesn't represent them at all...but the packers and big lots?...Again sort of like here?
Maybe it's time we had a grass roots organization that represented the cow/calf guy too?

[cswilson]

I find as ranchers get older they get less innovative as well as free enterprise and more lets watch the retirement kitty so it doesn't lose value. There is opportunities for wealth creation in ranching today as there has been forever. Aggressive innovative producers will adapt and find it-ranching is like any other business-there are people making money and people losing money every day-trust me there would still be ranchers going broke at $2.00 calves and there still will be ranchers making money at $1.00 calves. We definately don't need R-Calf in Canada-like it's been mentioned they are nothing but a splinter group representing a very small percentage of U.S. cattlemen.

[cowman]

I guess you are right cwilson. Someone will always raise cattle no matter how little return they get on their money. And they'll figure out a way to do it cheaper...like feed them sawdust or something!
Which is alright I suppose. The general consensus in the "holistic approach" seems to be that they need to be able to rustle up their own feed and they can bed in the snow. Now a guy like me can't, or actually I should say won't, compete with that philosophy. When I drive by a bunch of cattle plastered with frozen manure from sleeping in the snow and its forty below I frankly am disgusted! Or see cows out trying to graze in the cold with a SE wind blowing. Or see a dead cow with a dead calf sticking out of her because no one was there to help.
I guess I'm too much old school. I believe what my Dad said" If you can't take care of them, don't own them."
So defacto, I don't belong in the "new cattle business", nor do I want to.
I'll let those "innovative entrepreneurs" get out there and squeeze that last nickel out of those old cows. Hope the SPCA or PETA doesn't catch them?

[cowman]

What an utterly disgusting description of sustainable agriculture. cowman you are totally out to lunch on that one.