HAY MAKER
Well-known member
Ag secretary spars with R-CALF
Knight Ridder News
June 2, 2005
O'NEILL, Neb. - Standing before more than 100 local farm and ranch families, the national president of R-CALF tells the group he is a "middle of the road" rancher and not a radical.
But in the past few weeks, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has characterized Leo McDonnell's group as isolationists who are confused about their own message and who use lawsuits to push their agenda.
"When you look at Canada, you are looking at a multibillion-dollar issue," McDonnell said later. "Our opposition certainly isn't going to send flowers."
He has seen the Billings-based Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, which he helped found, draw increasing criticism, especially since its lawsuit locked down a plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resume live cattle imports from Canada.
The organization says its membership is growing, up about 3,000 this year to 15,000.
McDonnell operates one of the nation's largest bull testing and sale businesses near Columbus. Married with four children, he also feeds cattle and owns ranchland in Montana and South Dakota.
He spoke recently at a dinner and charity auction in the memory of Tom Whitehill of O'Neill, the group's Nebraska membership chairman. Whitehill, who died of cancer last fall, helped enlist more than 300 members in Holt County, the most of any county in Nebraska.
The O'Neill fundraiser collected $28,000 for R-CALF. Such auctions, typically at sale barns, have become R-CALF's preferred method of fundraising.
"That's unprecedented in our industry," McDonnell said. "You can't tell me a time before when rural America has come to that level of fundraising."
The border closure helped R-CALF gain in influence among cattle producers, boosting its membership enough to add a new staff member to its Billings office.
The United States closed its border to live cattle in May 2003 after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was found in Canada. Another case from a Canadian-born animal was found in the United States later that year, prompting some other countries to quit buying U.S. beef.
Last January, the USDA moved to reopen the border to live cattle even as Canada found two more cases. Meatpackers want Canadian cattle because a shortage of U.S.-raised animals has created two years of high prices. But R-CALF won a temporary court order keeping the border closed.
If R-CALF doesn't challenge the USDA's decision on live Canadian cattle, McDonnell said, no one will.
"We're going to become a dumping ground for food products from countries known to have (mad cow disease) that every other modern country has banned," he said.
A federal court hearing on the issue is set for late July in Montana. The USDA and other cattle groups also have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let Canadian imports resume.
Over the past month, Johanns has increasingly singled out R-CALF in statements, criticizing the group for its efforts to keep the Canadian border closed. Johanns said suing the government shouldn't be the solution to every problem.
"I really think their message is, 'We want to isolate our country,' " he said. R-CALF seems to file lawsuits whenever an issue doesn't go its way, he said.
Johanns said he was frustrated with the pace of the legal proceedings, so he scheduled a summit to spur discussion about the science of mad cow disease. The meeting will be June 9 at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.
McDonnell said he believes Johanns "has been given some bad advice," particularly by former members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association now on the staff of the USDA.
"We're not going to return the same tones he did to us," McDonnell said.
The list of those invited to testify includes most major beef and meatpacking trade groups, as well as dairy producers, the National Association of State Directors of Agriculture and the World Organization for Animal Health from Paris.
While some congressmen have suggested opening the Canadian border through legislation, McDonnell is confident that won't happen. The main reason, he said, is that Congress doesn't want to draw attention to the issue because of the volume of beef imports.
"If you don't have mandatory country-of-origin labeling, you damned sure aren't going to make a big deal about all the beef coming down, are you?" McDonnell said. "USDA is aware of that."
The Billings Gazette
billingsgazette.com
Knight Ridder News
June 2, 2005
O'NEILL, Neb. - Standing before more than 100 local farm and ranch families, the national president of R-CALF tells the group he is a "middle of the road" rancher and not a radical.
But in the past few weeks, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has characterized Leo McDonnell's group as isolationists who are confused about their own message and who use lawsuits to push their agenda.
"When you look at Canada, you are looking at a multibillion-dollar issue," McDonnell said later. "Our opposition certainly isn't going to send flowers."
He has seen the Billings-based Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, which he helped found, draw increasing criticism, especially since its lawsuit locked down a plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resume live cattle imports from Canada.
The organization says its membership is growing, up about 3,000 this year to 15,000.
McDonnell operates one of the nation's largest bull testing and sale businesses near Columbus. Married with four children, he also feeds cattle and owns ranchland in Montana and South Dakota.
He spoke recently at a dinner and charity auction in the memory of Tom Whitehill of O'Neill, the group's Nebraska membership chairman. Whitehill, who died of cancer last fall, helped enlist more than 300 members in Holt County, the most of any county in Nebraska.
The O'Neill fundraiser collected $28,000 for R-CALF. Such auctions, typically at sale barns, have become R-CALF's preferred method of fundraising.
"That's unprecedented in our industry," McDonnell said. "You can't tell me a time before when rural America has come to that level of fundraising."
The border closure helped R-CALF gain in influence among cattle producers, boosting its membership enough to add a new staff member to its Billings office.
The United States closed its border to live cattle in May 2003 after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was found in Canada. Another case from a Canadian-born animal was found in the United States later that year, prompting some other countries to quit buying U.S. beef.
Last January, the USDA moved to reopen the border to live cattle even as Canada found two more cases. Meatpackers want Canadian cattle because a shortage of U.S.-raised animals has created two years of high prices. But R-CALF won a temporary court order keeping the border closed.
If R-CALF doesn't challenge the USDA's decision on live Canadian cattle, McDonnell said, no one will.
"We're going to become a dumping ground for food products from countries known to have (mad cow disease) that every other modern country has banned," he said.
A federal court hearing on the issue is set for late July in Montana. The USDA and other cattle groups also have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let Canadian imports resume.
Over the past month, Johanns has increasingly singled out R-CALF in statements, criticizing the group for its efforts to keep the Canadian border closed. Johanns said suing the government shouldn't be the solution to every problem.
"I really think their message is, 'We want to isolate our country,' " he said. R-CALF seems to file lawsuits whenever an issue doesn't go its way, he said.
Johanns said he was frustrated with the pace of the legal proceedings, so he scheduled a summit to spur discussion about the science of mad cow disease. The meeting will be June 9 at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.
McDonnell said he believes Johanns "has been given some bad advice," particularly by former members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association now on the staff of the USDA.
"We're not going to return the same tones he did to us," McDonnell said.
The list of those invited to testify includes most major beef and meatpacking trade groups, as well as dairy producers, the National Association of State Directors of Agriculture and the World Organization for Animal Health from Paris.
While some congressmen have suggested opening the Canadian border through legislation, McDonnell is confident that won't happen. The main reason, he said, is that Congress doesn't want to draw attention to the issue because of the volume of beef imports.
"If you don't have mandatory country-of-origin labeling, you damned sure aren't going to make a big deal about all the beef coming down, are you?" McDonnell said. "USDA is aware of that."
The Billings Gazette
billingsgazette.com
