HAY MAKER
Well-known member
Jolley: Five Minutes With Eric Nelson
Eric Nelson is R-CALF USA Region VII Director. He’s been involved in this very active, populist organization just a short time, joining in 2003. Can we make a guess here? He had some heartfelt opinions about the state of the cattle industry and wanted to make sure the feds heard him loudly and clearly. The "in-your-face" attitude of R-CALF when it comes to cattle issues offered him the perfect vehicle to make a statement or two.
The chance to make a statement is probably why he spoke a few weeks ago at a regional Farm Bill hearing in Ankeny, Iowa, conducted by the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee. He fired off some heavy artillery, too, starting with "Since 1994, more than 122,000 cattle ranches and farms have exited the beef cattle business. During that same period, the inventory of cattle and calves in the U.S. dropped from 101 million to just under 95 million."
The cannonade continued with "Consolidation in the meatpacking industry has grown at an alarming rate over the past few decades, as have abusive contracting practices. Concentration among meatpackers has more than tripled since the late 1970s, and today, just four beef-packing companies control more than 83 percent of the industry."
Letting loose a virtual squadron of heavily-armed B-52’s and leaving no doubt about where his loyalty lies, he carpet bombed the meeting with this statement: "The impact of packer concentration and abusive contracting practices is also evident in the declining share of each beef retail dollar that actually reaches cattle producers, with the producer’s share of each retail dollar earned on beef being 47 cents in 2005, down from 56 cents in 1993."
Remember the line in "Network," the 1976 movie about television news? Angry newsman Howard Beale says, "So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, ‘I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!’" It was actor Peter Finch’s Oscar award-winning moment.
Eric Nelson might be today’s Howard Beale, exhorting cattlemen to take action now.
Despite doing what some might think is an excessive exercise in saber rattling, Eric Nelson is a thoughtful, reasonable family man. In fact, his comments, which some might read as over-the-top, were delivered calmly and quietly but with a firmness of tone that underscored his position.
He’s a successful businessman who, with his wife Carol, owns and operates a beef feedlot and a cow/calf and farming operation near Moville, Iowa. It’s about 25 miles from Dakota City, undoubtedly the capitol of enemy territory as far as he’s concerned, but close enough that he could almost walk his animals to the front door of one of the largest cattle harvesting facilities in the world. His family has been in the cattle business on this piece of land for several generations and he doesn’t plan on being the last of a dieing breed – the independent cattleman.
When the smoke cleared after his Ankeny presentation, I spent five minutes with Nelson and asked a few leading questions.
Eric, you’re a fourth generation farmer/cattleman working the same piece of western Iowa land your great-grandfather purchased in 1920. What keeps you on the farm?
What keeps me on the farm is the desire to have yet another generation of Nelsons to help provide food for a hungry nation and world.
In addition to running the farm, you operate a feedlot, represent Stauffer Seeds and you’ve held a Certified Crop Advisor designation since 1995. You also are a very active member of R-CALF. Assuming for a moment that you actually have some free time occasionally, what do you do with it?
Family and church activities. We now have three children in 4-H, so that keeps us busy. I also take time for some political activities. For the past six months, I have been busy with a handful of producers forming Independent Cattlemen of Iowa, the newest state R-CALF USA affiliate.
In a recent speech on behalf of R-CALF, you said, "We do support a voluntary animal health traceback system that ensures the protection of individual data." Let me ask you to expand on that statement. In the event of an animal health problem that would require an immediate traceback, how can a purely voluntary system provide the information needed to take the proper remedial steps?
A purely voluntary system can provide the information needed today as it has in the past. When I vaccinate heifers for bangs - which is no longer required - and couple that with a tag or a brand or both, animals can be traced very quickly.
You’ve also said, "Any Animal ID system should incorporate existing systems, such as brand programs and the Intertribal Cattle Connect program, and should function under each state’s animal health officials and Tribal governments." Does that mean you want to keep the federal government at arms length on any animal identification program? And how would that square with a recent suggestion by Dennis McKerracher, president of the Canadian Livestock Association, that all three North American countries work together to achieve some kind of tri-partite agreement on animal identification?
It’s my opinion one of the reasons premise ID and the government ID programs have been so poorly received is that the average producer has little faith that the government can run a program as large as this. I have heard producers say more than once that "the government can’t track illegal aliens, so how in heck will they be able to track hundreds of millions of animals?"
But most producers have confidence in their state (and state veterinarian) to be in charge of a voluntary program. And then let private enterprise do its thing. If there ends up being a premium for cattle with certain identity status, let the market take care of that. But to say to producers that you have to use a certain tag, when the lower-cost tag they already are using allows for traceback, goes in the face of what our country is all about.
I am concerned by those who want there to be just one "North American beef industry." Those promoting that idea are usually not independent producers, but rather importers and processors profiting hugely from their ability to bring lower priced beef into this country and sell it seamlessly as USA beef.
You’re on record as fearing an increasingly vertically-integrated cattle and beef industry in the U.S. There’s no question that fewer companies control more production, it has been a trend in this industry and many others for decades. In a request that is generally acknowledged as a plea to stop – even reverse - vertical integration, you’ve asked that the new Farm Bill make progress in five key areas: 1) honest competition in the domestic livestock market; 2) animal health and safety; 3) consumer information; 4) international trade; and 5) the development of initiatives to sustain a more prosperous and competitive cattle and beef sector. The reality of the marketplace will always call for cheaper foods. Can the Farm Bill you’re seeking answer that call or do you face pricing beef out of the reach of the average consumer?
Concentration in the beef sector has been going on for years and will likely take a few years to reverse. That being said, the upcoming Farm Bill could be the beginning of the reversal of the trend of the past 20 years, and could focus on the cattle and beef industries and the adverse affects concentration has had. I simply don’t believe that having a handful of large corporations controlling the cattle industry somehow guarantees low-priced food. Actually, I would expect the opposite if that were allowed to happen. Looking closely at the producer/retailer spread and how little the producer receives today versus what is charged at the supermarket gives some indication of that.
R-CALF has lobbied, sued, and clamored for a stronger, longer ban on Canadian cattle, claiming that the risk of BSE north of the border was just too high. All the efforts have come to naught, though. Now that the numbers – seven cases – seem to bear out the validity of the association’s position, what will be R-CALF’s next step?
R-CALF will continue to apply pressure on the Canadian BSE issue, but we’ll be doing that as we continue to work on a myriad of other issues. Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL) is now more popular than ever with producers due to the Canadian and Japanese BSE situations and the fact that we continue to import beef from both countries without labeling its origin at our supermarkets.
It’s also imperative that mandatory livestock price reporting be reinstated so that independent producers have at least some information with which to base their marketing decisions. R-CALF will continue to lobby for more transparent markets and make efforts to limit captive supplies.
R-CALF also continues to negotiate for language in trade agreements that recognize the perishable nature of our industry. We need safeguards to protect our industry from price-depressing import surges and we need to revise rules of origin to ensure the beef exported from a given country was actually produced in that country.
Allowing state inspected beef plants to ship beef across state lines is another important issue as it will provide an incentive for smaller packing plants to expand, which will help to increase competition in the beef packing industry.
The border issue with Canada may have put us on the map, but R-CALF USA is now engaged in multiple issues of interest and concern for independent U.S. cattle producers.
Thousands of cattlemen read CattleNetwork.com. What would you like to say to them?
Get involved. Whatever the organization is, take an active role in policy making. There aren’t many of us left in production agriculture, and we owe it to ourselves and the next generation to share whatever visions for the future we have.
Eric Nelson is R-CALF USA Region VII Director. He’s been involved in this very active, populist organization just a short time, joining in 2003. Can we make a guess here? He had some heartfelt opinions about the state of the cattle industry and wanted to make sure the feds heard him loudly and clearly. The "in-your-face" attitude of R-CALF when it comes to cattle issues offered him the perfect vehicle to make a statement or two.
The chance to make a statement is probably why he spoke a few weeks ago at a regional Farm Bill hearing in Ankeny, Iowa, conducted by the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee. He fired off some heavy artillery, too, starting with "Since 1994, more than 122,000 cattle ranches and farms have exited the beef cattle business. During that same period, the inventory of cattle and calves in the U.S. dropped from 101 million to just under 95 million."
The cannonade continued with "Consolidation in the meatpacking industry has grown at an alarming rate over the past few decades, as have abusive contracting practices. Concentration among meatpackers has more than tripled since the late 1970s, and today, just four beef-packing companies control more than 83 percent of the industry."
Letting loose a virtual squadron of heavily-armed B-52’s and leaving no doubt about where his loyalty lies, he carpet bombed the meeting with this statement: "The impact of packer concentration and abusive contracting practices is also evident in the declining share of each beef retail dollar that actually reaches cattle producers, with the producer’s share of each retail dollar earned on beef being 47 cents in 2005, down from 56 cents in 1993."
Remember the line in "Network," the 1976 movie about television news? Angry newsman Howard Beale says, "So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, ‘I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!’" It was actor Peter Finch’s Oscar award-winning moment.
Eric Nelson might be today’s Howard Beale, exhorting cattlemen to take action now.
Despite doing what some might think is an excessive exercise in saber rattling, Eric Nelson is a thoughtful, reasonable family man. In fact, his comments, which some might read as over-the-top, were delivered calmly and quietly but with a firmness of tone that underscored his position.
He’s a successful businessman who, with his wife Carol, owns and operates a beef feedlot and a cow/calf and farming operation near Moville, Iowa. It’s about 25 miles from Dakota City, undoubtedly the capitol of enemy territory as far as he’s concerned, but close enough that he could almost walk his animals to the front door of one of the largest cattle harvesting facilities in the world. His family has been in the cattle business on this piece of land for several generations and he doesn’t plan on being the last of a dieing breed – the independent cattleman.
When the smoke cleared after his Ankeny presentation, I spent five minutes with Nelson and asked a few leading questions.
Eric, you’re a fourth generation farmer/cattleman working the same piece of western Iowa land your great-grandfather purchased in 1920. What keeps you on the farm?
What keeps me on the farm is the desire to have yet another generation of Nelsons to help provide food for a hungry nation and world.
In addition to running the farm, you operate a feedlot, represent Stauffer Seeds and you’ve held a Certified Crop Advisor designation since 1995. You also are a very active member of R-CALF. Assuming for a moment that you actually have some free time occasionally, what do you do with it?
Family and church activities. We now have three children in 4-H, so that keeps us busy. I also take time for some political activities. For the past six months, I have been busy with a handful of producers forming Independent Cattlemen of Iowa, the newest state R-CALF USA affiliate.
In a recent speech on behalf of R-CALF, you said, "We do support a voluntary animal health traceback system that ensures the protection of individual data." Let me ask you to expand on that statement. In the event of an animal health problem that would require an immediate traceback, how can a purely voluntary system provide the information needed to take the proper remedial steps?
A purely voluntary system can provide the information needed today as it has in the past. When I vaccinate heifers for bangs - which is no longer required - and couple that with a tag or a brand or both, animals can be traced very quickly.
You’ve also said, "Any Animal ID system should incorporate existing systems, such as brand programs and the Intertribal Cattle Connect program, and should function under each state’s animal health officials and Tribal governments." Does that mean you want to keep the federal government at arms length on any animal identification program? And how would that square with a recent suggestion by Dennis McKerracher, president of the Canadian Livestock Association, that all three North American countries work together to achieve some kind of tri-partite agreement on animal identification?
It’s my opinion one of the reasons premise ID and the government ID programs have been so poorly received is that the average producer has little faith that the government can run a program as large as this. I have heard producers say more than once that "the government can’t track illegal aliens, so how in heck will they be able to track hundreds of millions of animals?"
But most producers have confidence in their state (and state veterinarian) to be in charge of a voluntary program. And then let private enterprise do its thing. If there ends up being a premium for cattle with certain identity status, let the market take care of that. But to say to producers that you have to use a certain tag, when the lower-cost tag they already are using allows for traceback, goes in the face of what our country is all about.
I am concerned by those who want there to be just one "North American beef industry." Those promoting that idea are usually not independent producers, but rather importers and processors profiting hugely from their ability to bring lower priced beef into this country and sell it seamlessly as USA beef.
You’re on record as fearing an increasingly vertically-integrated cattle and beef industry in the U.S. There’s no question that fewer companies control more production, it has been a trend in this industry and many others for decades. In a request that is generally acknowledged as a plea to stop – even reverse - vertical integration, you’ve asked that the new Farm Bill make progress in five key areas: 1) honest competition in the domestic livestock market; 2) animal health and safety; 3) consumer information; 4) international trade; and 5) the development of initiatives to sustain a more prosperous and competitive cattle and beef sector. The reality of the marketplace will always call for cheaper foods. Can the Farm Bill you’re seeking answer that call or do you face pricing beef out of the reach of the average consumer?
Concentration in the beef sector has been going on for years and will likely take a few years to reverse. That being said, the upcoming Farm Bill could be the beginning of the reversal of the trend of the past 20 years, and could focus on the cattle and beef industries and the adverse affects concentration has had. I simply don’t believe that having a handful of large corporations controlling the cattle industry somehow guarantees low-priced food. Actually, I would expect the opposite if that were allowed to happen. Looking closely at the producer/retailer spread and how little the producer receives today versus what is charged at the supermarket gives some indication of that.
R-CALF has lobbied, sued, and clamored for a stronger, longer ban on Canadian cattle, claiming that the risk of BSE north of the border was just too high. All the efforts have come to naught, though. Now that the numbers – seven cases – seem to bear out the validity of the association’s position, what will be R-CALF’s next step?
R-CALF will continue to apply pressure on the Canadian BSE issue, but we’ll be doing that as we continue to work on a myriad of other issues. Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL) is now more popular than ever with producers due to the Canadian and Japanese BSE situations and the fact that we continue to import beef from both countries without labeling its origin at our supermarkets.
It’s also imperative that mandatory livestock price reporting be reinstated so that independent producers have at least some information with which to base their marketing decisions. R-CALF will continue to lobby for more transparent markets and make efforts to limit captive supplies.
R-CALF also continues to negotiate for language in trade agreements that recognize the perishable nature of our industry. We need safeguards to protect our industry from price-depressing import surges and we need to revise rules of origin to ensure the beef exported from a given country was actually produced in that country.
Allowing state inspected beef plants to ship beef across state lines is another important issue as it will provide an incentive for smaller packing plants to expand, which will help to increase competition in the beef packing industry.
The border issue with Canada may have put us on the map, but R-CALF USA is now engaged in multiple issues of interest and concern for independent U.S. cattle producers.
Thousands of cattlemen read CattleNetwork.com. What would you like to say to them?
Get involved. Whatever the organization is, take an active role in policy making. There aren’t many of us left in production agriculture, and we owe it to ourselves and the next generation to share whatever visions for the future we have.
