(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, April 18, 2009
FDA Plans to Break Food Safety Promise to America The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to break its promise to American consumers to timely upgrade the animal feed ban designed to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd against the heightened risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease).

(3 comments) SHARE        Thursday, May 21, 2009
USDA's Lax Import Rules Expose US Cattle to Mad Cow Disease Canada, which lacks mandatory testing, just announced its 17th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) since 2003. Under current USDA rules, these higher-risk cattle are allowed to commingle with the U.S. herd, enter the U.S. food supply and enter the non-ruminant U.S. animal feed system. The USDA must protect the U.S. cattle herd, and consumers, from the introduction of BSE.

SHARE        Saturday, February 12, 2011
Wall Street Reform Act Already Benefiting Cattle Industry We applaud the CFTC for this enforcement action and urge the agency to investigate the cattle futures market even further," Thornsberry concluded.

SHARE        Saturday, July 25, 2009
USDA Kowtows to Canada's Threats, Denies U.S. Citizens Truthful Information About the Origins of Their Food "We are now witness to the unconscionable actions of a federal agency that has ignored its duty to defend our constitutionally passed COOL law, ignored the public interest and the will of Congress, and has, instead, kowtowed to the special interests of the Canadian government, all to the detriment of U.S. citizens," said Thornsberry.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 25, 2009
News Conference to address seizure of Herman Schumacher's home by Tyson Fresh Meats. The news conference will highlight the ongoing injustice against Schumacher; will demonstrate that the Administration, Congress and the U.S. judicial system have utterly failed to protect the safety and security of our nation's food supply; and, will reveal that the concentrated beef packing industry has accumulated such untouchable power that it can freely engage in anticompetitive and antitrust behavior...

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 2, 2010
As Mad Cow Disease Scientist Prusiner Awarded Nat'l. Medal of Science, Group Urges USDA to Withdraw OTM Rule In a letter sent today to President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, R-CALF USA commended the presidential selection of Stanley B. Prusiner as a recipient of the government's highest honor for scientists - the National Medal of Science... "We urge you to reassess completely your Administration's position regarding USDA's open OTM rule that is undeniably underpinned by the maligned actions of USDA..."

SHARE        Saturday, October 3, 2009
93 Groups to Ag Approps Conference Committee: Eliminate NAIS Funding Altogether NAIS is a far-reaching 3-step program that calls for every person who owns even one livestock or poultry animal to register their property, tag each animal when it leaves the property it was born on, and report a long list of movements to a database within 24 hours, and these provisions apply whether or not that animal is used for commercial purposes, which will impact millions of animal owners,

SHARE        Friday, October 9, 2009
Cattle Producers Could Lose Up to $89/Head if JBS Acquires Pilgrim's Pride “A loss of anywhere from $7.50 per head to $89.38 per head to the U.S. live cattle industry would have severe ramifications, particularly given the long-run lack of profitability faced by U.S. cattle feeders who have experienced 22 consecutive months of horrendous financial losses,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, May 1, 2009
Western Ag Reporter Attacks Cattle Producers; Infers Organization Compromised Member Policy on NAIS Western Ag Reporter Editor, Linda Grosskopf, published a headline that reads, "NAIS...Has R-CALF had a change of mind? If so, what about their policy?" With this headline, Grosskopf publicly – and incorrectly – raises the specter that because R-CALF USA supports the expansion of the preexisting brucellosis-type identification system the organization has reversed its strong opposition to NAIS.

SHARE        Friday, May 4, 2012
FormerGIPSA Chief to Address Independent Cattle Producers in Dakotas In only his second and third appearances since stepping down from his federal post in January as Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), J. Dudley Butler will be in the Dakotas this month to inform cattle producers about the future competitiveness of the U.S. cattle industry.

SHARE        Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Group Eagerly Accepts Invitation to Debate State of Competition in U.S. Cattle and Beef Industries with NCBA, AMI & NMA R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard today eagerly accepted an invitation from KSDZ-FM in Gordon, Neb., to a live debate -" streamed on the Internet -" at 6:30 p.m. MDT on Monday, Aug. 9, 2010, with leaders from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the American Meat Institute (AMI) and the National Meat Association (NMA). The subject will be the current state of competition in the U.S. cattle and beef industries.

SHARE        Thursday, May 14, 2009
NAIS will Reduce Competition in U.S. Cattle Industry NAIS will reduce, if not eliminate, competition in the U.S. cattle and beef industries by granting meatpackers access to proprietary information now held by those markets and feedlots, vis-à-vis the 15-digit identifier. Red this op-ed to find out more.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Corporate Control Over U.S. Lawmakers Evident In Congressional Letter Attacking GIPSA Rule Rural America now has proof that the packer lobby --" the handful of multinational meatpacking corporations and their allied trade associations** which has caused the hollowing-out of rural communities for decades --" has infiltrated Congress so deeply that even the President's own political party is refusing to carry out the President's campaign promise to restore competition to agricultural markets for U.S. family farmers

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, April 4, 2010
76 Groups Representing Tens of Millions Implore USDA to Immediately Strengthen Protections Against Mad Cow Disease R-CALF USA today, along with 75 other organizations that represent tens of millions of Americans, sent formal correspondence to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to request that the agency immediately strengthen protections against Canada's ongoing problems with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.

SHARE        Monday, September 28, 2009
Group Urges Justice Department to Block JBS/Pilgrim's Pride Merger In an effort to protect and preserve a competitive market for independent U.S. cattle producers, R-CALF USA this week sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that it block the proposed merger of Brazilian-owned JBS S.A. (JBS) and Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (Pilgrim's Pride).

(9 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 19, 2009
40 Groups Disagree with USDA's Latest BSE Court Submission; Agency Poised to Conform to Global Edict Instead of Domestic On Nov. 17, 2009, R-CALF USA and 39 other groups sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to express their serious concerns about the agency's status submission.

SHARE        Friday, February 11, 2011
Evidence Suggests Corruption Runs Deep in Beef Checkoff Program R-CALF USA is again calling for a thorough and probing investigation, going back at least 10 years, into NCBA's long history of Checkoff violations. R-CALF USA has furnished investigators with documents that list dates and locations of NCBA's policy activities that should not have been subsidized with Checkoff funds.

SHARE        Sunday, September 23, 2012
CEO Files FOIA To Determine Role USDA Played In Beef Industry Group "We hope USDA was not involved in excluding R-CALF USA, but given USDA's refusal to take any remedial action after learning that NCBA (National Cattlemen's Beef Association) had misused hundreds of thousands of producer checkoff dollars, it's not a far stretch to suspect that USDA is complicit in trying to stop us from restoring the credibility of the Beef Checkoff Program," Bullard commented.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Group to Congress, Administration: Begin Enforcement of Antitrust Laws, Finalize GIPSA Rule, Take Immediate Steps to El In meetings held earlier this month, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard and R-CALF USA member Judy McCullough, a Wyoming cow/calf rancher and past president of the Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming, urged the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) GIPSA, the U.S. Senate agriculture committee, and members of Congress to immediately begin enforcement of antitrust laws, finalize the GIPSA co

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, April 25, 2009
Group Applauds FDA Decision to Immediately Implement Enhanced U.S. Feed Ban The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) resisted efforts by agribusiness interests to delay implementation of an enhanced U.S. feed ban designed to strengthen safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) for both consumers and cattle. The enhanced feed ban will be implemented on schedule, though full compliance will not be expected until October.

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, November 7, 2010
Meatpacker Apologists Engage in Deceptive Smear Campaign Against USDA Official "Meatpackers' apologists, some of whom claim to be journalists, are openly engaged in an unethical smear campaign targeted at Dudley Butler, Administrator of USDA's (U.S. Department of Agriculture's) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), who heads the agency charged with overseeing the livestock procurement practices of meatpackers by enforcing the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act,"

SHARE        Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CEO Testifies in Support of Wall Street Reform Act That Would Bring Transparency to Cattle Markets "We think the most important thing is to bring transparency to the opaque markets like swaps or over-the-counter trades and we think the priority for the CFTC should be to implement those as quickly as possible, because it's one thing for an industry to change because of competitive forces...

SHARE        Thursday, December 6, 2012
R-CALF USA says KSU COOL Study Conflicts with WTO Findings "The fact that KSU has issued an implausible study demonstrates just how much manipulative political power COOL opponents -- primarily the multinational meatpackers -- have over our land-grant universities.

SHARE        Monday, November 1, 2010
NCBA Affiliate Withdraws Commitment to Co-Sponsor GIPSA Rule Forum for Livestock Producers "I spent the last three weeks working directly with OCA's President Dave Felumlee planning for this multi-organization public forum," said Dave Hutchins, a BQBA director and former R-CALF USA director.

SHARE        Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Americans to be Pummeled by Yet Another "Sky-Is-Falling" Pro-Meatpacker Study "We're not expecting anything even close to the truth when these pro-meatpacker groups unveil their self-serving study, and based on the history of the consulting firm they've used and the hype they're trying to generate, we'd better be prepared for a spectacular deception,"

SHARE        Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Broken Markets, Broke Cattlemen, Bad Statistics, Worse Economics "It's interesting that Speer cites about 10 economists who have, themselves, cautioned the industry against tying contract prices to the cash market," Bullard concluded. "As Dr. Taylor points out, based on relative returns, a common-sense "country doctor of economy' would declare the meatpackers and food retailers to be "healthy, bordering on obesity,' but cattlemen as "sickly' and in need of major corrective treatment."

SHARE        Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Canada, Mexico $1.3 Billion Short of Claiming COOL Harm Group Tells USDA, USTR R-CALF USA's letter contends that economic harm must be measured from a balanced trade relationship and explains that the reason Canada and Mexico cannot begin to measure an economic harm “is because these combined countries continue to enjoy the unmitigated, windfall spoils emanating from an imbalanced trade relationship with the United States, to the tune of $1.3 billion annually.”

SHARE        Saturday, September 12, 2009
Group Implores Senate to Reject House Version of Food Safety Bill, Start Anew to Genuinely Improve Food Safety We have communicated our reasons for opposing H.R. 2749 by explaining the serious and significant flaws in the current U.S. food safety system that the House version would build upon,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry. “In fact, any attempt to remedy our food safety problems by building upon the three failed components currently in place will have the opposite effect that the House intended.

(5 comments) SHARE        Monday, June 29, 2009
Group Responds to Tyson Complaint Letter; On the day R-CALF USA conducted its June 26, 2009, news conference before a crowd of about 150 in the small town of Herreid, S.D., to highlight Tyson Fresh Meat's (Tyson's) seizure of the home of Herreid, S.D., rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher, Tyson faxed R-CALF USA a complaint letter.

SHARE        Wednesday, May 23, 2012
R-CALF USA Frustrated Over Lack of Response; Submits Second Request for Extension of BSE Public Comment Period On May 15, the day the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Proposed Rule comment period closed, R-CALF USA sent a letter to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting an extension. This is the second extension request made by the group. The first request, made by approximately 30 organizations in an April 24, 2012 letter, has not yet been answered.

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 10, 2009
Group Praises Portions of USDA's New TB Plan But Strongly Opposes Zoning That Usurps States' Rights R-CALF USA on Dec. 4, 2009, filed formal comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding the agency's proposal to revamp the United States' bovine tuberculosis (TB) program, a program that has significantly reduced the prevalence of TB in U.S. livestock since 1917.

SHARE        Monday, April 19, 2010
USDA's Proposed Brazil-FMD Rule Inaccurate, Unscientific R-CALF USA today called the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) proposed rule to lift foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) restrictions on Brazil inaccurate and unscientific.

SHARE        Sunday, November 21, 2010
Congress Hears from Real Producers Why GIPSA Rule Needed "Rather than bring professional lobbyists to Washington to persuade Congress to support the ongoing corporatization of our nation's livestock supply chains, our Competition Coalition brought actual livestock producers to D.C. to provide firsthand accounts of how their profitability has been improperly squeezed by monopolistic packers and how the GIPSA rule would restrict meatpackers from exercising their monopolistic power,"

SHARE        Sunday, May 13, 2012
R-CALF USA Calls USDA Proposal to Reform Beef Checkoff Program Far too Little and Far too Late "In fact, USDA's overly simplistic proposal is a hollow and disingenuous gesture in light of the horrendous mismanagement and misappropriation of producer contributions that NCBA (National Cattlemen's Beef Association) is known to have committed and for which USDA remains ominously passive and silent," the group stated.

SHARE        Thursday, December 9, 2010
NCBA, NPPC Help Packers Capture U.S. Cattle Supply Chain Using copies of numerous NCBA charts within its comprehensive comments, R-CALF USA charges that NCBA et al are masking the true condition of the cattle industry by disseminating only partial and ambiguous industry data and omitting relevant data. R-CALF USA states that NCBA et al's actions "have effectively misled many cattle producers by deflecting their attention away from the serious crisis presently facing...

SHARE        Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Group Urges U.S. Trade Representative to Reject Free Trade Agreement with Colombia In formal comments filed this week, R-CALF USA urged the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to reject the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia (U.S.-Colombia FTA). A notice and request for comments on the proposed FTA was published in the Federal Register by USTR in July, with comments due September 15.

SHARE        Saturday, August 8, 2009
Group Praises Announcement by USDA, Justice Department to Explore Antitrust, Anticompetitive Activities in Ag Markets In the wake of President Obama’s campaign promise to prevent anticompetitive behavior against family farmers and ranchers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) today announced that both Departments will work together to accomplish this important goal.

SHARE        Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Group Urges Rural Americans to Form Largest Group Urges Rural Americans to Form Largest Crowd in U.S. History on Aug. Cr "On August 27, we need the largest gathering of Rural Americans in the history of the United States to arrive on the CSU campus at 8 a.m. local time to help us mark a new beginning for Rural America," R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard told the approximately 200 area producers who attended the meetings.

SHARE        Friday, August 28, 2009
Group Requests Separate Investigations into Packer's Use of Imported Canadian Cattle Based on information received from R-CALF USA member-ranchers in Washington state, R-CALF USA on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, made a written request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate a potential violation of USDA requirements for the importation into the U.S. of Canadian cattle.

SHARE        Saturday, October 9, 2010
Open Action Alert Regarding GIPSA Rule to All U.S. Cattle Producers The packer lobby is fighting to derail the proposed competition rule (GIPSA rule) issued by the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). They are making outrageous claims that misrepresent the purpose and effect of the GIPSA rule. Unfortunately, very few people understand how the fed cattle market functions, where it is broken, and why the GIPSA rule is urgently needed...

SHARE        Thursday, September 9, 2010
New BSE Case in Netherlands Prompts Group to Again Call for USDA to Withdraw Its Over-30-Months Rule A new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) in the Netherlands has prompted R-CALF USA to once again request the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to withdraw its OTM (over-30-months) Rule that allows all Canadian cattle born on or after March 1, 1999, to be imported into the United States.

SHARE        Saturday, July 18, 2009
Group Talks Cattle, Beef Issues with Senate Finance Trade Team R-CALF USA recently met with members of the Senate Finance Committee Trade Team of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to discuss trade issues important to the U.S. cattle industry, as the trade team traveled throughout Montana to discuss trade issues of importance to Montana industries. R-CALF USA presented the team with its "Overview of International Trade and the U.S. Cattle and Beef Industries."

SHARE        Saturday, October 23, 2010
AMI Study Attacks GIPSA Rule, Exemplifies Abusive Monopolistic Power of the Concentrated Packing Industry "The entire study is based on the outrageous threat that packers likely will collude to destroy certain marketing arrangements that benefit everyone in the marketing chain from consumers to retailers to packers to cattle producers by providing high quality beef for consumers," said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry.

SHARE        Saturday, June 19, 2010
Group Calls USDA Rulemaking "Bold" and "Absolutely Essential" "This proposed rule corrects the core problem that prevents U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers from obtaining relief from the anticompetitive practices of the highly concentrated meatpackers and will help restore competition to our industry by providing a means to discipline anticompetitive behavior," asserted Thornsberry.

SHARE        Thursday, October 21, 2010
Group Applauds USDA Decision to Proceed with GIPSA Rule; Calls NCBA Attack on USDA Deceitful, Irresponsible U.S. Agriculture Vilsack reportedly declined the request by 115 members of Congress to complete a comprehensive economic analysis of the proposed competition rule (GIPSA rule) published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA).

SHARE        Saturday, April 18, 2009
To USDA: NAIS an Invasive, Unlawful Encumbrance on Commerce NAIS is a radical departure from the highly successful, preexisting disease programs and represents an unwarranted expansion of government agency power that R-CALF USA believes is prohibited under our Constitution.

SHARE        Thursday, December 6, 2012
R-CALF USA Seeks Confirmation Regarding an Apparent Conflict of Interest in Beef Checkoff Program "If our information is correct and Weldon Wynn serves both to decide who is to receive Beef Checkoff Program funds (in his official capacity as a CBB officer) as well as to benefit directly from his own decisions (by directly representing the interests of Checkoff funds recipient USFRA), then this is further evidence of the ongoing, insidious and systemic corruption within the Beef Checkoff Program.

SHARE        Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Group Calls NCBA's Attack on COOL Downright Deceptive Sixteen R-CALF USA officers, directors and committee chairs today sent a strong five-page letter to the NCBA calling NCBA's public response to Canada's Oct. 7, 2009, announcement that it would pursue a complaint at the WTO against the United States' COOL law “intolerable, irresponsible and deceptive, as well as a tremendous disservice to the hard-working men and women who comprise the U.S. live cattle industry.”

SHARE        Saturday, August 8, 2009
Group Requests CFTC to Reform Cattle Markets; Joins Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition Included in R-CALF USA’s letter to the CFTC are requests to prevent packers from engaging in speculative short selling as a strategy to depress cash cattle prices, impose aggregate speculative position limits across all markets, and ensure that speculative position limits be set by physical hedgers. The CMOC letter explains that the domination by financial speculators “has undermined the commodity markets’ function...

SHARE        Monday, November 2, 2009
Stop the Hemorrhaging in U.S. Live Cattle Industry: Producers to President, Congress, USDA and Justice “The U.S. cattle industry, literally, is the last frontier within the U.S. livestock and poultry industries...It is the only remaining major livestock sector that is not already nearly completely vertically integrated by the mega-meatpackers and processors from birth-to-plate"but this distinction cannot last long under the ongoing and unbearable financial losses plaguing its independent participants.”

SHARE        Friday, June 8, 2012
Agriculture Secretary Appoints Larry Mitchell to Succeed Dudley Butler as GIPSA Chief: Congress at Work to Tie Mitchell' "We are pleased with the Secretary's appointment of Larry Mitchell but the leadership of the House subcommittee on agriculture appropriations is carrying the water for multinational meatpackers that do not want Larry Mitchell or anyone else to prevent them from vertically integrating the cattle industry and stripping producers of their economic independence," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

SHARE        Friday, May 11, 2012
Public Meetings with Ex GIPSA Chief Scheduled for Bismarck, N. D., May 16, and Ft. Pierre, S. D., May 18 Butler will inform the public about his efforts as GIPSA chief to prevent the vertical integration of the U.S. cattle industry -- what Butler characterized as the "chickenization" of cattle production -- by the largely unregulated meatpacking industry.

SHARE        Thursday, August 12, 2010
Analysis Concludes GIPSA Competition Rule Would Have No Impact On U.S. Premium Beef's Marketing Arrangements R-CALF USA found that according to the Competition Rule, USPB would not be subject to provisions within the rule because USPB is not a packer, stockyard owner, market agency or a dealer. Furthermore, USPB is neither on the USDA-GIPSA list of Bonded Packers in the United States, which is current as of Feb. 1, 2010, nor is it on USDA-GIPSA lists of registered and bonded market agencies and dealers.

SHARE        Thursday, September 9, 2010
Group Urges APHIS to Consider Cattle Industry's Unique Characteristics when Formulating Emergency Plans R-CALF USA expressed concern that APHIS has been systematically de-emphasizing the prevention of the introduction of foreign animal diseases (FADs) by relaxing long-standing import standards and now is emphasizing disease control and management instead of prevention.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 13, 2010
Hidden from Public for Almost 2 Weeks: Canada's 18th BSE-Infected Cow Yet again, R-CALF USA learned through the rumor mill yesterday that Canada had detected the country's 18th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 72-month-old Angus cow. Although Canadian officials were purported to have notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week, a phone call this morning to OIE revealed that Canada had not yet notified OIE of this latest discovery.

SHARE        Saturday, October 10, 2009
Yet Again, Canada Tries to File WTO Complaint Against U.S. COOL Law The Canadian government is seeking a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement process over the U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. A WTO panel is scheduled to hear the request at the Oct. 23, 2009, meeting of WTO's Dispute Settlement Body.

SHARE        Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Group Brings Vilsack 8-Point Alternative to NAIS In formal correspondence sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today, R-CALF USA has recommended an 8-point alternative course to the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS), originally forced on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) by the previous Administration.

SHARE        Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Group Calls Justice Department's Refusal to Block JBS Mega-Merger A Broken Presidential Promise In our opinion, the Justice Department's action in refusing to fully investigate the antitrust implications of the unprecedented merger between JBS and Pilgrim's Pride ... when these firms both control and market substitutable, competing proteins, is an irrepressible defiance of President Obama's promise to ensure competitive markets for the nation's farmers and ranchers,

SHARE        Saturday, October 16, 2010
Group Praises New FSIS Notice That Requires Inspectors To Know Source Suppliers Before Positive E. coli Test Results "Finally, after a battle for more than eight years, FSIS is requiring documentation of source information at the time of evidence gathering," said John Munsell, R-CALF USA HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) Committee Chair.

SHARE        Thursday, August 12, 2010
Is It Because They Have the Truth to Hide? NCBA, AMI, NMA Decline Opportunity for Public Debate Last month, KSDZ radio in Gordon, Neb., invited these four groups to participate in an open, public debate in light of the new competition rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) that would establish measures to benefit cattle farmers and ranchers and make the U.S. cattle market more transparent and competitive.

SHARE        Monday, September 21, 2009
Group Calls Message to Congress by NCBA, AFBF, and W. Ron DeHaven, D.V.M., Unscientific, Irresponsible, and Deceptive R-CALF USA today letter to members on the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Committee urging them to disregard the deceptive plea jointly made by a group that includes the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), and W. Ron DeHaven, D.V.M., whom are seeking to introduce the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus on the U.S. mainland for research purposes.

SHARE        Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Cattle Producers, Farm Advocates Laud Senate Support of USDA's Proposed Livestock Competition Rule The Senators' "Dear Colleague' letter to USDA comes on the heels of increasingly vehement opposition to the proposed rule by the meatpacking and processing companies. The proposed rule would restore necessary balance between cattle and hog producers and the packers that buy their livestock, and would also prohibit some of the most egregious practices that are now common in the contract poultry industry.

SHARE        Saturday, July 4, 2009
Canada, Mexico Have No Standing to Bring Complaint Against U.S. COOL Law R-CALF USA has filed formal comments with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to emphasize that the group believes it is fundamentally contrary to the U.S. Constitution for USTR to agree that foreign governments – specifically Canada and Mexico – have any standing whatsoever to bring a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against our constitutionally passed mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 13, 2010
Ranchers, Manufacturers, Organized Labor Push Congress to Develop National Trade Strategy Visits to approximately 80 congressional offices were made last week when ranchers teamed up with U.S. manufacturers and organized labor groups to tell Congress that current U.S. trade policy has failed America, and it is past time for the U.S. to do what every other major trading nation has already done -" implement a national trade strategy that promotes domestic productivity and economic growth.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, June 12, 2009
Group Submits Supplemental Comments On May 15, 2009, Canada detected its 17th case of BSE, which is its 10th case born after the OTM Rule's import eligibility date, meaning that these 10 infected animals could have been imported into the U.S. prior to exhibiting symptoms of BSE. In response to this latest Canadian BSE case, R-CALF USA submitted its second set of supplemental comments to USDA last week to demonstrate that the key assumptions made by USDA...

SHARE        Thursday, July 9, 2009
Schumacher Loses Over $260,000 from Cattle Sales to Tyson; Now Tyson Wants Schumacher's Home Herreid, S.D., rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher has suffered losses exceeding $260,000 from the sale of three pens of cattle (984 head) sold to Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. (Tyson) since January 1, 2009, yet Schumacher's three pens of cattle were top performers. "The only conclusion to be reached is that the cattle market is being manipulated by the dominant meatpackers.

SHARE        Friday, August 14, 2009
Yet Again, Group Urges USDA to Withdraw NAIS Plans In formal comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Aug. 3, 2009, R-CALF USA yet again pointed out the errors of the agency's ways if it continues to force upon independent U.S. cattle producers its National Animal Identification System (NAIS): an onerous burden of untold financial implications and an unconstitutional violation of every citizen's private property rights and liberty.

SHARE        Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tyson Rejects Group's Appeal for Moral Decency; "Only in the ivory tower boardroom of a multibillion dollar company, where corporate executives are completely disconnected from cattle producers and food consumers, could a strategy like this be concocted," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "To reverse its tarnished image...Tyson has now decided to use money extracted from Schumacher to help feed other farmers/ranchers who are facing economic disaster largely because of Tyson

SHARE        Thursday, October 21, 2010
GIPSA Complaint Against Brazilian-Owned JBS Demonstrates Need for GIPSA Competition Rule "If the allegation proves correct, and if each of the 16 lots of hogs was separately owned by 16 independent hog producers, then the loss alleged in the complaint represents an average loss per hog producer of $21,875," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "For a family sized hog operation, this amount of loss could well mean the end of their ability to stay in business."

SHARE        Thursday, January 14, 2010
Group Demonstrates AMI's Attack on COOL Not Factual "AMI has been fighting for nearly a decade against the public's right to know where their food is produced, but what AMI really is fighting over is control over the cattle and beef markets," Bullard pointed out. "Prior to COOL, meatpackers could source cattle anywhere they could obtain them cheaper.

SHARE        Friday, July 16, 2010
NCBA/AMI/NPPC Requests to Extend Comment Period on Proposed GIPSA Rule are Baseless "As far back as at least 2001 for example, both NCBA and the NPPC formally voiced their objections to granting USDA new authority to "regulate corporate relationships, commercial practices and contracts for the production of agricultural commodities,' and, at the same time, they also have objected to any new laws that would address competition-related issues," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

SHARE        Tuesday, August 4, 2009
USDA Partners with Private Company to Help Sell Ear Tags to U.S. Farmers and Ranchers The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has partnered with Allflex, a private multinational firm that manufactures and sells ear tags in more than seven countries, to help Allflex market, promote and sell ear tags to U.S. cattle producers.