Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 173: Cattle Market Update and the EID Tag Controversy with John Campbell

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173: Cattle Market Update and the EID Tag Controversy with John Campbell · CattleUSA Daily

0:00
In today's market Update with John Campbell, we are covering
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everything that has happened across the winter livestock
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family of auctions this week. John hits on what has happened
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in Lahana this week and then auctions across the region as
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well. After we discuss the market
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update, we are diving into a very hot topic with an
0:21
agriculture and that is Eid tags.
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John has been asked a few times to discuss this and share his
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opinions and thoughts on it. So he does just that today.
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Today, without further ado, let's go ahead and hop into this
0:32
episode with John. But before we do, if you could
0:35
take a second to like subscribe, rate and review this episode, we
0:38
would have really appreciate it here at the team.
0:40
Now let's get into this episode with John.
0:46
Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily Podcast, your go to source for
0:50
the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
0:53
updates shaping agriculture today.
0:55
I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
0:58
agriculture here to keep you informed and connected.
1:01
Now let's dive into today's episode.
1:10
John, happy Wednesday. Welcome back to the podcast.
1:14
How's the market in Mahana doing this week?
1:17
Give us the update there. Everything a little higher.
1:20
You know, this market is really resilient.
1:23
I I thought we had a good market last week like Kev Steady last
1:27
week, but boy they just jumped right out and probably put 5 to
1:30
10 bucks on everything here yesterday.
1:34
Again starting to see some numbers.
1:36
I think we had right at 2200 cattle.
1:39
So that's about where we'll stay till we get into our calf run
1:43
here in a couple weeks. And then hopefully we'll we'll
1:46
have some 4000 head sales that we can kind of talk about.
1:50
Once again, 5 to 10 better is what what I called it yesterday.
1:54
Had little lightweight 3 weight steer cabs up to 623 and some 4
1:59
weight steer cabs bring 580. Our best 5 weight steer Cavs
2:04
finally got north of $5 five O 1 on some stairs weighing on top
2:09
of 5-6 way deal. I thought about about steady 420
2:14
on the best kind of handy weight steers.
2:16
We had some really nice and just 1518 ahead of them.
2:20
I I think we'd have got more if we'd had a load of them, but so
2:23
we had some real nice black steers out of New Mexico that
2:26
weighed 7 and brought 395 over on the heifer side of things.
2:31
And I'm telling you about the very best 4 wade heifers to 462
2:37
1/2, if anything would have been cheaper is probably the little
2:40
light heifers. But again, you're having to put
2:42
them together. 35279 But I thought some of the little pee
2:47
wee heifers may be a little softer, but as they got bigger,
2:50
why they kind of followed suit with the steers and, and you'd
2:53
have to, to call them better. I think our best five way to
2:56
effort 422 1/2 six way to effort up to 385 and those would have
3:02
been some weaned probably last fall, cabs that were dry
3:06
winnered or dry, you know, off grass rather.
3:09
And I had some seven way to effort bring 361 that would have
3:13
been been quite a bit better. So I don't know, just onward and
3:16
upward I guess. I love it.
3:18
How about other auction markets that are within the winter
3:22
livestock family? What you got to say there?
3:24
You know, really. And Dodge City is today, so you
3:29
know, it's going to be interesting.
3:30
But you know, the end of last week and then this week
3:35
everybody called the deal about like ours, you know, 5 to 10
3:39
better Salina, mostly bigger cattle there.
3:42
They haven't started mini cabs, but you know, they had four
3:45
weight steer and this would have been last Thursday.
3:47
So 6 weight steers up to 415, just about like our deal. 7
3:53
weight steer at 395. They sold some really nice 8
3:57
weight cattle at 376 and some big 9 weight steers at 360.
4:02
So they were calling their deal last Thursday, 5 to 10 better
4:05
and same way with Pratt. Again, this is kind of old news.
4:09
We're we're 5-6 days behind. It'll be interesting to see what
4:12
happens this week. But Pratt the same thing 8 to 8
4:16
to 10 higher when you're old Lauren and and you have the
4:20
hearing aids while your phone comes through your hearing aids.
4:23
So anyway, not, I don't, I hate to show my age, but I'm, I'm
4:26
old, 8 to 10 better at at Pratt. I had some little 360 weight
4:31
steers at 622 1/2. It's really interesting how you
4:35
can go across a huge area and the market is about the same.
4:40
You know, you think, what in the world is a guy buying a 350
4:44
weight steer in Salina, KS? How does he get on the same page
4:51
as somebody buying one in a lot of Colorado?
4:53
That's always kind of fascinated me, you know £400 steers and
4:58
Pratt at 572, you know that's within 5-6 bucks of what we did.
5:04
We had some at 487 weight cattle.
5:07
Now they got along a little better but you're a little
5:09
closer to the grain and cork, closer to the feed yards.
5:12
But they did have some 7 weight stairs at four O 6 1/2.
5:18
Their best 8 weight cattle in Pratt KS 377.
5:22
I thought they had some impressive heppers.
5:25
They got along good with the little 4 weight efforts up to
5:28
510 and had 114 head of five weight effort cabs at 475 that
5:35
they would have been weaned and and really stick out.
5:38
Kind watching Riverton, WY and talking to Jeff Smith yesterday
5:43
they had their first special calf sale and it's interesting
5:48
how the prices usually start in the north, these great big
5:53
prices and then they work work their way South.
5:56
And I think a lot of that is because they start seeing volume
6:01
earlier because they're further north.
6:03
The guys naturally kind of come off the cow and come off the
6:06
grass earlier just because of the weather.
6:10
But they called their trend yesterday and Riverton on a
6:13
little over 3000 cattle, as much as 20 higher and just some stick
6:18
out sales from Riverton, some 4 weight steers at 586.
6:24
They had some 5 weight steers bring 511 and some 6 weights at
6:28
4:17. So kind of in in touch with with
6:32
everybody else, but four way differs in Pratt, KS at 517,
6:38
which I thought was outstanding and then they had some five way
6:42
differs up to 433. So the trend around the country
6:47
from Riverton, WY to as Far East as Salina, KS and Atlanta,
6:51
Colorado, everybody kinda in that 5 to $10 a hundred better
6:57
over the last 5-6 days. Very exciting, especially
7:01
considering the downward trend that we were seeing in the
7:05
market last week when we were discussing this as well.
7:07
So great to see that across the board on all fronts.
7:11
Can't get the fats off center. You know, they closed one plant
7:16
down you they were trying to remodel or you know some BS
7:19
story and, and it's interesting now and I think we touched on
7:24
that last week, but you're looking at a 3/4 as much as $5
7:28
premium in the South now versus the north.
7:32
I mean that, that that just tells you they, they can, they
7:35
can price them. And when you're the only game in
7:38
town, you can price them and buy them wherever you want to.
7:40
But it's a situation we've created and I don't know, I
7:45
don't know how we get out of it, but that that's where we're at.
7:47
Wonderful, wonderful. Well, we have a current events
7:51
topic to discuss today. You'd like to.
7:55
Share that. Well, some, some more input on
7:59
on, on ask John and I've been asked to share some views and
8:03
kind of enlighten everyone on at the forefront kind of is the Eid
8:08
situation that that's going on. And that's the electric tronic
8:12
identification ear tags that, you know, they were mandated by
8:16
the USDA back last fall, November of 24.
8:20
So it's something we've dealt with for a while, but a couple
8:23
ranchers and and some alliances and and our calf, they sued the
8:28
USDA and saying that, you know, you can't force cattlemen to
8:33
purchase and identify their own cattle with an Eid tag and the
8:40
USDA. Why they bowled up and said that
8:43
the court should, you know, drop the the ranchers case and to the
8:48
support of the court, you know, they, they ruled that, you know,
8:51
the ranchers, hey, USDA, they have a good case and we're going
8:56
to grant that they can go ahead and continue with this.
8:58
You can't dictate to them. They didn't say you can't
9:01
dictate to them, but they said that that deserves to be
9:04
recognized. So anyway, I'm not a expert in,
9:07
in, in court proceedings, but it did advance and it goes up to
9:11
the, to the, to the next level and, and they're going to
9:14
continue to, to talk about it. But kind of my views on the
9:18
thing, you know, the USDA claims that the Eid tags is really the
9:23
answer to disease traceability. And you know, these are the same
9:28
great minds, Lauren, that thought asphalt was a hip
9:32
disease. I, I know I've asked them and
9:35
their ultimate goal is to tag all your cattle.
9:39
And they say that in the language they're going to start
9:42
with the breeding stock, which they have done over 18 months of
9:45
age crossing state lines. But it is on their agenda that
9:50
they want to get all cattle ultimately ID tag and you know
9:55
to to serve as a tool for disease traceability.
10:00
Every cow would have to be tagged, each individual tag
10:04
would have to be scanned, documented, and then the data
10:08
stored. Every time that cow is moved or,
10:11
or she trades hands, or if you're really wanting to trace
10:15
disease traceability, where has this cow landed?
10:19
You know what I mean? Even if she remained in your
10:22
possession, if you moved her 300 miles away, well, she's in
10:26
completely different territory and still susceptible to
10:30
whatever the disease may be in that specific area, whether she
10:34
traded hands or or not. And then most definitely, if she
10:39
goes to another producer that relocates the cow at A, at a
10:43
different facility, a different ranch or whatever, the USDA
10:47
mandated the tagging without any idea of hell, who that, who's
10:53
going to administer the program? Who, who's going to pay for it?
10:57
And most importantly, who's going to do all the damn work?
11:01
You know, any third grade kid would have asked those questions
11:04
before making it mandatory. And, and we run into this
11:07
constantly, time after time after time, we have the USDA or
11:11
the government mandate a, a position.
11:15
And then after the fact, we worry about, well, what's going
11:18
to be the consequences of it or who the hell is going to pay for
11:21
it since the government's broke anyway.
11:23
It's a damnedest thing I've ever seen it.
11:26
Every day, you know, there's hundreds of these transactions
11:30
that take place across the United States.
11:32
And do you think, you know, the USDA has anyone present ever,
11:37
every time there's a transaction between two people to read the
11:42
tags, to retag the ones that lost tags and you know, who's
11:47
who's there recording all, all the data for every one of these
11:51
transaction that takes place if you're wanting to trace disease.
11:55
And the answer is no, they don't have anybody there.
11:59
You know, the USDA, they couldn't find their ass with
12:03
both hands in a search warrant. I dealt with them.
12:05
I know it. And then and the mandate at the
12:08
end of the day, Warren is just, it's completely impossible to
12:12
implement it. You know, their idea is, well,
12:16
let's, let's stick that job in the auction markets rectum and,
12:21
and, and make them do the work. But that only accounts for about
12:24
10% of the nation's cows that, that trade hands.
12:28
And then USDA said, well, that'll be fine.
12:31
We'll we'll close our eyes to the other 90% and claim that
12:36
their work is a success story. And we've done it with back
12:40
tags, we've done it with VS. I've been in all of them bangs
12:45
in 45 years. I've seen them all come and go.
12:48
I've always said that the the disease is not near as traumatic
12:54
as the loss and, and, and the blow up in commerce that you
12:59
have trying to implement the program that never should have,
13:02
you know, started in the 1st place.
13:04
Or another idea that they have had is, well, let's give the
13:08
brand inspectors one of these rechargeable BOS wands and we'll
13:16
let them be a disease traceability officer and, and
13:20
give them a badge. So let's put it on the brand
13:24
inspectors. Well, here's a news flash.
13:27
Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas, the four biggest cattle
13:31
states in the United States don't have brand inspectors.
13:34
So, so how in the hell do you do that?
13:37
Currently what they're doing is is they say, well, we'll make
13:40
the veterinarians do it and Avis can crack the whip on those
13:46
guys. That's another physical
13:48
impossibility. You know, not everyone with cows
13:51
has a silencer shoot with a head catch.
13:54
When these vets are out out run around and you might do a price
13:58
check then grab your ass if and when the bat drives 70 miles
14:03
from his shoe to scan tags and write a health on three heifers
14:08
that you sold your neighbor. I mean Lauren is it's not it's
14:11
not going to happen. The USDA doesn't have any money.
14:15
They have no count concept of the disruption of commerce that
14:19
they're doing. They don't have the personnel
14:22
and they have no plan no plan whatsoever.
14:26
They, they enact these laws and then think that somebody's going
14:29
to come up with a plan form and how to pay for it.
14:32
And I've said several times and actually congratulated them on
14:36
creating a pathetic solution for a problem that hell we never had
14:40
in the 1st place. But hopefully the, the court
14:43
will, will throw this entire thing out.
14:47
I mean, there's potential with that for the lawsuit that's been
14:50
drawn up or, you know, that Trump and Secretary Rollins will
14:54
see the Eid as in my opinion, a complete government overreach.
15:00
And I just think it it, it's called collection and control.
15:05
You know, try to collect as much data as you possibly can,
15:09
meaning the government, the USDA, and then that gives you
15:12
ultimate control. Personally, Lauren, I'm real
15:15
apprehensive of any government program that collects so they
15:19
can ultimately control your personal identification.
15:23
So other than that, I think it's a great plan.
15:26
I I would agree with a lot of the sentiment.
15:29
A lot of it. Not at all in certain scenarios.
15:33
See where my where I am at with it?
15:35
Is that in concept? I think that it's like, yes, we
15:40
need to, we need to be able to trace diseases within the United
15:44
States, within agriculture, especially with how quickly
15:47
certain ones that we don't have right now, we don't have issues
15:51
with, but ones that could be used to target the United
15:53
States. Agriculture can move.
15:55
I see the concept, but the execution was not done well.
16:00
And I think that every single agriculturalist can agree on
16:03
that. Every single rancher can agree
16:05
that the execution of this program was done terribly.
16:09
It was decided upon without consulting ranchers, without
16:13
consulting state departments, without figuring out, like you
16:16
said, an exact plan of who, where, when, why, how, all of
16:21
these things. They were like, hey, we're just
16:23
we're going to do it, figure it out.
16:26
And then all of us are sitting back of OK, you want us to do
16:29
this thing, OK, You've made the decision without us being able
16:34
to say anything about it. Whatever.
16:36
We're used to it at this point. How would you like us to go
16:39
about it? How how are we going to be
16:42
paying for these? Is this voluntary?
16:44
Is this required? Is this on all of our cattle?
16:47
Is it on breeding stock? Like all of these things.
16:49
And then they're scrambling after implementing this program
16:54
and changing their mind every single stinking week of who's
16:57
going to implement it. And like you said, they were
16:59
like, OK, brand inspectors, that's not their job.
17:03
They've got other things that they have to do as brand
17:05
inspectors. They need to add more personnel
17:07
if they're going to be doing this.
17:08
They need personnel that is specifically dedicated to this,
17:11
if that's what they're going to be doing.
17:13
And the fact that like Kansas doesn't, we're not, we're not a
17:16
brand state. It's completely voluntary in
17:19
this state if you want a brand, but we don't have brand
17:20
inspectors. So who's doing it then?
17:23
And that's not the best job. I would much rather my vet be
17:26
spending time doing things that he actually needs to be doing
17:29
with his time other than scanning Eid tests.
17:31
Yeah Lord dedicated people to this situation.
17:35
And I also on the point of the data, I have an issue with where
17:40
is this data being housed? Where is this data being housed?
17:43
Who's the collection of it? And do we as ranchers have
17:46
access to it? Because currently in the Eid
17:49
system, let's say we have Catalan, a feed lot that have
17:53
Eid's in, we can track their performance, where they're
17:57
going, all of these different things that feedlots use Eid's
17:59
for, where they're being processed.
18:01
And then the feedlots can request how that animal was
18:05
processed in the processing facility, everything that gets
18:07
returned on them, all of that information.
18:09
But the ranchers don't like the ranchers that sent that cattle
18:12
to that feed lot don't have access to that.
18:14
With this Eid system, are we going to have a centralized area
18:18
where all of this data is available?
18:19
Are we going to have a centralized system that ranchers
18:22
can see where their animals are going, where they're not?
18:24
Or is this just going to be a government system?
18:26
And then if it is a government system, hello, is it going to be
18:29
part of the Stone Age that our current government systems are?
18:33
Or is it going to be 1st century technology that is actually
18:37
secure and actually, yeah. You, you, the problem with it is
18:40
then is then you run into privacy issues.
18:44
And I mean, personally, I don't think the government has any
18:48
right knowing how many catalog gots and where, where they're
18:52
located at. And it's just more information
18:56
that that we can gather, you know, to to an ends that and,
19:02
and, and you know, you look at all these programs, they'll what
19:05
they'll do next is they'll dangle money in front of you.
19:08
And I don't care if that's for buying gated pipe or some people
19:11
have GPS dairy chains around their cows.
19:16
And it sounds like a great a great deal.
19:19
And I'm all for if you've taken harm because the result of a
19:25
government action, you damn right go ahead and take their
19:27
money. But be very careful at what
19:30
expense. Oh yeah, Warren, we'll give you
19:33
a Dairy Milk chain with a damn lunch box on the end of it so
19:40
you can track your cows, but we want to know exactly how many
19:44
cows you got and where they're at.
19:46
Like I said, I, I don't like the, but I'm getting to be more
19:48
of a conspiracy person all the time.
19:50
But then Lauren, pretty soon, you know what, Lauren?
19:53
You got a hell of a carbon footprint there and, and you
19:56
haven't bought enough carbon credits.
19:58
So on our federal ground or on our state ground, boy, sure
20:03
looks like you need to cut back because your carbon footprints
20:06
too big. I, I, I mean, we've done the
20:08
same thing with the. All cripes, I it mistake leaves
20:14
my mind. But with the disease in the in
20:17
the in in bulls, you know, you've got to you've got to test
20:22
all all your bulls. And but then if you have, why in
20:26
the world can I think of that disease?
20:28
If you've got it, why the government will come and check
20:30
you out and shut you down. But you can't tell your neighbor
20:32
because of privacy issues. So the guy across the fence and
20:36
you saying, Hey, I got VD in my cows and they as my neighbor
20:40
ought. It ought to tell you.
20:42
But the government's gathered all this information.
20:44
But because of trick, that's what I'm thinking.
20:48
But no, we can't tell anybody. You know what I mean?
20:50
Well, hell, if you're trying to be a good neighbor and you end
20:53
up up with it, you better damn sure tell.
20:55
But because of privacy issues, why?
20:57
Why we can't. So there's just this convoluted
21:00
mass that that goes on with all of these government programs.
21:05
And yes, it's an easy sell. Yeah, we're we're trying to cut
21:08
back disease and this and that. But all the scrutiny goes to
21:12
where they've got the heavy hand, and that's at the auction
21:15
market. And am I biased?
21:16
You damn right I am. But they've already claimed that
21:19
only counts for 10% of the cattle.
21:22
So let's come down on the auction guy's ass and 90% of the
21:26
other cattle. Well, we we can't handle you.
21:28
Problem solved. We got the auction boys, Boy,
21:30
we're nipping that in the ass. And I did the same.
21:33
We did the same thing with the secular Stomatitis.
21:36
We shut these auctions down. But in the meantime, if you got
21:40
a string of rodeo bucket bulls or, or if you got your State
21:44
Fair straw hat on and want to be right in in the parade, yeah,
21:49
hell, open it wide up. But let's destroy commerce in
21:53
the meantime time by our actions because that's what we can
21:56
control and to hell with the masses.
21:59
And we have done absolutely 0 as far as traceability of disease
22:04
because they don't have the manpower to implement the check
22:09
that they just wrote, you know, and, and, and that's the thing
22:13
that's aggravating, I think for ranchers and, and, and business
22:16
people and truckers and veterinarians and the boots on
22:20
the ground people that they're mandating you do the work and
22:23
it's for what it, it's all in vain.
22:26
So yeah, you, you really got them nailed down.
22:28
And even if you track them at the auction, when I sell them to
22:32
you in Kansas, my tin head of bread heifers and you put an ad
22:36
in the thrifty nickel and sell them 123 at a time to all your
22:41
people where, where's the disease traceability?
22:43
Repeating my point, there's no USDA person out there coming
22:47
scanning your tag in the country to make sure your nephew across
22:52
the state line. Well, we sure want to get that
22:54
tag number down because we're tracing disease here.
22:59
They can't do it, It can't be done, but they think it's some
23:03
big ass success story. Could you drop the hammer on the
23:06
auction guy? What is your take on disease
23:11
outbreak happens in the United States?
23:13
A bio security Something happens.
23:17
Let's say another country releases something to try and
23:21
attack American agriculture, specifically the cattle
23:25
industry. What is your take on how we can
23:29
prepare for that, handle that that isn't this program?
23:33
What is like, if you were sitting down with the USDA today
23:36
and having a conversation with them, what would you say to put
23:40
in place of this? Because they're not just going
23:43
to say we can't have anything at all.
23:44
What would your thoughts on that be?
23:47
Well, you know, whether you have the, the ID tag or not, you
23:54
know, you'd have to locate the proximity of of where it
23:57
happened. If we had something happened
23:59
here, it's impossible to trace the tags.
24:03
They've tried that with the back tags and the back tags fall out.
24:07
You can't read the tags the this, the that and and and and
24:12
and I'm not meaning to avoid your question, but you don't
24:16
have any. We essentially the only
24:18
traceability we would have would be if they go through the
24:23
auction, why then we can look at who bought the cattle.
24:26
We'll know where they went. We'll know the trucker that
24:29
hauled them and where the cattle were unloaded AT.
24:32
And but you know if they're commingled why at the feed lot
24:37
or where, but you will at least isolate that.
24:40
Here in Colorado, we have a brand law.
24:42
So then we can do a further narrow down to buy the brand and
24:46
the brand will stay with them forever.
24:48
It won't fall off. You can always read it.
24:51
And so I guess that that would be my my answer, but that's what
24:56
we that's what we relied on in the past.
24:59
Could it happen? Yes, it could, but we're
25:01
throwing worthless dollars into an answer as as I said, as of
25:07
now, yeah, we don't have a problem.
25:08
But in your scenario, say we do. Well, I'm just here to tell you
25:12
an Eid tag will trace it back only to the guy that put the
25:17
calf, the tag in the calf because you're not reading the
25:22
tag answer is to that problem. You're not let me finish my
25:27
story. You're not reading the tag at
25:28
every transaction. So Lauren, it comes back to you.
25:32
You put the tag in, you know, and, and so Lauren, what's the
25:37
gig? You know, but this where we
25:39
trade it back, trail it back to, we don't know that it's traded
25:43
on average four times after it leaves your ranch.
25:47
That animal bounces 4 times, but we got no traceability on those
25:51
other four times. So it comes back to you.
25:54
Well, hell, you ain't got any problem.
25:56
But I guarantee you, you will be under the microscope because
25:59
I've seen it with VS, I've seen it with bangs, I've seen it with
26:03
a lot of things. Trick.
26:04
Another thing comes back to you. Hell, you don't have a problem.
26:09
You're clean as a pen, but we're going to quarantine you and run
26:13
your ass through the ringer and test every cow, every bull you
26:16
own three times until we get a negative test just so we can
26:20
find out you're you're not the one now, baby, you are.
26:24
But if you are, so be it. But but their their program is
26:28
flawed in the way they're they're they're they're trying
26:32
to implement it. It's ridiculous for that and
26:35
they want an individual ID number on every cow.
26:40
You cannot put a series if Warren, if your cows are #1
26:45
through #100 I would think that would be good enough that
26:48
that'll bring you back. But they want every individual
26:51
ID tag on that, on that health certificate.
26:54
So the bat is forced to cross reference a visible tag with the
26:59
EI with the Eid tag because you sold 4 cabs to 4 cows to this
27:04
guy, one to this guy, 7 to this guy, 3 to that guy.
27:07
And he's, he's got to then if those leave the state, go back
27:11
in and read every one of those tags.
27:15
Find your one out of those four. So he's got guys out there with
27:18
a flashlight shining on the visible ID tag and then cross
27:23
referencing it with the tag in the air.
27:25
You know it because before the cattle are sold, we don't know
27:29
if they're going out of state or not or which part of them is
27:32
going out of state. So it's just such a disruption
27:35
in commerce that it's physically it's impossible to do and and
27:40
what they'll do, they'll just choke it down so tough in the
27:43
auction that you can't you can't comply.
27:46
And I know that gets quite a ways away from your original
27:49
question, but you know, I do not know what the answer is to your
27:54
question, but I do know that traceability and if you're just
27:58
going to rely on Eid tags, you ain't going to find it that way
28:02
either. Yeah, I kind of agree more with
28:04
that, that there isn't necessarily a perfect answer
28:07
that anyone could have to that question.
28:09
But we need to not rely only on traceability.
28:12
It is a full flawed program. It is a flawed execution.
28:16
And I hope that our current administration can recognize
28:18
that and can see the flaws in the execution of it and go back
28:24
to the discussion table, bring some ranchers, some people that
28:27
are actually going to be impacted to this discussion
28:30
table, to this round table. And actually hear from the
28:33
auction market owners, from the ranchers, from our truckers,
28:37
from our processors and have that conversation of what is
28:40
something and a solution that we can come to that actually works
28:43
for every single phase of the animal and how they move
28:47
throughout this industry. That isn't going to be putting
28:50
anyone out on their ass at the end of the day.
28:53
You are, you are so correct and I can qualify that.
28:57
And the reason I am so disgusted in that I have been in this
29:02
position for 45 years and not once, not one time, not that I
29:08
know anything, but we, we represent a pretty big stake in
29:13
merchandising and the biggest auction in Colorado.
29:17
Never, ever, not ever, not once have I been consulted or
29:21
approached about what would be your input about how we
29:26
implement XYZ program. Could you give us a little?
29:29
You know, I, I, I know I sound pretty belligerent, but I've got
29:33
half a brain and, and which is more than than most of the
29:37
people, I guess that are implementing this program.
29:40
But ask the veterinarian, ask the auction guy, ask the
29:43
trucker, the boots on the ground people that are the people
29:47
you're saying are going to implement this program.
29:50
What a concept. Maybe ask them what the hell is
29:54
good about it and bad about. I'm not saying it's all bad, but
29:57
when you got a shotgun approach from some USDA guy that has no
30:01
appreciation of how it affects commerce, he's a hell of a guy
30:06
to mandate something to all the people that are going to
30:09
implement the program. And then they wonder why in the
30:12
hell it doesn't work. And Oh yeah, one other thing we
30:15
forgot about. Who's going to pay for it?
30:17
Ridiculous completely. And I'm not telling you, I can
30:21
name off program after program after program that we have been
30:25
mandated, forced to implement here.
30:28
And we have not been able to say one word, one word of
30:31
implementing the program, whether good or bad.
30:34
And, and that's government in general.
30:36
Why? Why don't you go to the people
30:38
that are actually doing the work and maybe they would have some
30:42
small amount of input into what is the best way to administer
30:48
what you're dictating? Absolutely, absolutely.
30:51
I couldn't agree more on that. And I think that is a perfect
30:53
place to round out today's episode and to sum it all up in
30:59
the fact that do John and I have a perfect answer for it.
31:02
No, we do not have a perfect answer for it.
31:05
But at the end of the day, I think all we're asking for is
31:08
our voices as agriculturalists, as producers, to be heard and to
31:12
be heard around the discussion table.
31:14
And hopefully that this can be something that unfortunately, it
31:17
had to come to a lawsuit. It had to come to a lawsuit for
31:20
our voices to be heard and for someone to see the injustice in
31:24
this program and in the implementation of this program.
31:27
So hopefully we can sit back down around the discussion table
31:29
and come to an agreement that works best for everyone across
31:33
all sectors of this industry. John, thank you for your
31:36
insight, for your thoughts, for your time.
31:38
To all of our listeners, this is the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
31:41
I'm Lauren Moylan, your host. Thank you for listening.
31:43
We will see you all tomorrow on another episode.
31:46
Have a good one y'all.