Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 279: USDA’s New “Lawfare” Crackdown: Is DC Finally Picking a Side? with John Campbell

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279: USDA’s New “Lawfare” Crackdown: Is DC Finally Picking a Side? with John Campbell · CattleUSA Daily

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In today's episode with John Campbell, he comes on to give us
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a rundown on everything that we are seeing in the live cattle
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market this week. He gives us the breakdown of
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Lahana and then also all of the other cell barns in the winter
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livestock family and in the region to really give us an idea
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of what we are seeing on the live cattle side over the past
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week. After that, John goes into a hot
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topic discussion about everything that we are seeing on
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a national oversight level and some new programs that have
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recently been put in place by Rollins and under the USDA,
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everything like that. John breaks it all down for us,
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what it means, what it means for producers, and what we can do
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going forward. Without further ado, let's go
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ahead and hop into this episode with John.
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But before we do, if you're watching on any of our podcast
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platforms, make sure you take a second to go live the show,
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subscribe to the show, rate and review it, do all of the
0:54
different things. I really appreciate it here at
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the team. Now let's hear from John.
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Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
1:05
the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the update
1:08
shaping agriculture today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
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passionate advocate for agriculture here to keep you
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informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
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episode. John, welcome back to the
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podcast. How has life in La Hana been?
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You know, it's just terrific, beautiful weather.
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We could use a little moisture, which, you know, that's typical
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for La Hana. But looks like you guys back
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eastern Kansas going to maybe get a little shot in through
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here. So that's great news.
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Hope it heads West. But no, talking to several
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people and cabbing is going great.
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I mean, next fall you're not going to have to worry about
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cutting all the frozen aired cabs off.
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If that isn't the truth, I know we're getting some moisture here
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in Kansas, like into the eastern part of Kansas this weekend.
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Boy, oh boy, are we grateful for it.
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It's a little bit of a mud pit out there right now because of
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some of the rain. But I have learned not to
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complain and not to bitch and moan about any sort of moisture
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and to just be grateful for it. So for sure, for sure.
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Wow. What are we seeing in the
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markets this week, John? You know, really we kind of had
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a lot of turmoil towards the end of last week.
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Thursday, Friday, big downer days in the commodities.
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They took a big hunk out of the Fed cattle.
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Then Monday, Tuesday, why they tried to run it down again.
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And each day it was pretty resilient and commodities ended
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up closing better Monday and Tuesday and then yesterday, why
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my gosh, you know, up 700 and some points in the feeders and
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4-5 dollars in in the live cattle, our market here in La
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Jolla lighter receipts 13188 cattle.
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But really it, I thought the cattle sold really well.
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We were kind of featuring replacement heffers.
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And boy, if there's any doubt about guys wanting to retain
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heffers or buy heffers to breed, that is a going machine and they
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are hot. After these replacement quality
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efforts are are cabs and stockers I thought pretty much
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steady. I hear some 4 weight steers
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course weaned and black and brought the four or excuse me,
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617 1/2. Their Big Brothers weighed 5 at
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5:30 which would be every bit as good as it's been in the last
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couple weeks. Nothing cheaper about it. 410 LB
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effers at 492 and had some 530 weight red Angus effers at 431.
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The stalker heifers for grazing. I I thought they were really
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steady. And then just to reiterate,
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excellent demand for these replacement quality effers.
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Here's some red Angus effers weighed 540.
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Those would probably be grazers. They brought 458.
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But you get into these strings of home raised bangs, vaccinated
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black baldy and red Angus effers, 610 LB effers at 4:30,
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715 LB heifers at 4:17. That's close to 3000 bucks a
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head, 25 at four O 4. Anything that stuck her head in
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the gate that looked like she had a chance of going back as a
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replacement. We had a lot of depth and a lot
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of demand on those. You get into the stairs, I
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thought steady on on what we had, like I said, mostly
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replacement efforts this week. But some 580 LB steers AT476610
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pounders at 457, those are steady, stout compared to
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anything we've done in the last 2-3 weeks.
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And some Red Angus steers weighing right close to seven at
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421. So we do have put a plug in real
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quick. We we've got our 86th
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anniversary sale here in La Honda.
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It'll be next Tuesday. I'm sure we'll have between 6
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and 7000 cattle. So if you need cattle to graze,
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you need cattle to summer. This is kind of a premier event.
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We have a big free beef feed and it's a deal that we do annually
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every year and some of the best producers crossed Colorado plan
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on hitting that sale so it won't all be big fleshy, warmed up.
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The grow yard cattle. We don't get a lot of wheat
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cattle here in La Hana. The bulk of the run will be
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cattle weighing under £700 that'll be suitable for for
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grazing. So get to La Hana next Tuesday
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or get on Cattle USA if still needing some turn out cattle.
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Absolutely. It's all great to hear.
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It's great to hear some positive news and that Lahana had a great
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week. What are we seeing regionally?
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Is this a theme that we're kind of seeing across the region
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still, John? Yeah, pretty much the same
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yesterday. The most current thing I have is
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Dodge City with 51154 cattle. A lot of those were cows, but
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you know, some 460 LB stairs at 584.
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There's sure not anything cheaper about that. 6 weight
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steers up to 473. Seven weights to four O 6.
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The big cattle, not any lower I don't really think, but they
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called it steady. The government guy called it
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steady to maybe a little cheaper, but here's some 8
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weight steers off wheat at 378 and some 9 weight cattle at 355.
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Dodge City heifers 486 LB heifers at 48520AT4786 weight
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efforts AT4147 weight efforts which they would be feeding
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efforts compared to our replacements.
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But for the feeder market there I still thought pretty
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respectable 372 on some 7 weight efforts.
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Salina with 36169 courses is old news.
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But last Thursday they called their feeders steady and spots a
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little weaker. But last Thursday we were going
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through the sweat of the futures and them kind of stepping on the
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Fed cattle, but they sold some 450 weight steers AT6O55, weight
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steers at 576, weights at 491. So all of those cattle would be
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going back out either to graze out wheat or probably destined
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for summer grass. But seven weight stairs at 4:13,
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I'm sure that that holds true for those.
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But 8 weight stairs there at 371 and you know the light grazing
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type cattle everywhere seem to be steady 435 LB effers.
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Salina, KS 535. They had five weight effers
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again north of $5, seven weight effers at 363 and some big 860
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weight effers at 3:32. Jeff Brown up in Riverton, WY, a
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little over 1000 cattle but selling some.
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I think there was 100 and some head of black steers weighed 5
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1/2. Bring 482, five weight effers at
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489. They're still selling some 6
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weight effers north of $4.00 and had some 720 weight effers at
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378. Marana, AZ continues to make the
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news. 17178 cattle for our friends down there in Marant,
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Arizona had some 515 LB crossbred steers and I'm sure
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crossbred meaning mixed English steers at 531.
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Do you know there's nothing wrong with that?
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And some five and a quarter weight and Red Angus heifers at
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477 and six way deffers up to 418.
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And those are northern prices right down there at Marana, AZ.
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So hats off to those guys. They're they're getting it done.
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Absolutely making the news on the podcast 2 weeks in a row,
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they got to be doing something right down there, that's for
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darn sure. So we'll, we'll take it, we'll
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take it. John, what do we, what do we
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have going on just in the world right now?
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I know you've got some other things that you want to chat
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with us about today. So kind of give us the give us
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the rundown on your thoughts and what's going on right now.
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Well, quite a bit of optimism, you know, and, and it's been out
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for a couple weeks, but I have a good friend and I've mentioned
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them before with Lonesome Lands, but Shad Sullivan, he, he was
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actually invited and part of a round table committee.
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And you know, USDA Senator Rollins is establishing a farmer
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and rancher freedom framework to end what they're called an
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agricultural law force. And, and really what it is, it's
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aimed to dismantle situations. Exactly like we described last
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week in our discussion about these regulatory agencies and
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oversight on their part and trying to enforce things like
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the, you know, Green New Deal and taking away private property
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rights. Well, that has gotten the
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attention of Senator Rollins and, and just this overstep of
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their, their boundaries and what they're classifying as law fair
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against private property rights people and just injustice to try
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to, you know, enforce these Green New Deal programs, EPA
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programs. And, and really, you know, she
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states that farming and ranching and private property rights are
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part of our national security. And they have actually
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reclassified private property rights, farming and ranching as
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now, you know, needing some protection because of national
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security. And they're outlining what they
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call a four pillar framework and #1 is the protect producers #2
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preserve land and liberty three purge burdensome regulations.
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And #4 they want to partner with agriculture to fight what
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they're calling this law fair. And I, I, I just was really
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encouraged by the narrative of the entire thing.
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The USDA will have now has an agenda to deregulate
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environmental status against US agriculture, shifting from what
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in the past was a compliance driven agency to a
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constitutional rights department and just a complete change in
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attitude versus the the Obama and and and Biden
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administration. And they're going to establish
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what Rollins is calling a senior advisor that will be 100%
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dedicated to fighting this AG law fair.
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And so if you're a victim or feel like you're a victim, you
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can report. And they have established a
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website anditsusda.gov/law fair. And so rather than all these
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compliance regulatory appointments going, they're
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going in a reverse direction and actually going to have an
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advisory member or senior member.
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And that's going to be their role.
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Their job is to listen to all of this lawfare that's going on out
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there. And and that doesn't mean I can
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call him up about my one tire, however that qualifies.
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But I'm sure they'll be inundated with them.
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But they will base your your case and look at it and give you
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information as to how to form some kind of a rebuttal.
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And if it gets to the point, you will also be directed right to
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the Department of Justice through this senior
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advisorsousda.gov/lawfare. And you know, they, they've
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already established a timeline near term.
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They're going to conduct Regulatory agency enforcement
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reviews. They're going to go back and
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look at how these agencies have overstepped their boundaries and
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how it has affected commerce, how it has affected agriculture
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and private property inspection practices over the next 60 to 90
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days. She meant they're going to be
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more aggressive about antitrust enforcement and direct action
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against concentrated protein markets.
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We're already seeing that. I have first hand knowledge of
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that market access reform for independent producers of their
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long term plan is to deconstruct big agricultural consolidation
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change and establish agriculture again as a national security
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priority and claiming that food is part of our strategic
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infrastructure as this private property owned by U.S. citizens.
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So again, addressing foreign ownership of a lot of our
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agricultural land reads now, whether they act on it or not,
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but I kind of think they will really positive and and I think
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finally we have a president that that no doubt is committed to
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these ideals and and more importantly, a secretary of
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agriculture has voiced and created this agenda.
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I just think it's outstanding. One of the best things ever to
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come out of DC. Plus the promise of that they
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can't come in and override state laws, state rights.
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And I think I'm I'm still all for local control, state control
15:31
like I think everybody is. But when you lived in a whacked
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out state like Colorado or California, why she's promised
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some federal oversight. Say it OK, you can do this, but
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don't think Big Brother doesn't have their hand on you.
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And you're going to have to stay in line on a lot of this BS it's
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going on. So first time in that I can
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remember we've had anybody that even wants to put any kind of
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federal oversight on a lot of these crazy, crazy legislative
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deals that have come down through these real liberal
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states. But you know that there's a lot
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of language there and we kind of wonder what what it means.
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But if you are a victim of government overreach, whether it
16:16
be eminent domain, unnecessary seizure of farmland, land
16:23
boundary disputes, you know that they're really setting up and
16:28
structuring a deal that'll be a champion for what I think is
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private property rights. And they even mention and
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recognize the dismantle of the the big Packers and get more
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local control, more competition back in markets.
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And Rollins has identified this really as the top priority of
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the USDA and has set some plans and actions.
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They have already done some things.
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So they outlined about four different projects that they
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already taken a hand in and got those cases dropped.
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So I would encourage everybody and and like we talked last
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week, everybody has an incident of some kind.
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And and I don't think don't think that it that it's trivial.
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You know, if you got the EPA marching down your back about
17:19
Lauren, what you said about the analyzing some dams or myself
17:25
with a with A1 tire on fire, don't think that, you know, I, I
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think the frequency that this advisor is contacted also adds
17:35
legitimacy to the position that that they've created.
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So I'm I'm excited. We, we've got somebody and, and,
17:44
and, and got a government that is finally looking at all of
17:49
this overreach in this, these outlandish policies that have
17:53
come into effect that not only for individuals, but businesses
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that Congress is completely upside down because of some
18:02
regulatory act or agency. I just think it's great.
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Yeah, no, I could not agree more with everything that you said
18:11
there, John. This is great.
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It is a massive win for producers who just need that,
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who live in states who are not there to support them, who have
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just been hit left and right with these different
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regulations, these different oversight things.
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And I think that it is a massive win for agriculture.
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And I also encourage people in the same way that you just did,
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that nothing is too trivial. And that we really, really need
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to help with the legitimacy and the need of this agency and of
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what they're doing to kind of bring this back to agriculture
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and bring some back, bring some oversight back to these states
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that really need some. Right.
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Well, and I think it gives you direct contact with an advisory
18:55
person within the government. I mean, short of having to hire
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an attorney that maybe doesn't understand the situation because
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you're dealing at a federal level.
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Well, you've got a direct voice to the USDA with this advisory
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position that they put on board and can help you in ways that
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you can combat some of these agencies that that come about.
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And, you know, so at least you feel like you've got an Ave. or,
19:25
or fighting chance against some of this.
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They'll give you some direction as to how to posture yourself
19:32
well when you're approached by all these things.
19:35
Yeah, I, I could not agree more on that.
19:38
It's one of those situations that you get a letter in the
19:40
mail and it's outlined and all this legal jargon and all these
19:44
things, what you have to do and the dates you have to have it
19:46
done by. And hell, you might get the
19:48
letter in the mail on March 5th and it said it was due by March
19:51
1st. Like you, it's just really
19:54
overwhelming for a lot of people sometimes.
19:56
And it is just a really great situation in scenario where you
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have someone that is able to kind of decide for that, reach
20:03
out to and provide some of that oversight and provide some of
20:07
that just real need that we need in agriculture.
20:11
Yeah. Well, and it takes on a huge
20:14
role, not not only specific points, but you know, we talked
20:18
about the, you know, foreign ownership of Magland, of
20:23
antitrust, of monopoly. I mean, it, it, it just goes
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through the entire spectrum of things that we have talked about
20:31
for years. And and she really breaks down
20:35
and outlines a plan to attack on all fronts of those things.
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You know, from from the independent rancher that that
20:43
has had an unjustice done to blig conglomerates that you know
20:48
what, we're finally going to put some teeth and some meat into
20:51
these antitrust and monopoly laws and get off dead center
20:56
and, and do something about it. And I'm just encouraged how, you
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know, as we talked a little bit off air, she is a private
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property advocate. She's an attorney that that was
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her specialty in the private sector.
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So it's near and dear close to her, not to mention that she has
21:17
a, a great AG background behind it.
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But I, I, I think, I think we're in the right direction and, and
21:25
looks like she has taken the initiative to really back up her
21:30
words and her thoughts there. Yeah, absolutely.
21:33
My biggest thing is I hope that there is, like you said,
21:37
something to back everything up and that this isn't just another
21:41
thing that they're implementing and we'll see a little bit of
21:43
action out of them and then it kind of trickles off.
21:45
My biggest hope and prayer is that this is truly something
21:49
that we see action come out of because I think that that is the
21:52
biggest theme that we have seen for a while as there's a lot of
21:55
talk on a lot of things and we get our hopes up and there's a a
21:59
little bit of action and then it just kind of falls off.
22:02
And so I hope that this is really something that we're able
22:04
to look back on and look as a catalyst and a turning point in
22:09
the agricultural industry on some of that oversight that is
22:12
really needed both at the independent rancher level and
22:15
also at the corporate level as well.
22:18
Yeah. Well, we can.
22:19
We can hope so. But again, even having the USDA
22:24
make an announcement to that effect is a huge win for private
22:30
property and, and, and for agriculture in general.
22:33
I, I know I have testified before and talked about the big
22:38
four and what control they have. You know, the direct quote.
22:43
And, and he actually was a, a Democratic congressman from
22:46
Kansas has said, oh hell, you Cowboys have been pissed off at
22:50
the BIG4 all your life. You're just always mad, always
22:53
mad, always mad and just discredited the whole deal when
22:57
you've got somebody now that's realizes there's a damn problem
23:01
there and is outlining something to do about it, and that's
23:05
tremendous strides over anything we've done up today.
23:11
Yeah, absolutely. I could not agree more, John, on
23:14
everything that you brought up today and brought to our
23:18
attention and to our audience. Is there anything else that we
23:20
kind of need to hit on or touch on before we wrap it up today,
23:23
John? I think we're good.
23:25
We hope this up and down in the market kind of levels out.
23:30
You know, I mean, I think everybody pretty defeated and
23:34
the Packer got a big win the end of last week.
23:37
But as so many of these, whether it be a news announcement or
23:41
whatever it is that we have these tear downs of the market
23:44
and we fall off the market still fundamentally is sound and
23:48
resilient. And just like we saw yesterday
23:52
and the first of the week, it just comes running right back.
23:55
So hopefully the downs aren't as down and the rebound is, is, is
24:00
better. So anyway, I, I, I still feel
24:03
we're kind of in the driver's seat.
24:05
Absolutely. I could not agree more on that.
24:07
It is a volatile market out there, but the rebounds that we
24:10
have been seeing have been really encouraging at the exact
24:13
same time. So John, thank you for your time
24:16
today. Thanks for coming on, sharing
24:17
your thoughts inside everything that you have to bring to our
24:20
audience. We really appreciate it here.
24:22
To all of our audience members, thanks for listening to another
24:24
episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
24:27
We will see you all next time. Have a great weekend y'all.