Cattlemen Find Reason to Like the Bill

April 29, 2002

As the House-Senate farm bill conferees agreed for the most part on the shape of a final bill, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said several provisions for cattle producers have been included. Key components of the bill for farmers and ranchers are funding for conservation programs, a market driven commodity title and country of original labeling.

Under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a program where USDA and producers share costs of conservation efforts, livestock producers can receive up to $450,000 in cost share, over the life of the six year farm bill. "We are pleased that the EQIP program was so well funded," said Chandler Keys, vice president, public policy. "This level of EQIP funding will help cattle producers preserve the land for future generations and comply with environmental regulations."

NCBA believes the inclusion of the Grasslands Reserve Program is another important victory for cattle producers. This program is to help producers preserve grasslands and help them constructively deal with sprawl and development.

The commodity title of the farm bill is not expected to have unintended consequences of a negative nature to beef production. "By maintaining marketing loans, the conferees have insured that livestock producers, the largest customer for America's grain, will pay market price for feed," said Jim Pellet, chairman, NCBA Agriculture Policy Committee.

Conferees agreed to a two-year voluntary country-of-origin labeling program that becomes mandatory in the third year. "NCBA would have preferred a voluntary country of origin labeling program in the House-Senate farm bill compromise," said Keys. "The two-year voluntary program will provide an opportunity to determine the sustainability of a mandatory program."

The compromised version eliminated the provision banning packer ownership. Proponents of the provision felt that it would solve profitability problems in the cattle industry. While NCBA said it recognizes that there are tremendous losses in the industry right now, "we did not believe that this provision would solve the multitude of problems facing the industry."

"This is a multi-faceted problem," said Wythe Willey, producer from Cedar Rapids, IA, and president of NCBA. "That's why we are taking a broad-based approach to solving it. NCBA recently established a task force to develop viable solutions to answer complex marketplace questions."