A Different Take on the Compromise Bill- A Response to Corbitt Wall

By Jennifer Hill

Last week Corbitt Wall came on Burnin’ Daylight and discussed cattle markets and his support for the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, otherwise known as the Compromise Bill. Corbitt makes some great points. We are at a place in the industry where something must give, and we’d all prefer it not be the cow/calf man. However there are some big contradictions within Mr. Wall’s, and pretty much everyone clamoring for support of the bill’s points.

Corbitt and US Cattlemen continuously acknowledge that one of the primary causes of the current market inequity is a failure of the US government to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, which has been around for more than 100 years at this point. So obviously the solution to that is to add additional legislation, cross our fingers and hope that this time the government decides to enforce its rules? Why is nobody discussing ways to push the government to first attempt enforcing the rules and tools already at their disposal? Because we know they won’t. Nobody would advise a battered woman to stay with the man who continuously smacks her around because afterwards he says he’s sorry. Why can’t we apply that same logic to our government?

It doesn’t take a very deep read of the legislation to realize that mandated minimums in cash trade and days to required delivery along with government notification sure sounds an awful lot like a cattle market version of ObamaCare. Hell, even the supportive talking points are similar. Corbitt and others all keep repeating the line that the bill isn’t perfect but we’ve just got to do something and really there is some good stuff in there. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and Congress is a champion at bringing that adage to life. Look how well ObamaCare has turned out.

Corbitt and others with similar philosophical approaches to market disparity love to repeat the line that ranchers aren’t in the beef business, they’re in the cattle businesses. I abhor that sentiment. If we are completely rejecting the long-term view of our product we are doomed to stagnation. I am a cow/calf and seedstock producer and I retain ownership on a portion of my calves through the feed yard to the rails, but even if I didn’t I would be amiss to ignore the final destination of my calves. Therefore, I need to know how my calves perform so that I can strive to constantly improve. That sentiment has allowed our business to grow and diversify. When the pandemic hit we moved into direct consumer sales, as did many ranchers. If I didn’t know ahead of time that our cattle could produce high quality beef the new enterprise would have been a flop instead of wildly successful. There was competition out there that weren’t doing it right, that were clearly running a cattle only focused operation and then attempting to sell beef, and their beef was terrible. There was no thought to fat content in ground or steak thickness. Customers would purchase a ¼ or ½ beef and then feel incredibly disheartened about the lack of flavor in their freezer full of beef. I had to offer samples to bring them back to direct sales after their bad experience. I had to show them that direct from farm beef didn’t have to taste bad and I was able to do that because my operation knows we produce beef, not just cattle. Corbitt discussed the importance of preventing beef from becoming a luxury item and the value to us as producers in ensuring the table staple status of beef. I couldn’t agree more. But isn’t that an inherent acknowledgement that we’re in the beef business?

I’ve said many times that, in my not so humble opinion, the best way to solve our current market crisis is to focus on developing systems around it. The government has never saved us, and they won’t now. What I can’t understand is why a bunch of conservative, rural farmers and ranchers can’t see that. Perhaps we’ve become too accustomed to big government and subsidies to see the reality of government intervention. Perhaps we’re just tired. The average age of US agricultural producers is 57 years old. That’s not an age when people are typically interested in taking on new risks or trying something different. Fine, continue to sit around gnashing your dentures and waiting for Uncle Sam to give a rip, but please, for the love of God, do not disparage those who are building alternative systems because you don’t understand it. As Corbitt said, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. But if we’re asking the government to do it I’m sure they will first find a way to require the cat fit very specific parameters, then eventually declare it protected. Let’s do it ourselves.