Tri-State Livestock News
Common Ground group focuses on financing young ranchers, risk protection and more
By Carrie Stadheim
A dozen cattle and beef industry spokesman got together in Washington, D.C., in October, to discuss with a group of Senators and Congressional representatives their ideas for restoring confidence in the cattle industry.
Jake Parnell, a California cattleman, owner of Cattlemen’s Livestock Market and President and Chairman of the Board of Western Video Market told TSLN that Montana Senator Tim Sheehy, a Republican, invited the group to gather in D.C., and he believes Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith was also instrumental in lining up the meeting.
Other government officials present included: U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA-13), Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY-At large), Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL-01), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), and Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH-02).
The meeting happened to coincide with the President’s social media comments that he intended to increase the under-tariff quota of Argentinian beef, and also USDA’s beef plan rollout.
Although some of the Common Ground leaders were invited to join the president for an announcement, chose not to participate due to a lack of information about what would be announced.
Parnell said he doesn’t think they “missed” an opportunity to take their message to the President.
“The tweet, beef is too high, zapped the energy out of rural America, so much of the base has supported this president,” he said. “We all know foreign meat comes into our food chain, how you want to handle labeling and all that is a whole different discussion. And that’s not what really was on the top of our minds. It was more understand the fundamentals, understand what it takes today to produce an 800-pound calf,” he said.
“And realize that a pound of choice meat cost about 12 minutes of labor 20 years ago. Same market conditions today. Twelve minutes of labor buys you about a pound of choice meat,” he said. “We wanted to talk about the true fundamentals of the cow-calf production.”
Parnell said initially five of the Common Ground participants were invited to a meeting, which morphed into an invite “on an announcement and a press conference.”
Because they could not obtain, after multiple requests, details about “the announcement,” Parnell said they were concerned they would be the “token cowboy hats” in an announcement that beef is too high. “So we chose not to be there,” he said.
Parnell said he wishes the President would “take more time to understand the fundamentals of livestock production and how the markets dictate themselves.”
The participants of this conversation emphasize that their Common Ground Coalition is not a new organization, but it is a loose group of representatives who share common goals.
Parnell said some of their issues are seeing the light of day.
One of the issues he believes is most important is subsidizing livestock risk protection at the same level as crop risk protection.
“We’re way behind when it comes to the opportunity to protect ourselves,” he said, referencing the Livestock Risk Protection program.
The renewal of the 179A deduction of bonus depreciation from 60 percent to 100 percent in the Big Beautiful Bill was a win, he said.
“You work so hard, you want to not have to give it all back to the government,” he said.
Sen. Hyde-Smith’s (R-MS) introduction of the Heritage Act was a good start, and Parnell would like to see the bill gain traction. The legislation increases the 2032A special use exemption from $4.95 million to $15 million for qualified real property used for farming purposes. This would allow special-use valuation of farmland to reduce the estate tax value of farming operations.
Parnell said “fruitful” discussion was had with the congressional delegates on “redefining ‘ag labor.'”
The group talked about “how to take the seasonality clauses out of the H2A programs, how to find a path for foreign labor to get to this country to work in some of these production outfits where they’ve been involved for so long, and we need them involved,” he said, adding that a couple of bills have been introduced to this effect. “Industry wide in agriculture, not just in livestock – this is a priority,” he said.
As far as transportation, Parnell said there is a bill, the HELP Act to basically ratify the law to make livestock hauling a little more conducive with hours of service.
When it comes to market issues and packer concentration, Parnell said, “I think that our market is fundamentally in a good spot. Our cow herd is decimated. “I think that we’ve got to continue with the free market approach,” he said.
“We need wins. We need to spend less time fighting over the two or three percent of the issues we don’t agree on and more time going out, working for our producers, our base,” he said.
Miles City, Montana, cattle feeder and cow-calf operator Fred Wacker was one of the D.C. meeting-goers.
Government loans for young producers is a big priority, he said.
“We really worked hard to talk about the different issues such as financing young people,” he said.
“We need to make it possible for young people to buy the parents’ ranch, so financing would be easily obtained through the federal government with extremely low interest rates,” he said.
To support the Common Ground effort, Wacker encouraged producers to sign the petition which has about 10,000 signatures already.
As far as addressing market-related issues, Wacker said, “our feeling is that if the market is really low, we can establish policy for them to carry their payment over two years to give the market a chance to come back so they can make their payments,” he said.
The Livestock Marketing Association financed and helped organize the coalition’s first gathering which brought together about 40 individuals including ranchers, feeders, economists and packers in Denver last April.
Montana’s Joe Goggins, who has been a spokesman for the group and who also owns both Billings, Montana auction markets, Vermilion Angus and various other cattle enterprises, published a letter that listed five agreed-upon priorities:
1. Achieve and maintain ag-friendly tax policy
2. Make risk management tools more effective
3. Improve access to labor
4. Increase flexibility for livestock haulers
5. Create support for young and emerging livestock producers