For 16 years Nebraska has had a law prohibiting packers from
owning, controlling or feeding livestock for more than five days prioer to
slaughter.
“Nebraska needs to
take a close look at the future as we lag behind” competitors, such as Iowa,
that allow packers to contract hog production, argues Senator Ken Schilz.
But Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF U.S.A.,
is staunchly opposed, warning it will lead to the “chickenization” of the hog
and cattle industries.
“[M]eatpackers are now attempting to apply the
industrialized poultry model to our livestock industries.
Bullard and R-CALF are reviled by Canadian cattlemen for
harassing Canadian cattle and beef exports to the United States. It took years
and millions of dollars to fight the protectionist regulations R-CALF promoted.
Bullard says “meatpackers are shifting larger and larger
volumes of livestock from the negotiated cash market — the price discovery
market — to alternative procurement programs such as packer ownership and
control.
“As a result, the price discovery markets for hogs and
cattle are becoming too thin to accurately predict a competitive price,” he
wrote in a letter to the politicians who recently debated the bill for four
hours.
It has not yet gained approval.
