What If

[feeder]

There are those that are called a packer blamer, anti USDA, anti Gipsa anti business because they stand against many dealings that they believe are wrong. As a finisher of cattle I see what has happened here with the industry moving to vertical integration in regards to the packers. As a rancher selling calves, there are many buyers bidding on your stock. What if there were only packers left that owned the feedlots that supplied the cattle to their plants. The number of buyers would be cut drastically. They could fix the price ranchers receive due to less competition. Does anyone else see what could be coming in the future?

[DiamondSCattleCo]

[rkaiser]

Coming in the future Feeder? It's happening before our very eyes. Not enough entepreneurs left to stop it. Most are satisfied with roles as serfs, or cattle industry service professionals . Margin players - whatever term you wan to imply.

Our best bet is to hang on for our meager life times and possibly those of our kids if we are a bit older, but the ranching lifestyle of ownership and manifesting your own destiny is heading the way of the chicken, hog and dodo bird industry.

[Tommy]

rkaiser...Our best bet is to hang on for our meager life times and possibly those of our kids if we are a bit older, but the ranching lifestyle of ownership and manifesting your own destiny is heading the way of the chicken, hog and dodo bird industry.

I hope you are wrong Randy, but I fear that you are right.

[Sandhusker]

[Econ101]

Feeder and Rod, you hit the nail on the head.

[CattleRMe]

[Kato]

In Canada we have chicken marketing boards. These are producer run entities through which all chicken are bought and sold. Producers have quotas that they must stay within, and the processors must pay the price negotiated by the marketing boards if they want chicken.

A package of skinless boneless chicken breasts will cost you about $8.00 a pound in our local store.

I've never seen a Canadian poultry farmer go broke. They don't raise birds under the supervision of any packer. They are all independent producers. A friend of ours just retired very nicely on just the sale of quota alone without parting with any other assets.

Does this tell us something?

Yup.. American trade negotiators are dedicated to dismantling our system .

I know a lot of independent types resist this sort of thing, but it does say something for the benefits of primary producers getting together to get a little control over their own futures.

I also remember a short period of time years back when we in Manitoba actually had a beef marketing desk. It's a long time ago, but I can't remember having a lot of issues with it at the time. It was just for fat cattle, not for feeders. Free trade blew that out of the water.

[cowzilla]

Kato : These guys don't want to hear about supply management . I too have never seen a ckicken farm go under and the most secure cattle opperations in this area are the Dairy Farms. They have a guarenteed adjusted price of product ajusted to cost imputs. They work hard (just like the rest of us) but enjoy a more secure lifestyle and when a piece of steel gets old or a bit wore out they just go a buy a new one .

[Econ101]

There is supply management in the poultry business in the U.S. right now.

It is just oversupply.