Sandhusker
Well-known member
You have 4 main entities; producers, packers, processers, and retailers that deal with boxed beef and/or live cattle.
Boxed beef; Every box of imported beef already is labeled as to it's country of origin. They're already keeping records on lots and batches so basically, all a processer has to do is forward the information. It's a simple matter of putting the proper sticker on the package. If they do their job, the retailer needn't worry about special records as all they have to do is forward the information once again.
Live cattle; We get live cattle from two countries other than the US; Canada and Mexico, and only packers and producers deal with live cattle so you can set aside processers and retailers for now. Today, all live cattle from Mexico are hot branded "M" because of tuburculosis concerns. All feeder cattle from Canada are branded "CAN". All slaughter ready animals from Canada have to go directly from the border to the packer via a sealed truck, bypassing producers. Therefore, producers can have cattle from the US, Canada, or Mexico in their herds. As previously mentioned, the non-US cattle are hot branded to their country of origin, so if the animal does not have a "M" or "CAN" brand, it has to be US. In this existing scenario, requiring producers to keep records on country of origin is really needless as the only record needed is on the animal. The packers trying to require producers to have extensize documents was a BS power play. NCBA should of called them on it, R-CALF did. A US producer can't have a non US animal that isn't branded "M" or "CAN", so why would they have to document that they don't something that they can't have?
When the packer gets their cattle from US producers, there is no doubt the country that those cattle came from. An "M" brand tells them they're from Mexico, "CAN" is Canadian, and everything else is US. No doubt about it - can't be any different as long as the border folks are doing their job. Slaughter ready cattle from Canadian sources come direct from Canada in a sealed truck and have to be kept seperate in the yards. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason each and every bovine at the packers can't be identified as to country of origin today with the records that are kept today.
The packers are really the only ones that need to keep seperate beef from different origin animals and the records to prove it. They tell everybody how difficult and expensive that will be, but that's hogwash. They're already keeping beef seperate for their branded programs. They're already doing it for the Koreans. It's just a matter of scheduling and codes. I used to work in a hydraulics manufacturing plant and we kept seperate pumps for Case, Cat, JD, etc.... while running them on the same line. We might have 30 50 gal pumps to be painted yellow for Cat followed by 10 20 gal. to be painted green for JD, and then 80 50 gal. painted Vickers blue, etc.... Some would have to be packed different and some orders for the same company would go on different trucks. In a typical day, we might have 50 different kinds of pumps for 30 different customers, 10 different packing requirements and 5 different trucks to load them on - much more than any packer would ever do. We used scheduling and codes and had no problem - but then again we all spoke English. All this talk about huge expenses is just huge BS.
Finally, you have the retailers. As long as the processers and packers are doing their jobs, they have no huge needs for records, either. Just pass on the info.
Now just where are all the costs going to come from?
Boxed beef; Every box of imported beef already is labeled as to it's country of origin. They're already keeping records on lots and batches so basically, all a processer has to do is forward the information. It's a simple matter of putting the proper sticker on the package. If they do their job, the retailer needn't worry about special records as all they have to do is forward the information once again.
Live cattle; We get live cattle from two countries other than the US; Canada and Mexico, and only packers and producers deal with live cattle so you can set aside processers and retailers for now. Today, all live cattle from Mexico are hot branded "M" because of tuburculosis concerns. All feeder cattle from Canada are branded "CAN". All slaughter ready animals from Canada have to go directly from the border to the packer via a sealed truck, bypassing producers. Therefore, producers can have cattle from the US, Canada, or Mexico in their herds. As previously mentioned, the non-US cattle are hot branded to their country of origin, so if the animal does not have a "M" or "CAN" brand, it has to be US. In this existing scenario, requiring producers to keep records on country of origin is really needless as the only record needed is on the animal. The packers trying to require producers to have extensize documents was a BS power play. NCBA should of called them on it, R-CALF did. A US producer can't have a non US animal that isn't branded "M" or "CAN", so why would they have to document that they don't something that they can't have?
When the packer gets their cattle from US producers, there is no doubt the country that those cattle came from. An "M" brand tells them they're from Mexico, "CAN" is Canadian, and everything else is US. No doubt about it - can't be any different as long as the border folks are doing their job. Slaughter ready cattle from Canadian sources come direct from Canada in a sealed truck and have to be kept seperate in the yards. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason each and every bovine at the packers can't be identified as to country of origin today with the records that are kept today.
The packers are really the only ones that need to keep seperate beef from different origin animals and the records to prove it. They tell everybody how difficult and expensive that will be, but that's hogwash. They're already keeping beef seperate for their branded programs. They're already doing it for the Koreans. It's just a matter of scheduling and codes. I used to work in a hydraulics manufacturing plant and we kept seperate pumps for Case, Cat, JD, etc.... while running them on the same line. We might have 30 50 gal pumps to be painted yellow for Cat followed by 10 20 gal. to be painted green for JD, and then 80 50 gal. painted Vickers blue, etc.... Some would have to be packed different and some orders for the same company would go on different trucks. In a typical day, we might have 50 different kinds of pumps for 30 different customers, 10 different packing requirements and 5 different trucks to load them on - much more than any packer would ever do. We used scheduling and codes and had no problem - but then again we all spoke English. All this talk about huge expenses is just huge BS.
Finally, you have the retailers. As long as the processers and packers are doing their jobs, they have no huge needs for records, either. Just pass on the info.
Now just where are all the costs going to come from?