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More R-Calf dirty laundry?

Longcut

Well-known member
Letter to the Editor: R-CALF lawsuits are unfounded


Friday, August 17, 2007 4:15 PM CDT

To the Editor: R-CALF USA has recently filed, with producer dollars, two lawsuits against former directors and members of R-CALF who left the organization in disgust in February.

These lawsuits were sanctioned by the current R-CALF board of directors against hard-working industry leaders with absolutely no basis or proof of any wrongdoing. There was not even a letter written to the defendants prior to the filing of these lawsuits to determine the true facts. Thousands of producer dollars could have been saved if that had been done because the basis of the lawsuits are unfounded.

Instead, the board arrogantly, and with total disregard for the ranchers they supposedly financially represent, paid fees to their attorney to arbitrarily file these frivolous lawsuits. Their actions seem to prove the current board no longer has the best interests of the U.S. cattle producer in mind. Wasting thousands of producer hard-earned dollars on ridiculous, unfounded lawsuits when there are so many critical issues before the industry that must be addressed is not a legacy Leo McDonnell had in mind when he formed R-CALF many years ago. Unfortunately, R-CALF has now positioned itself, through its current board of directors and CEO, on a course of action lacking in integrity, competence and credibility.

I resigned my eight-year membership in R-CALF in February during the “power takeover” and became part of the new United States Cattlemen's Association (USCA), which was formed by all those who left R-CALF at that time. This group has moved forward, and I am proud to say they are really making a positive impact in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Although there were hurt feelings when the takeover occurred, as most of those who left had been with R-CALF from the very beginning, there was never any vindictiveness on their part - they have moved on, continuing to work in a positive manner for the U.S. cattle producer.

You cannot say that about this current R-CALF board. These recent lawsuits are laced with vindictiveness. They are afraid they will lose members to USCA, and they probably will. In fact, I predict R-CALF membership will continue to rapidly spiral downward as this board's incredulous shenanigans further unfold, hard-earned dollars are carelessly wasted, and producers finally say “enough is enough.”

If you are a current R-CALF member you have a right and a duty to call the office and demand, in writing, an accounting of the monies spent on these lawsuits as well as an estimate of future costs. One of these cases is only just beginning the discovery process with depositions being taken in Colorado, Texas and California, costing R-CALF members even thousands more in attorney and travel costs. These lawsuits are not beneficial to cattle producers in any way, shape or form and you need to hold this out-of-control board accountable for their actions in how they are spending and wasting your money.

- Sharon McDonald

Melville, Mont.
 

Longcut

Well-known member
Letter to the Editor: R-CALF leadership did not take the high road


Friday, August 17, 2007 4:15 PM CDT

To the Editor: As a past member and former volunteer national membership chair of R-CALF USA, I have held my silence about why I was compelled to resign from the organization, but in light of recent events I have decided to write a letter to all cattle producers.

Through my work with R-CALF over the years, I've developed many relationships across the country with ranchers and I value deeply the trust and belief they offered when R-CALF was being built into a national organization.

While involved with R-CALF, I learned a great deal about the issues our industry faces. Together with people like Jack McNamee, Leo and Sam McDonnell and so many others, we built a strong membership in Montana and then across the nation. One of the most important lessons from these people was “always take the high road.” We did that at R-CALF until February 2007.

Chuck Kiker's removal as president, and the subsequent removal of Leo McDonnell as the immediate past president were the straws that broke the proverbial camel's back. I gave my resignation a great deal of thought and I shed many tears of sadness over the process, but I decided that resigning was my only choice because my personal principles and values were at stake. I could not allow those principles and values to be thrown away like an old household rag.

R-CALF's leadership did not take the high road by removing Chuck Kiker as president. The board did not take the high road by effectively removing Leo McDonnell from his seat on the board.

R-CALF's leadership did not take the high road when it sent certified letters to those who resigned as committee chairs and directors alluding to the fact that our integrity was questionable.

R-CALF is not taking the high road by suing three former directors and Matt Lane using producer-generated money to do so. I'm not a lawyer, but I think it's safe to estimate that the tens of thousands spent on these frivolous lawsuits now amount to more than the cost of the Canadian border appeal.

One has to wonder if the current board would be so bent on suing former members and directors if these individuals were spending their own money instead of wielding membership money.

R-CALF USA is no longer the organization we all built with our blood, sweat and tears. Pettiness rules the roost at R-CALF these days. The organization has turned on the very people who built the outfit because certain leaders today can't let go of the fact that some of us have moved on and established a different organization to finish the job we started so many years ago. While the leaders at R-CALF say they want competition and transparency in the marketplace, it's competition and transparency in their own backyard that they want to squelch.

There are a lot of things to consider before producers write another check to support R-CALF's efforts. The organization was originally built to protect ranchers' interests, give them a voice and preserve an industry and way of life. Instead, your money is being used to sue fellow cattle producers and people who gave their hearts and souls to your industry and its organization.

It's time for the R-CALF board to hear a clear and resounding message from producers about exactly how your hard-earned dollars should be spent.

- Judie Manuel

Winnett, Mont.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
The truth is Kiker and Co. broke the rules. Kiker went against the wishes of the board (his bosses) and they did what was in their right to do and what they should of done. When you do what your boss tells you not to do, you get fired.

The problem is, one of that crew wasn't man/woman enough to take what they dished out and started that chickencrap Swift Horses deal - they could sure talk behind a wall, but didn't want anybody to know who they were. Cowards.

If I was on the board, I'd let it go. But, they're torked - they want some accountablity. If the recipients don't like it, they shouldn't dish it out.
 

Kato

Well-known member
The problem is, one of that crew wasn't man/woman enough to take what they dished out and started that chickencrap Swift Horses deal - they could sure talk behind a wall, but didn't want anybody to know who they were. Cowards.

Cowards? Or smart enough to try and avoid being sued..... :shock:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Kato said:
The problem is, one of that crew wasn't man/woman enough to take what they dished out and started that chickencrap Swift Horses deal - they could sure talk behind a wall, but didn't want anybody to know who they were. Cowards.

Cowards? Or smart enough to try and avoid being sued..... :shock:

They wouldn't get sued if they weren't doing anything wrong. You think maybe that's why they hid behind a pseudonym? :shock:
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
Kato said:
The problem is, one of that crew wasn't man/woman enough to take what they dished out and started that chickencrap Swift Horses deal - they could sure talk behind a wall, but didn't want anybody to know who they were. Cowards.

Cowards? Or smart enough to try and avoid being sued..... :shock:

They wouldn't get sued if they weren't doing anything wrong. You think maybe that's why they hid behind a pseudonym? :shock:

What a joke. R-CALF would would set them selves on fire and then try to sue the match company. :roll:
 

fedup2

Well-known member
It wasn’t that long ago on this site, that you and others were jumping up & down pi$$ing all over yourselves because R-Calf was dead! They had self destructed and would the last one to leave, turn out the lights.

The remaining ‘few’ members that you claimed, must be some pretty smart & powerful people to still be responsible for every evil in this world! (no I'm not a member!) Still getting your information from secret sources :roll: :roll: :roll:
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jolley: Five Minutes With Eric Nelson

Eric Nelson is R-CALF USA Region VII Director. He’s been involved in this very active, populist organization just a short time, joining in 2003. Can we make a guess here? He had some heartfelt opinions about the state of the cattle industry and wanted to make sure the feds heard him loudly and clearly. The "in-your-face" attitude of R-CALF when it comes to cattle issues offered him the perfect vehicle to make a statement or two.

The chance to make a statement is probably why he spoke a few weeks ago at a regional Farm Bill hearing in Ankeny, Iowa, conducted by the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee. He fired off some heavy artillery, too, starting with "Since 1994, more than 122,000 cattle ranches and farms have exited the beef cattle business. During that same period, the inventory of cattle and calves in the U.S. dropped from 101 million to just under 95 million."

The cannonade continued with "Consolidation in the meatpacking industry has grown at an alarming rate over the past few decades, as have abusive contracting practices. Concentration among meatpackers has more than tripled since the late 1970s, and today, just four beef-packing companies control more than 83 percent of the industry."

Letting loose a virtual squadron of heavily-armed B-52’s and leaving no doubt about where his loyalty lies, he carpet bombed the meeting with this statement: "The impact of packer concentration and abusive contracting practices is also evident in the declining share of each beef retail dollar that actually reaches cattle producers, with the producer’s share of each retail dollar earned on beef being 47 cents in 2005, down from 56 cents in 1993."

Remember the line in "Network," the 1976 movie about television news? Angry newsman Howard Beale says, "So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, ‘I'm as mad as be nice, and I'm not going to take this anymore!’" It was actor Peter Finch’s Oscar award-winning moment.

Eric Nelson might be today’s Howard Beale, exhorting cattlemen to take action now.

Despite doing what some might think is an excessive exercise in saber rattling, Eric Nelson is a thoughtful, reasonable family man. In fact, his comments, which some might read as over-the-top, were delivered calmly and quietly but with a firmness of tone that underscored his position.

He’s a successful businessman who, with his wife Carol, owns and operates a beef feedlot and a cow/calf and farming operation near Moville, Iowa. It’s about 25 miles from Dakota City, undoubtedly the capitol of enemy territory as far as he’s concerned, but close enough that he could almost walk his animals to the front door of one of the largest cattle harvesting facilities in the world. His family has been in the cattle business on this piece of land for several generations and he doesn’t plan on being the last of a dieing breed – the independent cattleman.

When the smoke cleared after his Ankeny presentation, I spent five minutes with Nelson and asked a few leading questions.

Eric, you’re a fourth generation farmer/cattleman working the same piece of western Iowa land your great-grandfather purchased in 1920. What keeps you on the farm?

What keeps me on the farm is the desire to have yet another generation of Nelsons to help provide food for a hungry nation and world.

In addition to running the farm, you operate a feedlot, represent Stauffer Seeds and you’ve held a Certified Crop Advisor designation since 1995. You also are a very active member of R-CALF. Assuming for a moment that you actually have some free time occasionally, what do you do with it?

Family and church activities. We now have three children in 4-H, so that keeps us busy. I also take time for some political activities. For the past six months, I have been busy with a handful of producers forming Independent Cattlemen of Iowa, the newest state R-CALF USA affiliate.

In a recent speech on behalf of R-CALF, you said, "We do support a voluntary animal health traceback system that ensures the protection of individual data." Let me ask you to expand on that statement. In the event of an animal health problem that would require an immediate traceback, how can a purely voluntary system provide the information needed to take the proper remedial steps?

A purely voluntary system can provide the information needed today as it has in the past. When I vaccinate heifers for bangs - which is no longer required - and couple that with a tag or a brand or both, animals can be traced very quickly.

You’ve also said, "Any Animal ID system should incorporate existing systems, such as brand programs and the Intertribal Cattle Connect program, and should function under each state’s animal health officials and Tribal governments." Does that mean you want to keep the federal government at arms length on any animal identification program? And how would that square with a recent suggestion by Dennis McKerracher, president of the Canadian Livestock Association, that all three North American countries work together to achieve some kind of tri-partite agreement on animal identification?

It’s my opinion one of the reasons premise ID and the government ID programs have been so poorly received is that the average producer has little faith that the government can run a program as large as this. I have heard producers say more than once that "the government can’t track illegal aliens, so how in heck will they be able to track hundreds of millions of animals?"

But most producers have confidence in their state (and state veterinarian) to be in charge of a voluntary program. And then let private enterprise do its thing. If there ends up being a premium for cattle with certain identity status, let the market take care of that. But to say to producers that you have to use a certain tag, when the lower-cost tag they already are using allows for traceback, goes in the face of what our country is all about.

I am concerned by those who want there to be just one "North American beef industry." Those promoting that idea are usually not independent producers, but rather importers and processors profiting hugely from their ability to bring lower priced beef into this country and sell it seamlessly as USA beef.

You’re on record as fearing an increasingly vertically-integrated cattle and beef industry in the U.S. There’s no question that fewer companies control more production, it has been a trend in this industry and many others for decades. In a request that is generally acknowledged as a plea to stop – even reverse - vertical integration, you’ve asked that the new Farm Bill make progress in five key areas: 1) honest competition in the domestic livestock market; 2) animal health and safety; 3) consumer information; 4) international trade; and 5) the development of initiatives to sustain a more prosperous and competitive cattle and beef sector. The reality of the marketplace will always call for cheaper foods. Can the Farm Bill you’re seeking answer that call or do you face pricing beef out of the reach of the average consumer?

Concentration in the beef sector has been going on for years and will likely take a few years to reverse. That being said, the upcoming Farm Bill could be the beginning of the reversal of the trend of the past 20 years, and could focus on the cattle and beef industries and the adverse affects concentration has had. I simply don’t believe that having a handful of large corporations controlling the cattle industry somehow guarantees low-priced food. Actually, I would expect the opposite if that were allowed to happen. Looking closely at the producer/retailer spread and how little the producer receives today versus what is charged at the supermarket gives some indication of that.

R-CALF has lobbied, sued, and clamored for a stronger, longer ban on Canadian cattle, claiming that the risk of BSE north of the border was just too high. All the efforts have come to naught, though. Now that the numbers – seven cases – seem to bear out the validity of the association’s position, what will be R-CALF’s next step?

R-CALF will continue to apply pressure on the Canadian BSE issue, but we’ll be doing that as we continue to work on a myriad of other issues. Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL) is now more popular than ever with producers due to the Canadian and Japanese BSE situations and the fact that we continue to import beef from both countries without labeling its origin at our supermarkets.

It’s also imperative that mandatory livestock price reporting be reinstated so that independent producers have at least some information with which to base their marketing decisions. R-CALF will continue to lobby for more transparent markets and make efforts to limit captive supplies.

R-CALF also continues to negotiate for language in trade agreements that recognize the perishable nature of our industry. We need safeguards to protect our industry from price-depressing import surges and we need to revise rules of origin to ensure the beef exported from a given country was actually produced in that country.

Allowing state inspected beef plants to ship beef across state lines is another important issue as it will provide an incentive for smaller packing plants to expand, which will help to increase competition in the beef packing industry.

The border issue with Canada may have put us on the map, but R-CALF USA is now engaged in multiple issues of interest and concern for independent U.S. cattle producers.

Thousands of cattlemen read CattleNetwork.com. What would you like to say to them?

Get involved. Whatever the organization is, take an active role in policy making. There aren’t many of us left in production agriculture, and we owe it to ourselves and the next generation to share whatever visions for the future we have.

PS yesterdays news...................good as gold.
good luck
 

Longcut

Well-known member
fedup2 said:
It wasn’t that long ago on this site, that you and others were jumping up & down pi$$ing all over yourselves because R-Calf was dead! They had self destructed and would the last one to leave, turn out the lights.

The remaining ‘few’ members that you claimed, must be some pretty smart & powerful people to still be responsible for every evil in this world! (no I'm not a member!) Still getting your information from secret sources :roll: :roll: :roll:
That's funny you sure sound like one. :cry2: :liar: :sure:
 

fedup2

Well-known member
Well Longcut or whatever name you decide to use next, seems like every time you make a complete fool of yourself, you disappear for a couple of days and come back with a different name. I hope you don’t get confused as it doesn’t take you very long to show what an idiot you are! :roll: :roll: :roll:

As far as me sounding like a member of R-Calf, it might surprise you to know most every rancher in my area agree with many of R-Calf’s points. (not all points but many) Including most of the NCBA members that I talk to!
Now go and play Russian roulette with your Chinese chicken! Remember, no labels or any other type of activities that could be labeled protectionist! :arrow: :wink:

If anyone wants to know whether its Chinese or Canadian chicken, ask them who the heck do they think they are to have a right to know where their food comes from! :roll: :roll: :roll:
 

Longcut

Well-known member
When you are at the next R-Calf get-together fed2 pass this out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/Recall_Case_Archive/index.asp and suggest they work just as hard at cleaning up your own backyard as you do about everyone else.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Longcut said:
When you are at the next R-Calf get-together fed2 pass this out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/Recall_Case_Archive/index.asp and suggest they work just as hard at cleaning up your own backyard as you do about everyone else.

Longcut, "YOU HAVE UP THERE? Who said I was Canadian? . "

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Longcut

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
Longcut said:
When you are at the next R-Calf get-together fed2 pass this out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/Recall_Case_Archive/index.asp and suggest they work just as hard at cleaning up your own backyard as you do about everyone else.

Longcut, "YOU HAVE UP THERE? Who said I was Canadian? . "

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Is this site restricted only to Americans and Canadians? :roll: You do live in a very small world don't you Sandhusker?
 

fedup2

Well-known member
Longcut writes:[When you are at the next R-Calf get-together fed2 pass this out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/Recall_Case_Archive/index.asp and suggest they work just as hard at cleaning up your own backyard as you do about everyone else.]

No need for me to go to one of their get-togethers Longcut or suggest anything to them. One of most important steps in cleaning one’s own backyard is to stop the entrance of garbage in the first place! It appears to me they already know where to start!
 

Longcut

Well-known member
fedup2 said:
Longcut writes:[When you are at the next R-Calf get-together fed2 pass this out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/Recall_Case_Archive/index.asp and suggest they work just as hard at cleaning up your own backyard as you do about everyone else.]

No need for me to go to one of their get-togethers Longcut or suggest anything to them. One of most important steps in cleaning one’s own backyard is to stop the entrance of garbage in the first place! It appears to me they already know where to start!
Yes and good luck with that! :lol: As the recall list shows there is already a lot of US garbage (your choice of words) hitting the coolers.
 
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