Econ101 said:
MRJ, where are the policy analysts at the NCBA and what are their opinions on the various issues we discuss here like mcool, competition, bse, GIPSA, oversight, global beef trade, etc.?
It seems that all the analysis I have seen has been from the packer perspective, not the producer prospective.
What is the NCBA doing if not working for the packer's perspective all the time?
Econ, I'm not going to answer your question directly at this time. You pooh-pooh my points about being busy, but it is true! For example:
1. I've had an extremely debilitating bronchitis and sinus infection for the past ten days. It has begun to lessen, and the work load has increased.
2. yesterday, I cooked dinner for six cowboys, drove 65 miles to the chiropractor/accupruncture guy for treatment, and got a desperately needed perm and did grocery shopping so as to make the trip costs do triple duty, arriving home at 9:30 PM, I went quickly to bed....and coughed for two hours due to inhaling some cigarette smoke from a passerby while in town.
3. Up at 4:AM this morning, fixed 'real' breakfast (meat, eggs, fruit, toast, grits, as opposed to oatmeal or cold cereal which is breakfast when not working cattle all day), put dinner for 12 cowboys into the over. Am now taking a quick break due to a coughing attack, but have to load the hot food into an ice chest doubling as a hot box to keep the food HOT in while driving 8 miles to the corrals where preg testing is in progress. I'm lucky today, the guys will make the coffee in the horse trailer which they cleaned out as best they could, and tarped to make it a bit warmer for all of us since the projected high today is about 35% with a fair breeze. Not to mention the fact that I've washed my hands about 40 jillion times to keep from 'infecting' the Cowboy Beans & Ham, peas, and peach cobbler I'm cooking for dinner. Cowboy Beans & Ham are properly eaten on top of a slice of purchased bread (home made just isn't quite 'right' for this dish, so they say). The dishes will be carried in the chest to keep warm, so the food won't go cold while eating it. Lots of stuff to pack and carry. Then come home and reverse the process, putting away any left-over food, washing all the dishes.
4. Take a nap!!!!
5. If my luck is typical and my daughter-in-law has to work, I will start preparations for tomorrow, when the same bunch of cowboys will be preg testing more cows 26 miles from home. It it is half-way good luck, she will have had time today to make some stew for me to carry to that site. Also good luck that we have a shack there which holds heat from a little propane heater fairly well and breaks the wind better than tarps in a trailer.
It isn't like this every week, but it isn't unusual, either. There are several intense weeks in spring, summer and fall, and if the winter is mild it is more often chores and building or repairing fences, corrals, water systems, with most meals at each home, rather than at mine. Many weeks are fairly easy, with just normal ranch family meals, laundry, community/church events, errands, etc.
I'm not saying there aren't other familes as hard working......most of those extra cowboys today provide their own labor at home and all of them trade work with us and/or other neighbors and friends. Most of their wives are much younger than I and have off ranch jobs, as do my daughters-in-law.
BTW, have you emailed anyone, or checked the various websites of NCBA to find answers to your questions? I'm simply a member, no one has solicited my activity here, re. NCBA questions/attacks. I do ask for answers if I don't know them or can't look them up myself.
I do know that policy issues come from the grass-roots members. I know that NCBA did not like MCOOL because of the exemptions for food service, it does nothing to improve the quality of beef, and prevents trace-back which would allow producers to improve our product.
I do know that NCBA had told Johanns that we were not happy with GIPSA, and that things did change and are improving with the appointment of Mr. Link.
NCBA, since it became known to us, supported the best of science re. BSE and other cattle diseases.
NCBA and Mike John most certainly are going to compete in ALL beef trade.
I'm curious as to why you ask these questions, many of which I have answered previously, and for which you continuously throw bogus claims against NCBA, and against me for posting them.
Times up. I've got a timer ringing. Later.
MRJ