Tam

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Then go be a packer....I don't want to, but I would never stand in the way of anyone else's choice of marketing.

I don't want to be a packer either, but I want to be paid fairly for the quality product I produce. I take more risk, I have the animals far longer, I should be seeing more money in my pocket.

Rod

 

[Sandhusker]

Valid marketing then. Creekstone was looking to break federal laws on testing.

You boys that hate the pakers so much have made a very good case why there aren't lot's of them.

Plain old grass is greener syndrome.

What federal laws? You think a 90 year old truth-in-labeling law on hog serums applies on BSE testing for a foreign market? Talk about tipping your hand with a rediculous reach! There are no federal laws in the US concerning testing and it is legal in Japan, the country of origin.

 

[RobertMac]

The real world Robert?

Payments need to be made when they are due.

Consumers decide what they will buy and for how much.

I choose not to expand into a business that I don't have the time for. That makes me live in a scary world? I like to think it is a free choice world where no one has the ability to tell me how many cows I can run or that I have to do retail beef if I don't wish to.

If I expect those freedoms, others including evil packers need them as well.

I have stated before it is far easier to expand a cowherd than to retail your current calf crop. So far no one has been able to present an example of a producer that has moved their entire calf crop retail. That means we still need a middleman that will take live cattle and move them as beef.

Real world???? Here's the real world... control of the product from conception, raising, processing, marketing, and distribution...and byproduct use. That vertical integration model is what Tyson used to become the largest poultry supplier with enough profits to buy the largest beef processor and thereby becoming the largest horizontally integrated protein provider...and multi-national.

Do you think that they will give up their successful model when it comes to the beef industry?

Why are the other large processors following that model if there is higher risk and no money?

Wake up Jason, the world is changing!!!!

Now, does that mean every producer has to become vertically integrated and retail all their production? Absolutely not!!! I'm sure, in the ventures Ben mentioned, that the producers aren't responsible for all aspects of those ventures...as they shouldn't be. Good management dictates that professionals be hired to do each job. But those producers income is based on the overall profitability of the branded program. A producer doesn't have to do it all(fine if he can), but what matters is who you align your production with. As a Canadian, you should know better as to loss of control of your destiny. If producers want to take back control of their destiny(and the beef industry), they should seek out and align their production with independent, bottom-up vertically integrated branded beef programs...and, as Randy says, honesty and integrity must be top priority!

One last question...what freedoms do poultry producers have??????????