The Cattleman Who Showed Up
Editors note: This is a response to the Western Livestock Journal article, Logans Comments: Who Wins? by Logan Ipsen, where Logan attempts to tell both sides of a story. In it he doesn’t give a single name or quote from the Common Ground Coalition side, and after having an extensive conversation with Jack Payne he, questions Jack’s context, and “wonder(s) if the fire was stoked” under the President by Jack. Seemingly blaming Jack for the President’s Truth Social post to Cattle Ranchers.
By Jack Payne
"And now independent operators", I guess that's referring to me and Hayden Ballard , which I will take as a compliment.
"Ag should be tallying wins with this administration". Should be? We are tallying wins with this administration. Big wins!! Federal land grazing changes, increased funding for producers, reduced restrictions for local processors, and conversations about packer monopolies, packer concentration breakups, and "foreign owned packers". In my opinion those are massive wins, I see comments on social media where producers say they've waited 40 years to hear those words. That's winning if you ask me. But because a independent rancher and sale barn owner, a brilliant public land attorney, and a businessman who started a company promoting farm to table beef sales, helped create these positive changes the elites of the cattle industry took their ball and went home. I'm an open book, everyone knows where I stand on the issues, these guys follow me on social media and know exactly what I would be promoting in DC. Since this article does lots of assuming and speculating, I'll do some of my own. I suspect they were scared to death MCOOL would be part of the announcement and were afraid of packer retaliation. Keep in mind the guys in this group are the poster child's of "captive supply" and AMAs. (Alternative Marketing Agreements).
RCALF? Who specifically from RCALF was part of the Common Ground Summit/Coalition Washington, DC meeting? RCALF was intentionally excluded from the secret meeting in Denver, Colorado back in April so We are all curious who the token RCALF guy was in DC on Monday?
Logan has his timing off by a few days conveniently to save face for his friends. Trump made his announcement on Thursday about "lowering beef" and "We worked our Magic". Remember the board was down the limit Friday. Common Ground Summit was in DC Monday and Tuesday the week following Trump's original comments. So how could those comments be a second red flag when they had already heard them and seen the results in the market the week before? Something isn't adding up. All that had happened before they ever boarded the plane to DC.
"I wonder if the fire wasn't stoked instead of tempered?" asked Logan. In my Facebook post immediately after the Oval Office meeting I shared with my followers exactly what I talked to the President about. He said "Cattle are high because of my tarrifs, right ranchers? And then he asked, "are you guys real ranchers?" I said "cattle are partly high due to tarrifs, also because the Mexican border is closed and because so many producers have been forced to sell out". I capitalized on the unique opportunity to tell him buying cattle out of Mexico was funding the drug cartels, which is ironic because just afew short months ago LMA was down at the border selling M branded cattle for their auctioneering contest. I heard the whole story about the wild time they had down south of the border after the contest. Pretty crazy LMA and Common Ground Summit/Coalition are suddenly anti-import and ghosted the President of the United States in fear he might "announce more imports". Something doesn't add up.
Back to my conversation with the President, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell him about these Clinton/Obama carry overs in BLM/FS offices across the west. I explained all of USDA and DOI's hard work to improve grazing on public land would be a waste if environmental heads didn't roll. His response was pure gold. This meeting was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I sure wasn't going to waste it talking about those who stood him up on his announcement. The elites of the cattle industry that want you and me to sit down and shut up while they lobby against MCOOL and to protect the empires they've built off the backs of the struggling producers. Although I have alot to say about what they've done to this industry and continue to do, I could never talk enough about them to match the damage they did to themselves in Washington DC. I just hope Trump's cabinet can explain to him that LMA, CGS and NCBA for that matter, do NOT speak for me, my family or our customers. It's very upsetting the image they painted in the mind of The President of the United States of America about the cattle industry.
Sale Barn owners and operators, look for a Facebook post coming soon informing you of your options for sale barn support and insurance if you are fed up with LMA and their corporate leaning agenda. If you're like me for many years you didn't know there was another option. After LMA chose to stay neutral on Mandatory Electronic Animal ID, I knew I had to make a move. Then I found out how closely they were connected to the company CattleTrace and I started making calls. The auctioneering contest selling imported cattle was the final straw.
Are there things We as an industry can work on together? Absolutely, but only with complete and open transparency. We are not going to sign onto Common Ground Summit and let them go speak for us in DC. We’ve been letting their kind speak for us for 40 years and the results are in. Packer profits, less producers. It doesn't matter who's side your on, these simple facts CANNOT be denied.
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Jack Payne ranches in Nevada and Oregon, and owns and operates Nevada Livestock Market, in Fallon Nevada. Follow Jack on Facebook here.
