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USDA beef plan targets price risk and producer confidence

Ag secretary Brooke Rollins says the USDA is taking steps to help improve producer confidence in the cattle industry.

Speaking with reporters at the Nebraska State Fair, told Brownfield one of the goals of the 5-point plan is to help producers manage price swings by expanding the Livestock Risk Protection Program. “If someone keeps their heifer today, and then in two years if they would have sold it today and made more money, we’re now managing for that risk versus entirely new government program that has more government payments. That’s what disrupts the market, and we believe we’re going to get there without that.”

The Beef Retention and National Development (BRAND) endorsement will allow producers to ensure the economic value of retaining a heifer for breeding over a two-year period. It would establish a protected value based on the expected slaughter value of the heifer at the time of enrollment.

Nebraska Cattlemen’s President Craig Uden says the measure originated within his organization, and it could encourage more producers to retain heifers. “You’ll have a certain number of producers that are getting the market signal to expand. This might give them a little more confidence to step out there.”

And, he says, it could benefit younger producers “It gives them and their lender some stability and confidence that they can be assured that they might not be under water in a year or two.”

Rollins says the plan also includes funding that could help processors purchase facilities that have recently been shuttered. “The fact that 20 percent of that processing is coming back onto the market will allow us to shift for the first time in decades back to regionally mid-sized and smaller processors and capacity.”

USDA’s plan also includes more funding for beginning farmers and ranchers, prioritize procurement of locally processed beef for federal and state institutions and increase flexibility in the Emergency Conservation Reserve Program on Grassland Conservation Reserve Program acres.

Craig Uden: