Since 1997 the producer share of the consumer beef dollar has declined an additional 10% or around $400 per head. Between 1975 and 1997 meatpackers, cooperating with each other and with the big retailers, had already taken 20% more than a competitive market would have allowed — all the while touting their efficiencies and economies of scale. They never said what they were really efficient at.
2020 – This government enabled wealth extraction scheme has resulted in nearly half of our cow-calf producers, and over 84,000 cattle feeding operations, going out of business.
Today, twenty-three years later, NCBA is still using nearly $40 million dollars of the beef checkoff tax every year to promote the meatpackers’ and retailers’ interests and to convince producers, who are forced to pay the checkoff, they are better off.
