By Austin Snedden, Ranching Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
It is important that we recognize that the strength of an industry is vital for every sector, but it is equally important to recognize that we can have industry strength and producer contraction at the same time. As associations and advocates for our trade, we need to realize that industry strength and producer vitality aren’t always simultaneous. Most of us advocate and have a strong passion for our industry because of our relationships with producers. If our primary goal in advocating for our industry is to create an environment where our fellow producers can thrive, we must ensure that sector health is represented in our model.
The march toward vertical integration is generally accomplished by many little steps that slowly move industry control up the chain. Vertical integration often contributes to industry efficiency and growth (until it gets too top-heavy), but almost always results in the contraction of specific sectors in the industry. The number of pounds and dollars can increase, and simultaneously, the number of producers can decrease. We have a short-circuited view of industry health if we only gauge it on pounds and dollars and ignore what probably spawned our passion for the industry—the people. In my younger years, there was advocacy and identity in the “cattle industry,” with a separate but related advocacy and identity in the “beef industry.” Both were dependent on each other, but both were interested in their own colleagues. We shifted to a point that the advocacy for the “cattle industry” was absorbed under the umbrella of the “beef industry.” According to USDA data, from 1996 to 2017, we lost over 171,000 cattle producers in the U.S. At the same time, total industry dollars and pounds of production have increased.
I am not advocating for burying our heads in the sand and rejecting all efficiency and scientific advances, but as leaders and advocates for our sector, we cannot give up leverage to those further up the chain. We can simply look to the pork and poultry industry to see where the vertical integration model leads. Producers have very little independence in the genetics they raise and the means of production. They are given some form of security in forward contracts but give up independence in genetic decisions and production methods. This is a very efficient system when it comes to pounds and dollars, but it has led to larger farms and fewer farmers.
The application to the cattle industry is upon us, but it is incremental. Though some parts of vertical coordination are inevitable, we must ensure that the independence of our sector is represented in this endeavor toward vertical integration. The two largest beef breed associations in the U.S., Angus and Hereford, recently reviewed applications to register animals having a gene edit. Genetic companies and several breeders were looking to snip the DNA and remove or replace the trait with the form of this trait these parties found more desirable. Both of the traits submitted to these respective breed organizations were traits that can be selected through traditional breeding. The board of directors for each of these breed organizations voted to table the discussion of whether gene-edited animals would be allowed to be registered. These issues and the fact that labs are already working on gene edits spawned much industry discussion.
In a world with lab-created meat, a discussion about a genetic lab working with retailers and packers to bypass breed associations and a producer’s genetic preferences to develop lab-created seed stock that becomes industry standard, doesn’t sound that far-fetched. Cattle producers have done a great job working on genetic improvement as well as improvements in animal handling and efficiency. We need to keep working, but we also need to ensure that we are the ones steering our sector of the industry. Pounds and profit are extremely critical when we talk about an industry, but what good are pounds and profit if our neighbors and colleagues start dropping off? The corporate model for a healthy industry is pounds and profit, but if the ultimate goal is to keep ranchers ranching, we need to advocate for a healthy industry in pounds, profit, AND people.
