With the 2011 quickly approaching, I’d like to renew the challenge I made to you last year to make at least one New Year’s Resolution directed at creating greater understanding of the beef industry.

Kansas Livestock Association’s Todd Domer said something to a group of producers at KLA’s convention a couple years ago that stuck with me.

“If 40 people in this room spend 10 minutes a day doing advocacy activities to promote understanding with consumers, that’s equivalent to a full-time employee,” Domer said.

I think 10 minutes a day advocating for agriculture is a manageable goal for 2011. I’d encourage you to focus on spending the ten minutes reaching to people outside of agriculture, whether it’s responding to misleading articles online or starting a conversation with the mom at the meat case of your local grocery store.

So what do you say? Comment below and let me know if you’re willing to join the 10-minute challenge. I’d love to get a full-time employee signed up for 2011.

I saw Secretariat in the movie theatres this weekend.

It’s a heartbreaking tale about how an adult sister and brother must come up with 6 million dollars in order to save their family’s horse farm after their father passes away. I’ll go ahead and spoil the movie for those who don’t already know the true story. The family is able to raise the money through the miraculous racing season of the Triple Crown winning horse Secretariat.

The problem is most families don’t have Triple Crown winning racehorses to pull them through estate tax issues. In fact, estate taxes are one of the leading causes of the breakup of multi-generation family beef operations.

For this year, and this year only, there is no estate tax. That’s right, 2010 is officially a great year to die. However, at the end of this year, the estate tax rate will revert back to the pre-2001 level of a staggering 55 percent and the exemption amount will fall to one million dollars.

For production agriculture, an asset-heavy industry with irregular cash flow, this would be devastating. The value of land, buildings and machinery puts many family farms about the million-dollar line in assets. However, the only options to raise 55 percent of these assets in cash include the lottery, a great racehorse or – more often than not – selling off assets or even the whole farm.

I’d urge you to reach out to your Senators and House Representatives in D.C. to talk about the importance of addressing the estate tax issue before the end of the year. An ideal situation would be a full repeal or agricultural exemption from the estate tax. However, efforts to increase the exemption level to $5 million and reduce the tax rate to 35% also represent a much better solution than allowing the tax to revert to it’s pre-2001 levels.

You can read the NCBA backgrounder on Estate tax here.

“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

As you may already know, GIPSA has been keeping me up at night. One aspect I think deserves special attention is the particular affect the proposed GIPSA regulations could have on young producers.

Even though the proposed rule doesn’t directly ban the use of alternative marketing agreements (AMAs), the unintended consequences of the rule will restrict or eliminate them. This takes away cattlemen’s ability to manage risk, finance production and compete with one another to negotiate premiums. This is especially devastating for young people looking to enter the cattle industry as producers for the first time. Financing is particularly hard to obtain in that position, and may be impossible without the financial guarantees AMAs provide.

Additionally, if the definition of competitive injury is changed, the door would be opened to frivolous lawsuits from trial attorneys. Packers will manage this law-suit risk by simply offering a one-price-fits-all bid for cattle. This type of pricing does not recognize variation between animals can result in value differences of up to $300.00 per head. One way many young producers I know have been able to break into the cattle business is by focusing on producing high-quality cattle that garner premiums. Under the proposed rule, producers would no longer be compensated for added quality.

Looking at the future of our industry as a whole, I have concerns that we lose our incentive to progress and provide better cattle if everyone is paid the same.
So, what can you do? First, write a letter commenting on the proposed rule. A form letter is available here. Additionally, the Department of Justice is having a hearing on competition in the livestock industry on August 27. I’ll be there and think you should be to. We need people to show up by the masses to demonstrate that producers oppose the proposed regulations. If you’re looking for a little added incentive Ft. Collins is famous for its Rio Margaritas. I may even buy your first round if that’s what it takes to get you in town for the hearing.

For more information on the GIPSA proposal click here.

GIPSA scares me.  A lot.  I agree with a comment made at NCBA Policy Forum at Cattle Industry Summer Conference that GIPSA is a shot at the packers that hits producers. Some of the following information is adapted from the NCBA Backgrounder, which offers more details.

BACKGROUND
As part of the 2008 Farm Bill, USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) was directed to issue regulations regarding poultry and swine contracts; arbitration use in contracts; and to establish criteria for the Secretary to consider in determining whether an undue or unreasonable preference or advantage has occurred in violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.  GIPSA released their proposed rule on June 22, 2010.

WHAT IT DOES
• Under the new definitions included in the proposed rule, “competitive injury” and “likelihood of competitive injury” are re-defined and made so broad that mere accusations, without economic proof, will suffice for USDA or an individual to bring a lawsuit against a buyer.
• The regulation requires buyers purchasing livestock through marketing arrangements to submit a sample copy of each unique type of contract or arrangement to GIPSA within 10 days of it being agreed to.
• New criteria require buyers to justify every single penny difference they offer to one producer over another. Inadequate justification for a price differential would give cattle producers yet another way to bring suit against another party.
• The proposed rule bans packer-to-packer sales of livestock.
• Order buyers will only be able to represent one packer.

WHY I’M SCARED
First, I’m concerned the proposed regulations will cause packers to withdraw marketing agreements. Quality of cattle varies and market premiums and branded programs allow producers to capitalize on extra value. Take these benefits away and our industry no longer has any incentive to improve. There also are some privacy issues with personal information contained in marketing agreements. 

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
USDA is taking comments from all interested parties. Send them yours. Examples will be on the NCBA website soon. Also, contact your representatives and request that they let the White House and Secretary of Agriculture know the proposed regulations will not work for cattle producers. Finally, show up for the Department of Justice livestock competition workshop in Fort Collins August 27 and make your voice heard.

A while back I wrote a post about Social Media and Agvocacy. In that post I included a Facebook screen shot were my friend Craig learned about the true motive of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Click here to refresh your memory on that conversation. Well, I had a proud Facebook moment the other day. Craig posted on my wall again - this time to warn me about HSUS activity.

It’s the social butterfly effect of Agvocacy. In sharing your story you don’t just influence the people you talk to, you also can turn them into Agvocates as well, expanding your influence to their social network and beyond!

Alert the media. I’m hooked on a TV show! Not exactly news you say? Well it is in my book. See, I’ve never been a big TV person. Growing up I’d spend hours in the barn reading out loud to my show steers (and avoiding indoor chores) instead of watching TV. I don’t have cable now and don’t really plan on getting it. I can watch episodes of NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen and Law and Order online. What more could a girl want?

However, Animal Planet’s Last American Cowboy has me changing my non-TV watching ways. I noticed some buzz about the show on Twitter today (follow me @cgoodcomm). So I headed over to a friend with cable’s house. The show paints an amazingly accurate picture of the lives on three families’ cattle ranches in Montana. It’s not glamorized. You see the storms, the stress of calving season and the disappointment when some of the calves don’t make it.

It was especially interesting watching the show with my law school friend who has no agriculture background. At one point he asked if a calf with Scours had “Mad Cow Disease.” Needless to say he got quite the crash course on ranching. So tune in next Monday and see if you share my love for the show. Maybe you could even encourage a non-agriculture friend to watch too and then talk with them about any questions they have.