Ranchers, Buffalo Livestock Marketing Raise Nearly $8K To Protect Their Legacies 

For Immediate Release

By: R-CALF USA Operations Director Candace Bullard

Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard

Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com

 

BUFFALO, Wyo., Feb. 2, 2024 – Recently, local cattle producers and businesses contributed almost $8,000 to help fund efforts to preserve America’s legacy of family farm and ranch system of food production.

It was Buffalo Livestock Marketing’s first year hosting a fundraiser for R-CALF USA, the largest producer-only cattle organization in the United States. The nonprofit represents independent cattle and sheep producers and consumers on several issues that will directly impact how and where America’s food will be produced, now and in the future. Bureaucratic policies that favor global corporations over small to mid-size family ranches have contributed to about half of American beef cattle ranches lost in just half a lifetime. These losses and more have substantially affected local communities.

The funds raised will go toward advancing R-CALF USA’s efforts through legal and administrative channels and in Congress to turn America’s once-thriving cattle and sheep industries back around. Funds raised are also used for the organization’s travel expenses to bring awareness to America’s ranching crisis.

For instance, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard has spent the past two decades speaking to groups of cattle producers and at various other meetings across the country. It was at one of these events that the law firm Scott+Scott, which specializes in antitrust litigation, heard Bullard’s presentation on packer market power. He explained then that, according to USDA data, in the past 25 years, the U.S. lost 25% of its sale barns and 75% of its independent feedlots.

As a result, Scott+Scott waged a high-stakes, class-action lawsuit on the organization’s behalf against the Big 4 meatpackers alleging that they unlawfully depressed prices paid to U.S. cattle producers. The ongoing case is the first of its kind in the beef industry and could drastically change the course of the industry for the better.

Austin Snook, part-owner of Buffalo Livestock Marketing, said he has known about the organization since he was a kid and has wanted to get more involved, so when Judy McCullough, a cattle producer from Moorcroft, who serves on the R-CALF USA Board of Directors, asked if he’d be willing to host a fundraiser, he agreed, and she set out to work organizing the event.

“We need each other, the livestock markets and the ranchers together,” Snook said. “Producers need sale barns and video sales because it keeps the competition in the business, and competition is the one thing that keeps us going.

“If you take the competition out of the industry, the meatpackers are just going to start telling you what they are going to pay for cattle,” he said.

He would like to see more stability in the markets and noted “If you don’t sell your cattle the right week it could mean a difference of $100 to $150 a head.”

Snook said that he wants cattle ranchers to be successful and to do the best job possible to get them the best money he can.

“It’s really tough for a young person to get into the ranching end of it,” Snook said. Today, according to USDA data, the average age of the American farmer is approximately 59 years old, an increase of almost seven years since 1982.

“You can’t buy a ranch, you’ve got to use every tool you can imagine to get into one, and you’ve got to catch every break along the way.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he continued. “I sit on both of my blocks and there isn’t a ton of young people out there. There’s a lot of 50-year-old plus people, and I see dispersion after dispersion of cows, and the young people aren’t the ones buying them.

“That’s one thing I’d like to see happen,” said Snook. “I’d like to see more young people.”

McCullough said she is appreciative of Buffalo Livestock Marketing for its support of R-CALF USA and its willingness to host a fundraiser. She said that the event was held on a day that the sale barn was swamped with work, and they did the fundraiser with smiling, helpful faces.

“The organization belongs to its members and we’re the ones who have to support it,” McCullough said.

R-CALF USA is the only national cattle trade organization that does not receive, nor has ever applied for, government checkoff money. It’s what gives it the independence to take on the toughest, most crucial challenges facing U.S. cattle and sheep producers.

Buffalo area ranchers Joe and Linda Foss donated a replacement quality heifer that was auctioned off the day of the fundraiser. Foss said that it was just something that needed to be done. He would also like to see cattle prices stay where they are at now.

“We realize that someone is stepping out there and trying to do good for the industry and they need support,” said Foss.

Foss said he encourages others to get involved at whatever level they are comfortable with adding “Not everyone is made out to be a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., but they can help where they can and where they feel comfortable.”

Hugh Turk, the president of Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming, an R-CALF USA state affiliate organization, was at the sale.

“It was fitting to have folks from northern Wyoming gathered in the Buffalo Livestock Marketing arena, a hub of true price discovery, supporting an organization dedicated to fair and healthy markets and USA beef,” said Turk.

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Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or call (406) 252-2516.