Livestock price info - long post

I just received this info - it might interest you.

Omaha Nebraska - More than 400 cattlemen from nearly a dozen states voted
overwhelmingly to support class action lawsuits against the three largest
meatpackers as a way to break up their monopoly power at a forum Saturday in
Omaha, Neb.
The meeting, which was called in response to devastating cattle prices and
the appearance of manipulation in the futures markets, was co-sponsored by
the Nebraska Cattlemen's Association, the Organization for Competitive
Markets and R-Calf/USA. Representatives of virtually every major farm group
participated, including American Farm Bureau, the National Farmer's Union,
National Farmers Organization and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
"Henry David Thoreau said, 'For all of those chopping away at the branches
of evil, there is only one chopping at the root,'" quoted Mike Callicrate,
an independent cattle feeder from St. Francis, Kansas, and a leader in
several of the farm organizations represented. "A big packer-big retailer
cartel is sucking the lifeblood out of livestock producers and their
communities and are now using their abusive market power against consumers.
Break them up! It's past time to cut the root of this evil that is driving
independent producers into bankruptcy and serfdom.”
Callicrate is a lead plaintiff in Pickett vs. IBP, a class action lawsuit
representing over 30,000 cash sellers seeking damages for IBP's use of
market power to manipulate and depress prices. He believes packers use
discriminatory pricing contracts to manage inventory and destroy the
negotiated weekly market used by independent sellers.
During the meeting, David Domina, lead attorney for the case, announced that
two other similar lawsuits were filed the previous day against the other
largest packers: Murdock vs. Excel and Luking vs. ConAgra. "It's common
sense. If the packer, like IBP, has inventory outside of the competitive
market it reduces their needs and depresses price. You can win the captive
supply argument. The Pickett case looks really good," Domina told the group.
That case is expected to come to trial in about nine months. The plaintiffs
are seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief which would prevent
packers from using captive supply pricing formulas.
Domina defended Robert M. Cook, who was sued by IBP for slander after he
spoke out against IBP during a similar 1994 Omaha meeting after finished
cattle prices dropped $17 per hundred weight, or over $200 per head, during
a six week period. At that time, Domina obtained private company data
showing that in some weeks IBP already controlled as much as 122 percent of
its slaughter capacity as captive supply for the following week, allowing
the company to significantly underbid the cash market. Domina successfully
defended Cook in the case.
He compared economic laws, like the Packers and Stockyards Act, to a rock in
a stream. "Like any law, not enforced, eventually, the water finds it's way
around the rock. It is government's responsibility to enforce the law, to
keep putting the rock back in its intended place. Unfortunately, for the
last 80 years, the rock has been worn away and gone unattended. Both packers
and government have ignored the P&S Act, one of the most important and
powerful U.S. antitrust laws. Enforcement of this law can save the cattle
business. The class representatives and a judge and jury will decide the
future of this industry," he said.
Producers were also extremely concerned about skyrocketing numbers of
imported cattle in a supply sensitive industry and the opportunity for
manipulation and misuse of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by packers and
high volume traders. But they agreed concentration and the industry's use of
captive supplies was their top concern.
Even Dave Burkholder, president of the Nebraska Cattlemen's Association, who
acknowledged the benefits of formula pricing for his own feedyard, said the
practice is bad for the industry as a whole. "Packers have learned how to
use unpriced inventory to their advantage," he said. "There are too few
cattle setting the price for the rest of the industry."
Several industry leaders, including Fred Stokes, president of the
Organization for Competitive Markets, said it was time to break up the big
packers, a dramatic move to restore competition that started during Teddy
Roosevelt's presidential administration. "Anti-trust laws are valid, and
they are not being enforced," Stokes said.
Leo McDonnell, president of R-CALF, agreed, saying that a proposed ban on
packer ownership of livestock did not go far enough. "That is
micro-managing, and micro-managing is a mistake," said the Montana rancher.
"We need to fully restore competition, the foundation of any free market
economy."
Ultimately, the group agreed to demand federal action from the U.S. Attorney
General through the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department.

Cattlemen's Legal Fund
Mike Callicrate
785-332-3344-office
785-332-3250-fax
E-mail: mike@nobull.net
Web Page: <http://www.nobull.net/legal/> http://www.nobull.net/legal/