United States-Cattlemans Beef Association.

UNITED STATES. CATTLEMEN NOT HAPPY.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is not happy about a possible proposal to include a dairy buyout in the stimulus package.

At this point, NCBA Legislative Affairs Director Colin Woodall refers to "rumblings" heard in Congress. The first ones, says Woodall, came from the House, which he says apparently dropped the notion.

However Woodall tells Brownfield that similar rumblings have been heard in the Senate. Nothing is yet in writing, but he says the NCBA wants to make clear its misgivings before it goes any further.

The purpose is to raise dairy prices by buying older dairy cows, taking approximately 6.5 billion pounds of milk off the market. What bothers cattlemen is that it’d result in nearly 320,000 additional animals on the beef market, pressuring cattle prices.

The NCBA says the proposal comes on the heels of record-high feed costs resulting in more than $1.5 billion in losses to feeders last year.

The organization points to the 1986 dairy buyout that it says resulted in a 25 percent decrease in the cattle market. The NCBA cites a $1 billion cattle industry loss from the ’86 buy-out.