Tri-State Neighbor: South Dakota Farm Newspaper

To the Editor: I would like to respond to Mr. Sip's comments in the Dec. 21 issue of the Tri-State Neighbor.

Mr. Sip: I am glad to hear that you are entertained by reading comments from R-CALF members. In one of your previous editorials you proclaim yourself as someone who is rarely ever wrong; could you please provide your expert opinion on a few matters?

Are you in favor of or against country-of-origin labeling (COOL)?

Is it right or wrong for consumers in the United States of America to know where their meat comes from?

Is it right or wrong for livestock producers in the USA to have COOL when most of the countries that we export meat to mandate COOL?

Are you in favor of captive supply for the packers?

Do you believe that captive supply by the packer is good for independent cattle producers?

Do you believe that contract growing is good enough for someone to be in the cattle business?

Is it a wild-eyed idea to have fair, open and competitive markets?

Is it wrong to expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do their job when it comes to enforcing rules and regulations that were passed into law to protect both independent producers and consumers of this country?

Is it wrong when a group representing only independent cattle producers (R-CALF USA) tries to protect the interests of its members?

Is it wrong when R-CALF tries to protect the food supply and maintain consumer confidence in the beef supply in the USA by trying to stop the importation of potentially BSE-infected meat?

Is it wrong for R-CALF to fight to protect the U.S. cattle herd from a potential BSE infection from untested cull cows imported from a country with a substantial BSE problem? Has anyone considered the fact that the rendered meat and bone meal from these untested infected cows will go into the feed supply in the United States and possibly contaminate cattle feed and spread BSE in our cattle herd? Of course it is not legal to feed bovine meat and bone meal to cattle but is a feed mixer cleaned out between a chicken ration which may contain bovine meat and bone meal and a cattle ration in the same corporate feed mill?

Is it wrong for R-CALF to join forces with independent cattle producers in other countries to try and improve the business climate for independent cattle producers in all of their respective areas?

Do you know that the financial interests of independent cattle producers in other countries are challenged by the same packers that we have in the USA?

I am glad that $93 fat cattle reverberate through your cranial nooks and crannies and appear to be a big deal; could you please answer a couple more questions?

Is diesel fuel $3.50 per gallon in your area?

How many cattle do you need to feed or raise and make a profit on to fill a 1,000-gallon fuel barrel with diesel fuel?

How many cattle do you need to feed or raise and make a profit on to buy a new pickup for $40,000? I could go on with this but I'm sure most will get the point.

I understand by your own description Mr. Sip that you are rarely ever wrong, however when you attack an organization like R-CALF that has worked tirelessly for the best interests of its members; do you really exhibit the full extent of your infinite wisdom?

Thank you to the Tri-State Neighbor for providing the venue for this discussion to take place.

- Howard Vlieger

Maurice, Iowa