Mat Packers Vs Cattle Ranchers

Just last week r calf usa filed a lawsuit against four major meat packers.

Mat packers vs cattle ranchers. This adds up to hundreds of thousands of cattle farmers and ranchers served by markets. A group of plaintiffs led by ranchers cattlemen action legal fund united stockgrowers of america r calf usa on tuesday filed a class action lawsuit alleging that a group of u s. Beef cattle operations 1980 2010 the big four meatpackers fort collins colorado a sea of cream colored cowboy hats the kind ranchers wear on their days off fills a sterile conference room at. Beef packers have market leverage.

A trade dispute could soon make the labels disappear. Packers made a then record 415 per head up from around 150 before the fire while cattle producers lost an average of 200 per head. Senators are calling for investigations of record profit margins for beef processors like tyson foods and cargill after ranchers complained surging meat prices due to coronavirus hoarding. Our industry needs producers feeders markets and packers.

According to drovers a class action lawsuit was filed in chicago on behalf of r calf usa and four cattle feeding ranchers against america s four largest packing companies the litigation seeks to prevent the big four packers from capturing the u s. Meatpackers engaged in a vast conspiracy to artificially depress cattle prices resulting in lower prices for producers and record profits for the industry. Tyson foods cargill and two other large meat packers illegally conspired to lower livestock prices squeezing ranchers and hurting traders who deal in cattle futures at the chicago mercantile. The case argues that jbs tyson cargill and national beef strategically cut back on open market cattle bids closed plants and imported costly foreign cattle in order to force farmers to accept lower prices and manipulate spot market cattle values.

Ranchers got a taste of just this kind of slaughter disruption last summer when a fire took out one of tyson s beef processing plants and created a glut of slaughter ready cattle. Law360 september 29 2020 7 15 pm edt a minnesota federal court has tossed a suit from cattle ranchers accusing the nation s largest meatpacking companies of colluding to drive down the. The impact of the packers conduct on american cattle ranchers has been catastrophic.