Ricketts weighs in letter to DOJ on cattle market imbalance

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Ricketts weighs in letter to DOJ on cattle market imbalance

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts is one of six governors asking the Department of Justice to continue their investigation into the nation’s largest meat packing plants.

He tells Brownfield the letter he signed is a reminder to the Biden administration to help provide better clarity on price imbalances in the markets. “We saw certainty with the fire in Holcomb, Kansas that there was price increases but it was not making it to our cow/calf operators.  We want to make sure there is fair pricing that the benefits of pricing is going throughout the entire industry as that’s the only way to be sustainable long term.”

The letter says cattle producers are threatened because “decades of consolidation in meatpacking has significantly limited the options that producers have to market their cattle and has created a situation where one segment of the beef industry has near total control over the entire market.”

Governors of South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Montana and North Dakota also signed the letter.

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