MO Cattlemen’s calls for state support for cattle

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MO Cattlemen’s calls for state support for cattle

Missouri Cattlemen’s is calling for state support in boosting beef business. Executive Vice President Mike Deering addressed the Missouri House Agriculture Committee Tuesday.

“What we can do as a state is continue to incentivize and to help bring local processors [to] our state, to make that a priority; to bring more regional processing to where we can rely on each other a little bit more than we have to rely on the ‘big four’,” Deering said.

He said supporting new and growing small meat processors isn’t the only action that could benefit Missouri cattle producers… 

“Before we just focus on processing, we really need to focus on the feeding sector and trying to get that going in our state,” Deering said.

He said legislation passed in 2019, which prevents county ordinances on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations from being stricter than state regulations, is a good start but more needs to be done to incentivize the expansion of Missouri feed lots.

Deering said changes to the hold the ‘the big four’ meat processors – JBS, Tyson, National Beef, and Cargill – have on the market will have to take place at the federal level.

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