Tablerock Ranch eastern Wa | While I agree with the spirit of what Corbitt is saying in regards to conversation below in Garvos thread, and my rant in agreement to this no win stranglehold that often happens to frequently anymore, I think brow beating the feeder who sold into this market is misplaced ! the circumstances of feeders big and small can vary but one thing that is very real for all concerned is, for some the decisions made now can be the difference of business life or business death if things went way wrong beyond this point ! We as producers are in an incredibly weak position compared to that of the rest of the industry --- the packers specifically --- to think they would not back out of their contracts if they experienced a huge labor shortage due to this and invoke Force majeure is being naive, but see what happens if a producer tried to use this legal out-----ya right------ they would legal you into the ground until you paid for undelivered cattle or filed for bankruptcy and they wouldn't care if you couldn't line up trucks or even had healthy people to sort and walk cattle up the ramp ! fact of the matter is the smaller and more independent you are the more vulnerable you are, my guess would be people that sold over the last few days felt like the risk of holding finished cattle was greater then the self inflicted wound of selling into this gut wrenching market ! the fact that we are getting completely screwed is not lost on anyone that just had to sell and my heart goes out to them as im sure theirs goes out to me selling into this screw job market ! fact is some of us pay our bills this way including a bill called an annual mortgage ! I will not begrudge anyone that can drive around the country and subsidize his cattle income with speaking engagements, but don't browbeat the guy that has to look several generations of family members in the eye everyday and cant risk everything for "the cause" wish we could ! wish it was that simple. All that being said I am not picking on Corbitt as I respect and appreciate his voice in our industry, I would however love to see our industry voices that could possibly effect real change to stand up at times like this and call foul ! namely the NCBA ---- we are in the 12 round as producers right now I firmly believe this ! we have gone to the mat in every round and got back up-- heck out of twelve rounds we may have even won one or two but right now we are punch drunk and on the ropes and when we go down again I fear for the American cattle producer, I am not so sure that the powers that be in the packing industry haven't had the conversation about what the world would look like without the American cattle producer being involved in it, and im not sure they don't think they can make it just fine using the surf class beef producers from other countries instead of the surf class producer group that im the part of.
Don't know the answer for us all but time is limited to figure it out ! God bless the North American families that are trying to put Beef Pork and Chicken on the shelves right now !
Edited by t rock 3/17/2020 13:00
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Its not that easy Corbitt
