Late last month, a USDA press release sparked significant conversation within the cattle industry. Many producers and stakeholders believed an incentive or heifer retention program was being introduced. However, Ethan Lane, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), provided important clarification in a recent discussion.
Vice President of Government Affairs, NCBA
“This is one of those really good examples of the dangers of social media,” Lane explained. “You talk about social media influencing people and bad information, and certainly in the cattle industry we’ve had kind of an epidemic of misinformation, but also intentional folks kind of trying to capitalize on something or mislead people.”
At the center of the confusion was an interpretation that the USDA Secretary had proposed a heifer retention program. According to Lane, that claim is inaccurate.
“The secretary never said anything about a heifer retention program,” Lane clarified. “The secretary said she was going to come out with a plan to revitalize the cattle industry, and that opens up a lot of room for interpretation.”
The cattle sector is currently experiencing its lowest herd numbers in 75 years, and prices remain historically low. While producers are beginning to recover after challenging years, Lane noted that misinformation can quickly derail public perception and industry discussions.
“This was one where we watched the internet,” Lane said. “You had some other cattle groups… RCAP had met with the secretary, and they very quickly were sort of out taking credit for this program, and I think the internet kind of invented details of a program that didn’t exist.”
Thankfully, the Secretary addressed the issue directly, stating clearly that “we’re not looking at a program. There’s no market manipulation program being considered,” a statement Lane welcomed.
As Lane emphasized, the NCBA continues to support a free market approach for the cattle industry, and cautions producers to verify information before reacting to online rumors.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.