The mission of OCM is to reclaim competitive markets in agriculture for farmers, ranchers and rural communities. Over the past 35 years, the US has lost nearly half of its ranchers, 90% of its hog farmers, and over 80% of its dairymen. Every month, 1000 ranches go out of production. Today, meat packers are taking $660 per head from cattle producers while retail beef prices have only increased slightly. The consolidation of the meat packing industry has hurt producers and consumers.

1. The mission of OCM is to
reclaim competitive
markets in agriculture for
farmers, ranchers and rural
communities.
Presented by Mike Callicrate
February 2, 2017
Effects of Market Concentration

2. So this is where you grew up...
What happened Grandpa?
The U.S. has lost nearly half of it’s ranchers,
90% of it’s hog farmers and over 80% of it’s
dairymen in the last 35 years.
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3. Photograph from the book, Great Ranches of the West ©2007 Jim Keen
3
Every month 1,000 ranches go out of production.

4. Photograph from the book, Great Ranches of the West ©2007 Jim Keen
The National Security issue
no one is talking about!
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5. Today, 1,350 lb. finished cattle are worth
$3,300 per head at the retail meat counter.

6. Choice beef values and spreads and the all-fresh retail value
Recent high
Recent low

7. Choice beef values and spreads and the all-fresh retail value
This is abusive market power!

8. Choice beef values and spreads and the all-fresh retail value
$660 per head taken
from the producer!!

9. While USDA reports retail beef
prices 8% lower, finished cattle
prices have declined 41%, and
calves 50%.

10. *All Fresh Choice Beef – USDA-ERS Data
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
55.0%
60.0%
65.0%
70.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1950
1975
1995 1996 1997
1998
2002
2000
2006
1999
Farm share of the consumer retail beef dollar
Picture of market manipulation
2012
2009
2013
2014
2015
Fed cattle dropped 41% from $170/cwt.
to $100/cwt. Consumer beef prices
have remained basically unchanged.
The last time the finished cattle market
was competitive. Four-firm concentration
was around 35%. Today it’s 85%
Updated by Mike Callicrate Jan 2016
2016
The Boston Consulting Group
advised IBP to cooperate with other
big packers rather than compete.

13. 16
The U.S. is now a net food importer on a value basis.
Beef – Brazilian owned
Pork – Chinese owned
Poultry – Brazilian owned
The largest firms in beef, pork,
and poultry are foreign owned:

14. “You should be suing
Walmart [Instead of
IBP], they are the
problem. They tell us
what they will pay and
we have no choice but
to pay you less.”
- John Tyson 2002

15. The big packers are driving the getaway car.
Partners in Crime
The big retailers are robbing the bank.

16. Average return on equity before tax (ROE)
Retail grocery: ROE = 21% (last 6 years)
Meat packing: ROE = 17% (last 6 years)
All Farming & ranching: ROE = NEGATIVE 0.54%
(last 13 years)
Packers--for those with sales > $500k - Before tax ROE, 2002-2009: 17.38% - source: http://www.bizminer.com/industries/Meat-
packing-plants-2011/
Retail grocery--food marketing institute book - http://www.fmi.org - 2003-2009 average: before tax ROE = 20.75%
Cattle--for the farm typology "cattle" meaning primarily cattle operations in USDA/ERS annual surveys -
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ARMS/
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17. STEALING

18. STEALING
What food retailers and meat packers are
doing to cattle producers and consumers

19. "These guys are nothing but
old-time gangsters, thugs
and thieves. They beat your
brains in with their market
power and take your money."
Statement of Mike Callicrate on opening day of 2004 Tyson/IBP trial
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20. “…there is no stopping it
(concentration). This is an
evolution that’s going to take
place in spite of whoever
is in the way.”
Robert Peterson, IBP Chairman and CEO, July 1996
$20 Billion by 2001 article, in Meat and Poultry
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21. What President
Reagan did to
antitrust law
enforcement in the
1980’s was the
equivalent of
We’re in the de-reg business!
referees declaring no-rules and leaving
the field in a football game. Cheating
was not only allowed, it was required to
win … and it still is!
http://nobull.mikecallicrate.com/2008/10/02/from-banks-to-bread-deregulation-is-the-seed-of-destruction/
“Government IS the problem!”

22. “Change is upon us, we can do nothing
about that [NAFTA].”
– President Clinton – Advocated Wall Street over main street,
management over labor, NAFTA, WTO and a world without borders.
“We need big companies that can do
business globally.”
– Dan Glickman - Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture who ignored
meat packer concentration, market manipulation, predatory
practices, undue preferences and unjustly discriminatory practices.
Support for concentrated power, free trade
and globalization has been bi-partisan:

23. Emptiness: A picture of big meat packer
retaliation – Why cattle feeders won’t speak out
against meat packer abuses…
Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999 26"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Callicrate feed yard closed in
1999 when the meat packers
refused to buy the cattle.

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25. November 21, 2016
Tyson Foods has fourth straight year of record results.
While producers, contract growers, and workers suffer …

26. "What we support prospers, what we feed
grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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27. When we lose our markets, we lose our freedom!
“There once was a time in
history when the limitation
of governmental power
meant increasing liberty for
the people. In the present
day the limitation of
governmental power, or
governmental action,
means the enslavement of
the people by the great
corporations.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1913