If there is one step thing the industry needs to secure a future, it’s to keep independent cattlemen in business.
That’s the Joe Goggins mantra.
On a recent episode of The Angus Conversation, the Montana Angus breeder, renown auctioneer and auction market owner discussed the importance of a cattle business that can support rural communities.
“I don't want to get this industry in a situation where the big continue to get bigger and then they start telling us where they're going go buy their bulls,” Goggins says. “And you don't have to bring your cattle into an auction market in a true price-discovery type situation. We're going tell you when to calve, we're going tell you what bulls to use. And that, from my standpoint, is a very concerning.”
Nobody wants to be vertically integrated like the pork or poultry industry, said Matt Perrier, Dalebanks Angus, Eureka, Kan., and fellow guest on the program.
“But the irony to me is that if we want to maintain any segment, any portion of that independence and not become vertically integrated, I think we have to be a bit more vertically coordinated and share information data, not try to steal the profit from the person above or below us in the industry chain,” he said.
Goggins said having conversations and being open to new ideas is taking a page out of his grandparents' book.
“... the ones in that generation that really excelled, adapted to change,” he said. “They went from no running water to seeing a guy walk on the moon to electricity, to computers — I mean, these people adapted to change.”
To hear the full discussion, listen to the most recent episode of The Angus Conversation