By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor

Several weeks before President-Elect Donald Trump triumphed over Vice President Kamala Harris, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) twin CEO Colin Woodall warned that lame-duck President Joe Biden and his administration are “in overdrive trying to make sure that they get as many rules and regulations put into place as possible.”

Woodall addressed cattle feeders, other producers and allied industry reps in mid-October at the annual Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) convention in San Antonio. He centered on one proposal by in Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to intervene in fed cattle marketing, a move that would go against ranchers and feeders who produce higher quality beef to generate higher prices for their cattle.

Neither Woodall nor TCFA officers and other feedyard operators attending the Alamo City event likely bought into the USDA’s claim that the proposal would enhance cattle marketing by identifying alleged hidden fees and anti-competitive pricing strategies within today’s beef marketing.

“If adopted, USDA’s regulatory approach for fed cattle marketing would single-handedly dismantle decades of value-based marketing progress made by producers across the supply chain in response to consumers’ demand for high-quality beef,” said Ben Weinheimer, TCFA president CEO.

Vilsack’s proposal involves changes to the Grain Inspectors, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). Changes in GIPSA were once sought to allow one producer or feeder to sue if he felt a neighbor received a price for his cattle that was unfair to him, Woodall explained.

“We all knew what significant damage that would cause for our industry – especially when it comes to all of the work we have done for 40 years in developing value-added, branded programs,” Woodall said.

“We [NCBA] were successful in killing that original GIPSA rule. But it didn’t end. The same guy who was in secretary of agriculture under President Obama came back under President Biden. Sec. Vilsack is a guy who doesn’t like to be beaten. He wears his feelings on his sleeve. He came back with a vengeance to try to get this done.”

Woodall warned that NCBA believes a final rule from the Biden administration might say that if one person believes he or she is being harmed by some sort of marketing agreement or arrangement, he or she can bring a lawsuit. NCBA will likely have to go to court to fight the proposed GIPSA changes.

Beef PACs

Political action committees like those from TCFA and NCBA help elect federal and state officials who are friends of the beef industry. “They help us get the support we need from both sides of the aisle,” Woodall said. “Remember, not every Republican is for us and not every Democrat is against us. We need to be able to knock on the door and get a seat at the table.”

Access to congressmen and women will be vital as NCBA and other agricultural groups lobby to prevent Congress and the administration from lowering the Death Tax ceiling, which could harm many ranch and farm operations.

Texas Beef Checkoff

While the National Beef Checkoff pays dividends for funding beef promotion and research, state beef checkoffs are also needed. Outgoing TCFA Chairman Gene Lowery pointed out that 2024 was the 10th anniversary of the Texas Beef Checkoff, which provides an additional $1 per head for use in promoting beef. “We need to continue to support the Texas Checkoff,” he said. “The added $1 per head helps reach more consumers in large cities.”

The national and state checkoffs continue to help introduce more consumers to high-quality beef. CattleFax COO Mike Murphy said increased demand relates directly to higher quality beef that consumers are willing to pay for at the meat case or eatery.

In the Texas Panhandle, Murphy said packers have paid from about $30 to $50 per head more for higher quality cattle marketed in value-based programs. That was from 2014 through 2024 compared to prices paid for cattle sold in negotiated cash trade.

He added that feedyards should expect to see a flattening of beef-on-dairy (BOD) calf placements in the next few years. About 200,000 to 300,000 BOD calves have been placed in recent years, but that may drop due to an expansion of dairy herds.

2025 TCFA Officers

Robby Kirkland, a cattle feeder from Vega, Texas, was elected 2025 TCFA chairman during the convention. The new TCFA chairman-elect is Laphe LaRoe of Amarillo. Ben Fort of Dimmitt is the new TCFA vice chairman.

AI Complements AI

AI – artificial insemination – helps more producers improve genetics, which breeds better prices through higher premiums. But the other AI – artificial intelligence – could improve beef production in many other ways, said Tom Edwards, AI guru at BlackFin360.

Edwards, a keynote speaker at the TCFA convention, said the use of AI in the cattle industry “will be a competitive advantage for you. AI will not replace you. It mimics human intelligence in its responses, outputs and algorithmic ability to learn and adapt.”

He said AI has come in waves, “first from automated phone answering, then chatbots and machine learning. But this new tsunami of generative AI grabbing the headlines is a fast-burning fuse of everything that is to come in business and society.”

With Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Grammarly and other AI tools on the market, Edwards lists four pillars that are critical to understanding AI benefits beyond efficiency:

• Generative AI tools require no-code knowledge for use, meaning the increased access will dramatically broaden worker access to data insights.
• Gen AI will enable broader business creativity, problem-solving and decision-making, simplifying processes and less human error.
• In reality, most organizations run diagnostics vs. making real-time, data-driven decisions. AI will enable the use of near-real-time data points in a wide variety of strategic decision-making processes.
• Powered by AI, data science will evolve from information processing to model building, to fine-tuning of data with a focus on storytelling.

Automated Livestock Feeding

Edwards said AI will likely lead to more automated feeding systems, which have already seen countless improvements since feedyard software was developed decades ago. Advancements could lead to optimized feed distribution depending on an animal’s nutritional needs.

He explained that AI is already improving livestock heating systems, health monitoring, improving environmental controls and enhancing the use of market data.
“[Again] AI will not replace you. But someone using it will have a competitive advantage,” he said. “It improves the ability to extract information and simplify it.”