Farm Bureau Convention discusses beef and COVID

The South Dakota Farm Bureau wrapped up its annual convention at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on Saturday.

The theme this year, “Forward Together,” focused on issues facing the agriculture industry. Among the topics discussed was “The Beef Industry and COVID – What’s Next?,” which focused primarily on the relationship between meat packers and producers.

Corbitt Wall, one of the speakers at the forum, emphasized that better negotiation tactics need to be implemented to counteract the imbalance in pricing.

“What I think we need is big support for the legislation that’s already out there – to force these major packers to negotiate on the price that they’re paying for the livestock – rather than just bleed off of the smaller producers, because they are dropping one-by-one everyday” said Wall, who serves as the Commercial Cattle Manager for DVAuction.

He says producers are working to keep food on the shelves, but panic-buying due to the coronavirus pandemic is causing depletion. This was the Farm Bureau’s 103rd Convention.