NEWS RELEASE

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Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Nebraska Corn Board contacts:

NE Corn Board: 800.632.6761
NE Cattlemen: 402.475.2333

Meetings give corn, cattle producers optimism on beef trade issues

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Joint meetings with government officials and industry representatives in Washington, D.C., gave Nebraska corn and cattle producers a bit of hope that global markets will continue to open up for U.S. beef.

Leading the list was getting the free trade agreement with South Korea implemented – and resuming full beef exports to that country. At one time, South Korea was the third most important market for U.S. beef.

“We were very discouraged heading into this trip, but we’ve learned that there has been a lot of activity going on in the trade arena that will hopefully yield some positive results over the next couple of months,” said cattle producer Mike Briggs of Seward. Briggs was one of the representatives from Nebraska Cattlemen on the joint lobbying effort sponsored by the Nebraska Corn Board.

“As we get these beef export markets back, that gives a direct benefit to cattle producers,” Briggs said. “The South Korean market alone would give a $30-40 per head bump to cattle prices.”

Nebraska Corn Board member Dave Nielsen, a corn producer from Lincoln, said the corn producers understand that the cattle industry must have the opportunity to move its product globally. This is why the Nebraska Corn Board supported the trip to Washington, the second year of the joint corn-cattle producer effort, and has backed beef and other livestock product marketing efforts around the world.

“When you have 94 percent of the world’s population outside the United States, a growing global middle class looking for protein and the value of our currency that favors exports, we don’t want to pass up the opportunity to help our partners in the livestock industry move their product,” Nielsen said. “This joint trip has been very beneficial for all involved – but I especially appreciated having the opportunity to learn more about the importance of beef trade and international negotiations.”

Bob Dickey, a corn producer from Laurel, said meetings with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Trade Representative, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and National Corn Growers Association were “very encouraging” on the beef trade front.

“Not only has there been progress made with South Korea, but several smaller markets have opened up and are buying greater quantities of U.S. and Nebraska beef,” Dickey said. “Meetings with elected officials from Nebraska and their staffs were also very helpful and hopeful.”

Dickey and Nielsen said the Nebraska Corn Board will continue its efforts to support the state’s livestock industry.  “Nebraska is situated so perfectly to take advantage of corn to ethanol to distillers grains to cattle that we must continue to work to make sure each of these segments can find value in the marketplace,” Dickey said.

The Nebraska Corn Board is a self-help program, funded and managed by Nebraska corn farmers. Producers invest in the program at a rate of ¼ of a cent per bushel of corn sold. Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education.

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