Dear Sir,

I read with great interest Tom Spencer’s letter to the editor that appeared in the June 27th paper. Like Tom, I am a little long in the tooth and a lifelong cattleman. I agree with most of his observations and statements, but I would like to submit a different perspective of our industry’s problem.

I have spent most of my life arguing with and trying to out-trade the packers. At this time, all the packer is doing is a wonderful job running his business. They are able to do this due to the fact that we, as an industry, are giving them every advantage. The real culprit in this problem is the commercial feedyard industry.

In the whole cattle chain, from the cow-calf, to beef on the plate in the consumer’s home, there is only one entity that operates on a cost-plus basis. That is the commercial feedyard. The commercial feedyards, with sweetheart deals, are not voluntarily going to give up their easy way of doing business. They know when their cattle are going out and they do not have to worry about selling their cattle $1 per hundred too cheap. They are happy to sell their customers’ cattle, based on the live price set by the very few feedyards that still negotiate their cattle sales, after they have given the packer a 40 percent to 60 percent captive supply. I cannot understand why the feedyard owners and managers will do this, other than the fact that they are taking the easy way to sell their cattle. Or they are afraid of the packers, which in some cases may be justified?

It seems to me another thing that most people forget is the fact that the packer needs us as bad as we need them. The only way that we will ever correct this problem, without the federal government’s involvement, will be for the grassroots producers, both large and small, to refuse to sell or send their feeders to a feedyard that does not negotiate either a live price or a negotiated grid.

I feel that many producers are unaware that they can receive the same or better premiums for their extra good cattle, without being tied into a captive supply situation. I can only imagine how much premium a set of really good black or black baldy steers could bring if three of four packers were negotiating for them. All the meetings and changes of policy of state and national cattle associations will not do one ounce of good. Until the grassroots producer sends the message to the commercial feedyard that they will no longer tolerate their current practices, the cattlemen’s equity will continue to erode.

Please take note of a classified ad in a recent issue of the Livestock Weekly that reads: "Texas Department of Criminal Justice Agri-business Division markets cattle that have been removed from our producing herds." It is my opinion that this is only one reason why cattle prices are low, in the state of Texas especially.

Unfortunately, I am incarcerated in the Texas prison system (150,000 men and women), second in the U.S. and the world. Yet I wish to help the industry my family has been in for generations and I hope to be a part of once again. So please take note of the following provable facts. (Texas prison system name — Texas Department of Criminal Justice.)

1. Texas prison inmates raise thousands of head of cattle on numerous prison units, with supervision, that are sold by video auctions or by the ad enclosed.

2. Texas prison inmates receive beef-based meals only once or twice a week, while milk is purchased and cheese is U.S. government surplus for free.

3. Texas prison inmates do not get paid money for their labor, yet every inmate is required to have a job unless medically disabled.

4. The Texas prison system has two slaughter plants.

5. Texas prison inmates also raise pigs and chickens, which are not sold on the open market. Inmates eat all of the pork, fed at least once a day, and chicken is fed once a month. Yet eggs are bought.

6. Texas prison guards and employees are allowed to eat free of charge, as many times and as much as they want, unregulated, in every prison unit’s Officers’ Dining Room (ODR).

7. Inmates who cook and serve the food in every prison unit’s ODR are required to prepare three types of meat for every lunch and supper meal, while inmates are served maybe one type of meat at their meals.

8. The Texas prison system is asking for more money from the taxpayers to run existing units and to build more units.

From these facts I hope every reader asks themselves at least one of these questions:

A. Where is the money for the Texas prison cattle going and who is it benefiting?

B. Are the thousands of head of Texas prison cattle sold each year helping to glut the Texas and U.S. cattle market like foreign exports are?

C. What is the Texas prison system feeding their inmates?

D. What type of labor is Texas prison labor? (Slave labor is free, is Texas prison labor?)

I thank everyone for their time in reading my letter and hope that it has helped the industry find one of its problems and the problem can be solved in some way. Also, do not give up on the cattle industry. It has helped to make the U.S. a great nation and will continue to do so.

John O. Gillum 659645
TDCJ Hughes Unit
Gatesville, Texas