Captive Supply Issue Prompts
Breakaway Kansas Organization

WICHITA, Kan. —(AP)— Some Kansas cattlemen, angry with market policy taken by the 104 year-old Kansas Livestock Association, are forming their own splinter industry group.

The new Kansas Cattlemen's Association plans to take a more aggressive stand against so-called captive supply, an industry term for cattle owned by packers or committed to them through contracts for slaughter.

At issue is a vote taken on a captive supply resolution at the recent KLA convention in Wichita. The resolution, which was voted on by 131 KLA members, was a compromise reached after separate meetings among purebred producers, cow-calf and stocker operators and cattle feeders.

Two Brewster-area cattlemen, Mike Schultz and Dave Bowman, are forming the splinter group because they say the KLA is no longer a grassroots organization. Schultz said that is shown by the fact that just 131 people, out of 7456 KLA members, actually voted on the resolution. Their group would give each member one vote.

"I don't have a real bad grievance with KLA — if they would step back and take a look at where they are going and see if they have really helped the producer," Schultz said.

Schultz said the KLA has over the years become more of a social club, and has lost touch with what is going on.

But KLA spokesman Todd Domer said nothing could be further from the truth.

"Our system is tried and true, our organization is 104 years old," Domer said. "That system has been fine-tuned through the years and producers find it pretty acceptable ... Debate takes place, minds are changed, positions are modified and common ground is found."

The alternative would be a mail-out vote on issues, which does not give members the benefit of hearing the opinions and ideas of other people on an issue.

Domer said what is really feeding the splinter movement is frustration with low cattle prices, which is eating away at equity and driving producers out of business. "The instinct, and probably rightfully so, is to do something about it," he said.

But he said forming a new association is not going to change how cattle marketing takes place. The only way that can be done is to pass a law, and producers have said they don't want the government telling them how to sell cattle.

Schultz, on the other hand, said the packer monopoly needs to be broken up. With captive marketing, packers know the number of cattle on the market and thus don't have to bid aggressively.

"In a monopoly, one player wins and everybody else loses, and that is the way the cattle industry is," Schultz said.

KLA president Larry Oltjen, a Robinson cattle producer, said the controversy is really a sign of the times because the meat industry, including beef and pork, is having a tough time and marketing issues are at the top.

"KLA as an organization is 104 years old, and we have gone through tough times in the past," Oltjen said. "I don't look for this to hurt our clout at all. Maybe it will strengthen us in the long run to get these issues out in the open, and maybe we can get them resolved."