BILLINGS, Mont. — R-CALF USA’s December launching of the cattle industry’s first-ever “Cattle Industry Long Range Plan,” coincides with the convening of a new Congress and a new administration this month. Whether the plan serves as a roadmap for Congress’ new agenda or President-elect Joe Biden’s new agenda will, according to R-CALF USA, be decided by the nation’s cattle producers themselves.

The plan contains objectives never before offered for the benefit of the cattle industry’s hundreds of thousands of independent U.S. cattle producers, both large and small. Its departure from previously combined cattle and beef industry plans is revealed by its primary focus directed towards cattle and cattle producers, not towards beef and beef packers.

For example, the new plan departs from previous plans by calling for growth in both domestic and export demand for beef that is specifically produced from USA born and raised cattle. It then calls for improving “cattle-sector” profitability specifically for U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers. It also expressly calls for intensifying efforts to preserve and protect the liberties and freedoms of independent U.S. cattle producers. And it uniquely calls for elevating the cattle industry’s role in assuring U.S. consumers an uninterrupted supply of U.S. produced beef.

“If the new Congress and new administration are looking for a new strategy to strengthen the domestic food supply chain while simultaneously revitalizing rural America, that new strategy is right here in the new cattle industry plan,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

Bullard said the new plan has already been shared with the Biden Agriculture Transition Team, members of Congress, and with select state governors.

“Whether this plan is actually taken up by Washington, D.C., policymakers is entirely dependent on whether the hundreds of thousands of independent U.S. cattle producers will take it upon themselves to send this plan to their respective congressional delegations and tell them this should be America’s new direction,” he added.