R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America last week urged Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to consider opening the 24 million acres of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program to help alleviate the backlog in the live cattle supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has reduced slaughter capacity.

“This fed cattle backup requires the entire upstream live cattle supply chain to hold lighterweight cattle out of the feedlot sector of the supply chain until the current backlog of cattle can be processed,” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard wrote Perdue.

To hold lighter weight cattle back, more grazing land than normal is needed to maintain their health and measured growth. Unfortunately, some areas of the country are now experiencing drought conditions.

“Consequently, the industry is faced with the urgent need for more grazing land than normal at the same time that some grazing lands are producing less forage than normal. An immediate solution to this challenge would be to open CRP lands for emergency grazing and making accommodations so non-CRP landowners can rent CRP land from others for a reasonable fee.” ❖

— Fence Post staff and wire reports