Faced with soaring feed costs, the Nebraska Farm Bureau urged U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer to consider seven specific actions to help Nebraska and U.S. pork, poultry and cattle producers who are experiencing severe financial distress because of costs and stagnant demand.

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Cattle feeders are losing up to $200 to $300 per animal. Pork producers are losing up to $60 per animal, Nebraska Farm Bureau President Keith Olsen said Wednesday.

“Many livestock feeders are losing equity, some are having difficulty obtaining operating financing from lending institutions, and others are simply getting out of the business of feeding livestock,” Olsen said.

Earlier this month, Farm Bureau and other organizations asked Shafer to use “Section 32” funds for the purchase of pork and other meat products. (Section 32 is a permanent appropriation USDA uses to support non-farm program commodities while enhancing nutrition programs.)

The rapidly deteriorating economic situation facing livestock feeders and the ripple effects on Nebraska’s rural and overall economies show the need for additional actions, Olsen said.

Farm Bureau’s seven recommendations:

1. Target the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program, which leverage private dollars, to meat commodities to boost export sales.

2. Consider using unobligated funds in the USDA budget to increase the FSA loan guarantees for livestock producers, which would assist them in borrowing the funds they need to continue in business until the current crisis is resolved.

3. Direct the Farm Service Agency and the Farm Credit Administration to adopt policies allowing for more forbearance and deferments on outstanding operating loans for livestock feeders.

4. Increase the maximum levels of donations of beef and pork in all foreign food aid programs such as P.L. 480, the Food for Peace program; and the Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole programs.

5. Redirect funds in the Emerging Markets Program to increase promotion of beef and pork exports in emerging foreign markets.

6. Consider using unobligated funds in the USDA budget for a “livestock feed assistance program,” which could be similar to that offered during disasters or extreme droughts, to provide funds to eligible producers to buy feed for their animals.

7. Ask other members of the Cabinet to make federal procurement of meat products a priority, particularly for the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration and the Bureau of Prisons.