Bill Barrett: “With this action today, we will officially send to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman our desire for him to immediately…”

“With this action today, we will officially send to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman our desire for him to immediately release the 45 million bushels of feed grains held in reserve. The release of this grain will not solve the current crisis for cattlefeeders, but it will help and possibly be enough to get some through an extremely severe drought and save their operations. Farmers who own livestock are being severely hard hit with the drought conditions, when coupled with a low point in the cattle cycle, and record high grain prices. The grain in this disaster reserve, nearly 45 million bushels, is worth an estimated $200 million and would provide for all the cattle on feed in the affected States enough feed grain for over 2 weeks. Passage of the resolution not only makes sense, it saves money. The Federal Government is currently spending $10 million a year to store this grain. The Government should not be paying huge storage fees and holding grain from the marketplace when the United States is experiencing record low grain supplies.”