STATEMENT OF LEO WELDER, VICTORIA, TEX., PRESIDENT, TEXAS BEEF COUNCIL, DIRECTOR, TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION

Mr. WELDER. I have a resolution from the Cattle Raisers Association in favor of this legislation. And also I have some material from the Texas Beef Council that may be brought out later.

Mr. POAGE. You would like to file a statement further on?
Mr. WELDER. Yes.

Mr. POAGE. The next man on this list, if I may take over momentarily, is Mr. Hugh Fitzsimons, a rancher from southwest Texas, San Antonio; and one of the directors of the Texas Beef Council. He is doing a substantial work in our part of the country. Would you care to make a statement?

STATEMENT OF HUGH A. FITZSIMONS, RANCHER, SAN ANTONIO, TEX.; EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, TEXAS BEEF COUNCIL; DIRECTOR, TEXAS LIVESTOCK MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Mr. FITZSIMONS. The resolution of the Cattlemen's Association and the Beef Cattle Growers is being taken care of by Mr. Welch.

Mr. POAGE. The next witness on your list is very well known to this committee at least to all of the older Members of Congress, I am sure. That is Judge Joe G. Montague, attorney for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

He has been a help to us on many occasions. We are glad to have him here this morning. He will want to make a statement, I understand.

STATEMENT OF JOE G. MONTAGUE, FORT WORTH, TEX., ATTORNEY, TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION

Mr. MONTAGUE. I am just going to interpose just one little objection to this confining me to the "older Members of Congress." I'd like to know these younger ones. [Laughter.]

Mr. POAGE. Of course, unhappily you were born about the same time I was. [Laughter.]

Thank you so much for the opportunity to present these people. Mr. FULK. Next is Hugh W. Colton, rancher, Vernal, Utah.

Mr. POAGE. May I ask the privilege for our colleague, Mr. Dixon, to introduce him?

Mr. FULK. Yes, sir.

Mr. DIXON. Mr. Hugh Colton is vice president of the Utah Cattlemen's Association. Hugh and Willard Marriott started the Hot Shoppes in Washington. Hugh went back to Utah to raise livestock and Willard stayed here at the Hot Shoppes.

Mr. MATTHEWS. One raises cattle and the other raises money.
Mr. DIXON. That is right.

STATEMENT OF HUGH W. COLTON, RANCHER, VERNAL, UTAH, VICE PRESIDENT, UTAH CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION

Mr. COLTON. I would like to say our State has passed an act similar to this providing for the checkoff in Utah.

I would like to have you know that.

Mr. POAGE. Will you file a statement?

Mr. COLTON. I would like to make a statement later.

Mr. POAGE. Thank you.

Mr. FULK. Next is J. H. Cunningham, cattleman, Marshall, Va., Virginia Beef Cattle Association. He could not get back.

Alen K. Randolph, cattleman, Keene, Va., Virginia Beef Cattle Association. He had to go home and he may file a statement.

Mr. FULK. Charles A. Maas, hog farmer, Evansville, Wisc., vice president, National Swine Growers Council, president, Wisconsin Swine Breeders Association, and livestock superintendent, Wisconsin State Fair. He supports the National Swine Council and does not have a statement to file.

Rex L. Whitmore, hog farmer, Burlington, Wis., president, Wisconsin Livestock Breeders Association, and director, Wisconsin Swine Breeders Association.

He will file a statement.

(The statement is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF REX L. WHITMORE, BURLINGTON, WIS.

My name is Rex Whitmore of Burlington, Wis. I am a commercial pork producer and a purebread swine breeder. I am president of the Wisconsin Livestock Breeder's Association which is an organization made up of breeders of cattle, sheep, and swine. Included are the purebred associations of cattle, sheep, and swine from the State level down through the county level. The Beef Breeders and Feeders Association is also a part of our organization. We have a board of directors composed of 4 members from the Wisconsin Swine Breeders Association, 4 members from the Wisconsin Beef Breeders, and 2 from the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders. Also sitting in with this board in an advisory capacity are a representative from our College of Agriculture and one from the State Department of Agriculture.

We are an organization heading up all of the three classes of red-meat animals and these are our views of what can be done in Wisconsin through a voluntary self-help program.

When the National Swine Growers Council was in the formative stage of its existance we took an active interest in it because we felt it was a program that would benefit the Wisconsin swine producer. Coming from a State of rugged individuals we were for a program of self-help-probably quite a contrast to the situation you gentlemen run into day after day of being asked for more funds and more Government help.

Meat animal producers in Wisconsin are just a little different from those of many of our neighboring States. We are primarily a dairy State and much of the money spent in Wisconsin for promotion is spent in the interests of dairy cattle and dairy products.

We in Wisconsin have a crying need for expanded disease research, testing stations, market shows, and carcass contests. Because many of the Wisconsin producers are raising meat animals as a sideline to their dairy operations we feel there is an urgent need for someone to head up the self-help program for these individuals. Their main interests are dairying and they are already paying into the dairy industry through a checkoff program.

We have made unusual strides in eradication of Bangs disease and tuberculosis of cattle in Wisconsin. We need a program similar to this for all livestock and we need it now. We feel we could make rapid progress in this field could we have part of the funds of the checkoff program.

I have been working with a committee studying a meat animal testing station. Our State university is cooperating, our swine association is backinig it, but we need funds to develop it. We as producers are willing to build and develop it with funds from the checkoff program.

We in Wisconsin have a broad out-of-State and export market for our dairy cattle. We are now developing this export market for our beef, sheep, and swine animals. We feel it will be up to the purebread breeder to develop these markets, but we need research, disease control, test for rate of gain, feed conversion records, carcass cutout values, competition of interbreed market shows to aid us in capturing these markets.

We meat animal producers of Wisconsin realize that we have a lot of competition for the food consumers' dollar from dairy and poultry industries who already have the payoff, self-help program for which we are asking. You realize it is much easier for these industries to get cooperation from educational, promotional, and advertising agencies because they are helping to pay their own way.

We feel one of our most urgent needs is the education of producers to the benefits of multiple farrowing. Because of our climate we have a lot of money tied up in buildings which could be better utilized thereby. This would be a great contribution to the packer because it would give him hogs of more uniform weight and a chance to spread his labor and equipment over the number of animals he receives. He has a chance to get away from the once a year marketing risks.

At heart I am a purebred man, have owned purebreds for 35 years. They have bought my clothes, fed, and raised my family. I would like to point out to you the views of the purebred man. We in American and especially in agriculture need more leaders-men who will work for these very things I have brought out in my previous remarks. In our State in almost every case the purebred breeder of the community is the leader in the community. He works for the program that will help even the smallest producer because he knows that any help he can give will make for a better community.

In my opinion no one is doing more to help the packer receive a better quality of livestock. Animals that cut out more lean meat and higher dressing percentage are the direct result of the purebred breeder who serves the packer's buying area with good purebred bulls, boars, and rams that have been raised in disease-free herds, tested in State testing stations, whose ancestors have been proven in production registry, certification programs, and market and carcass shows.

The purebred breeders are responsible for programs to educate the producer to put out a better product for the housewife, to cut down on surplus fats, and to educate the housewife in how best to buy and cook meat.

We in Wisconsin are aware of the tremendous work of the National Livestock and Meat Board and we are in favor of increasing the amount of checkoff they would receive to further their fine program.

For these reasons I would like to go on record in favor of House bill H. R. 3749 as amended and urge your support in the passage of this bill.

Mr. FULK. Norman Barlow, rancher, Cora, Wyo., president, Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

Mr. Barlow will make a statement.

Mr. KRUEGER. I am pleased to present to you Don L. Short from North Dakota. He is president of the National Beef Council, also president of the North Dakota Beef Council and a member of the North Dakota State Legislature.

He will, I believe, want to make a statement.

STATEMENT OF DON L. SHORT, RANCHER, MEDORA, N. DAK., PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BEEF COUNCIL

Mr. SHORT. If time permits I would like to make a short statement. Mr. POAGE. All right, sir. Thank you.

There are two very important members of your group at the very beginning that you did not introduce, that you passed over, who wanted to make statements.

Mr. FULK. Why don't we introduce them and see who they are. Mr. HILL. Since all of these folks were introduced, I would like to introduce the next witness.

He is a past member of our State Senate in Colorado-Don Collins. I want to introduce Don Collins.

Mr. POAGE. We have another Don-Don Bartlett does not live in Texas, but he passes through there quite often. He lives over on the Mississippi Delta, and ranches on some of that real good land.

And I know Mr. Bartlett will want to make a statement.

Mr. FULK. I want to point out, of course, that Don Collins is president of the American National Cattlemen's Association. I believe that covers all of them on the list.

Mr. POAGE. All right.

Mr. FULK. Mr. Jim Nance, from Alamo, Tenn., will now present a

statement.

STATEMENT OF JIM NANCE, HOG FARMER, ALAMO, TENN., PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL SWINE GROWERS COUNCIL; PRESIDENT, TENNESSEE LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATION; PRESIDENT, AMERICAN HAMPSHIRE SWINE REGISTRY

Mr. NANCE. My name is Jim Nance. My home is Alamo, Tenn. I am a livestock producer and farmer. I am president of the National Swine Growers Council. This is an organization made up of 30 affiliated State swine associations.

These 30 States produce approximately 95 percent of all the hogs grown in the Nation.

I am president of the National Hampshire Swine Registry, a director and immediate past president of the Tennessee Livestock Association, an overall organization representing cattle, sheep, and swine interests for that State.

My personal operation is in the swine field but I am just as strongly interested in the problems that confront the cattle and sheep industry. After all, we produce the same base product, red meat.

Other farm groups have done excellent work promoting their products. They have allowed unit deductions to be made at their point of sale.

During the past 75 days I have been from Arizona to the Atlantic coast and from the Rio Grande Valley to the Great Lakes and there seems to be no doubt but that the livestock farmer would like to have the same type of deduction made.

Unfortunately, we operate under an act that does not permit this type of deduction at the posted markets. I have felt very strongly that his act should be amended. Livestock farmers should be able to authorize deductions on an individual basis at the point of sale, just as the cotton, soybean, fruit, vegetable, nut, rice, dairy, and poultry farmers do.

I feel that there is no limit to the good that can be accomplished through well-financed, well-administered programs of research and education.

This last statement takes nothing from an organization that is now in operation. The National Livestock and Meat Board has a place in any livestock program.

I believe in the organization and the work they are doing, but I believe just as strongly that there is a great need for other programs in the livestock field.

My personal feeling is that any money spent for research should be spent through existing research organizations.

Livestock producers as a whole are independent operators who have no desire for their industry to become subsidized by the Government under the controls that would be an essential part.

They want to continue to operate on a free market and hope that a program designed to stimulate demand may make this possible.

I feel that the producer is the person primarily interested in the price he receives for his product. For that reason it is essential that he have a right to take a direct part in promotion designed to expand the potential market.

In conclusion I would like to say that I draw no salary and most of the time no expenses for my travels in the interest of this program.

I work hard at it because I believe in it. I have three boys in college, all taking animal husbandry. Jimmy, the oldest, is back getting his masters degree after spending 3 years in the Army.

Jule, the next oldest is a junior, and Robert, the youngest is a freshman. I am not so much worried about what is going to happen to Jim Nance in the livestock business in the years ahead, but I am vitally interested in what is going to happen to Robert, Jule, and Jimmy Nance.

Thank you very much.

Mr. POAGE. Thank you very much.

Mr. NANCE. Thank you.

Mr. POAGE. Now, Don Bartlett.

STATEMENT OF DONALD BARTLETT, CATTLEMAN, COMO, MISS., REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BEEF COUNCIL; VICE PRESIDENT, MISSISSIPPI CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION; DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN, LIVESTOCK COMMITTEE OF THE DELTA COUNCIL Mr. BARTLETT. My name is Don Bartlett. I live in Como, Miss. I represent the National Beef Council, the Mississippi Cattlemen's Association, and the Delta Council.

The National Beef Council, formed by the American National Cattlemen's Association as the result of the unanimous vote of its members, exists for the sole purpose of directing all producers' efforts toward an increased consumption of beef.

There is nothing new in this program. The cattlemen are simply following existing successful programs now in operation by most segments of the agricultural industry.

Adequate finances are essential on a guaranteed and continuing basis, otherwise this program cannot be successful.

This method is the foundation of the success of all sales promotional programs now operated by segments of the agricultural industry, the National Cotton Council, the American Dairy Association, the citrus growers, the poultry producers, and all others now operating a voluntary self-help, self-financed program.

The National Beef Council is 2 years old. We attempted to follow the pattern of the organizations mentioned above but encountered legal