In late April, a new Facebook page named “Common Ground Summit” revealed a meeting of 40 cattle industry representatives had taken place in Denver that week.
The Facebook post included several pictures to give the public a glimpse of some of the attendees.
TSLN contacted Joe Goggins who was included in photos and who also e-mailed a guest opinion with follow up details about the meeting.
Goggins, who serves as the Livestock Marketing Association Vice President and whose family owns the Billings, Montana, auction markets, a purebred Angus business many other enterprises said the invitees were chosen by the LMA and other industry groups. But he stressed the point that those who were invited were not asked to represent any particular organization. “We invited people we thought were forward-thinking and have the appetite to unify this industry around common ground ideas that we could come up with which would be for the greater good of the industry,” he said.
The LMA Membership Services Vice President Kristen Parman said that LMA financed the gathering and travel expenses for the attendees.
“We wanted cow-calf people, we wanted representation from packers, we wanted representation from feeders, we wanted grassroots Americans – stocker operators. It really was something to see,” she said. “I honestly don’t know what groups they were aligned with.”
Photo by Carrie Stadheim
Unity
Goggins stressed that he wants to see more “unity” in the cattle and beef industry, rather than division.
R-CALF board member Eric Nelson submitted a letter to the TSLN editor last week commenting on the issues discussed at a similar meeting four years ago.
Goggins said that “no organizations were invited. Only individuals.”
He said he thought of “500 people” he could have invited, and he’s hoping to have more meetings with different attendees.
Goggins told TSLN that 21 of the 40 participants were “commercial cow-calf and stocker operators.”
“The question we need to answer as a livestock industry is this: why is it that a young guy can go to a loan officer and say they want to buy a green tractor and lease 2-3 sections of land to grow soybeans and the loan is almost automatic? But when that same person goes to borrow money for two loads of heifers and to rent or buy grass, it takes quite a bit to get it done?”
“We went there for the grassroots producers of America. Everyone was there with that spirit in mind. The ideas we came up with aren’t for us,” he said.
Goggins said the first thing that impressed him when the group gathered on April 21-23, 2025, was that “There wasn’t a weak link in the room. We were all winners. We didn’t come there to lose,” he said.
The group agreed to five key points:
- Achieve and maintain ag-friendly tax policy
- Make risk management tools more effective
- Improve access to labor
- Increase flexibility for livestock haulers
- Create support for young and emerging livestock producers
Several livestock media entities shared a news release or a story that included a sixth point : “Innovation and sustainability: champion technologies and programs that enhance livestock production efficiency and sustainability.”
One news release appeared to have been submitted by the Common Ground Summit, but Goggins said the group officially agreed to the five original points, not six.
The LMA will bring these issues to Washington, D.C., said Goggins.
All of the attendees had to vote in favor of each item in order for it to appear on the group’s list.
Death Tax
On June 3, The Heritage Act, introduced by Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
The bill would provide an exemption on estate tax for farms valued at $15 million or less. The current exemption is $750,000.
In other words, if The Heritage Act passes, the estate tax also known as the “death tax” or “inheritance tax” could be avoided when qualifying agricultural land valued at $15 million or less is passed down to the next generation.
Goggins says this bill would be a big win, and addresses the Common Ground Summit’s first point. “Every cattle producer stands to gain from the Heritage Act. The bill…would help preserve family-owned agricultural land by adjusting the IRS code that forces many families to sell their land to pay the death tax.”
“I didn’t go there to help my family. I went there for the grassroots producers of America. How do we keep these people in business? There’s no reason we shouldn’t be re-buildling this (national) herd but we continue to sell cows. These people have seen grandpa and dad struggle and they aren’t going to go through that. For the sake of national security we have to keep this grass in food production.”
Goggins was pleased that the 40 individuals came to an agreement on several issues he believes are key to the industry, even though they didn’t discuss several cattle market related issues like MCOOL, the Beef Checkoff, Packers and Stockyards reform or the mandatory electronic identification program.
“My father spent his whole adult life fighting these packers and I’m not saying that’s wrong but I do think everyone needs to be held accountable. I’m convinced without a shadow of a doubt now, the only way we’re going to get anything is to come together,” said Goggins.
“I’m not saying those (market) issues aren’t important. They are. But I think we need to prove to these policy makers and to ourselves that we can come together on some things and get wins,” he said.
“It’s been so long since this industry has had a win. Look at the last 70-80 years and what we’ve been through. The environmental movement has forced the cattle industry to play defense. We like to fight, but we need to play offense.”
Goggins said the LMA sponsored “focus groups” over several months prior to the Summit in which they addressed at least 5,000 producers. “We went and did our due diligence. We found out what we can find common ground on, and this is what we came up with.”
Cyndi Van Newkirk
Cyndi Van Newkirk, who along with her husband Joe, operates a Hereford seedstock ranch near Oshkosh, Nebraska, also attended the meeting.
She was also impressed with the high caliber of personalities in attendance. “Everyone there was successful in their own right,” she said. “They had the attitude of ‘we’re going to win at this. How do we figure out how to have one voice for agriculture and once voice for the cow-calf sector?'”
“Whenever there was contention, we’d have to go back to the message – they would have to put their feedlots or other entities aside and think, what’s best for the cow-calf and best for the young producer?”
Van Newkirk agrees with Goggins that unity is important. The livestock industry is “shooting ourselves in the foot” because we aren’t coming in with one voice, said Van Newkirk. “They are sending mixed messages everywhere they go. Let’s figure out what we agree on – we agree on 90 or 95 percent – and let’s quit fighting over the five percent.”
On the topic of more government assistance, Van Newkirk realizes that some producers “don’t want more subsidies.” But “I don’t think anyone realizes how much money is going into crops for lobbyists and stop gap measures. It’s killing livestock,” she said.
“You’ve got the old school mindset (of resisting government control with government subsidies) but I also believe if we can’t get these young producers in and keep them making money, they aren’t going to survive.”
Jack Payne
A United States Cattlemen Association board member and owner of a Nevada auction market has taken to Facebook to voice his concern about the Common Ground Summit.
Payne, who sells about 60,000 head a year through Nevada Livestock Marketing, has been a member of the LMA since he opened his barn 19 years ago, but he dropped his membership about a month ago and joined the American Livestock Marketing Association.
“I feel LMA has lost touch with the independent salebarns and their producers. Their neutral stand on mandatory electronic ID was the final straw for me,” he said.
Payne has asked questions including, “Why was R-CALF USA not invited? Why was the ranchers’ direct competition, ‘beef on dairy’ invited? Why is it important for LMA, NCBA and AAA to rebrand themselves under a new name?”
“It looked like the ‘who’s who’ of vertical integration,” said Payne in a TSLN interview.
“The elitists of the industry got together and decided what’s best for the peasants,” he said in a Facebook post.
Payne questioned whether those in attendance “had callouses on their hands” or “could shoe a horse” or “build an H brace.”
Payne said his consignors are concerned about the issues that weren’t discussed at the meeting.
“Mandatory ID is a huge thing, especially with the methane thing coming out. We have all been listening to this discussion and learning how national identification programs in Ireland and the Netherlands were the precursor to reductions in cattle numbers for the sake of ‘climate change.'”
Payne added that imported beef is a concern to his consignors. “We are all pissed about the beef being snuck in here and labeled as product of the USA. Just think about it, you are raising cattle, following all the right animal husbandry strategies, giving the right shots in the right place, and then the packer buys some junk from another country and the consumer doesn’t get to know which one came from you and which one came from Brazil. It seems so wrong to me.”
He said another issue he hears his local ranchers talk about is the Beef Checkoff. “Some of them say that the checkoff funds the organizations that oppose the cattle producers’ top issues in Washington.”
“The Common Ground Summit is the same industry spokesman we’re already hearing from,” he said.
“I want them to come out in writing and give us an explanation of how some of the press coverage has said there are five points and some says there are six points. You call it common ground but you can’t even agree on how many points there are,” he said.
Payne said he would feel more comfortable voicing his support for one issue at a time, rather than signing on to five vague points. He is concerned the loose coalition could use the “supporters” names’ going forward to lobby for additional points not included in the listing.
“We all want the same thing. We want what’s best for our industry. We just don’t feel like the same guys that got us here are the same ones that are going to save us,” he said.
Goggins encouraged producers to go to commongroundsummit.net to learn more or sign as a supporter. He said about 700 people have signed on. The signers’ names are published on the site.
The Common Ground Summit participants were:
Turk Stovall, Billings, Montana
John Barnes, Reidsville, North Carolina
Dr. Kenny Burdine, Nicholasville, Kentucky
Renee Carrico, Springfield, Kentucky
Monte Cluck, Boerne, Texas
Colton Coffee, Miles City, Montana
Jerry Connealy, Whitman, Nebraska
Gene Copenhaver, Meadowview, Virginia
John Dickinson, Caldwell, Idaho
Barb Downey, Wamego, Kansas
Chad Ellingson, St. Anthony, North Dakota
Joe Fischer, Auburn, California
JD Georg, Midway, Texas
Joe Goggins, Billings, Montana
Ed Greiman, Garner, Iowa
Randall Grimmius, Hanford, California
Jim Handley, Orlando, Florida
James Henderson, La Jara, Colorado
Paul Houret, Lakeview, Oregon
Greg Ibach, Sumner, Nebraska
Jeremy Kinder, Faxon, Oklahoma
Pat Kirby, Oakdale, California
Dr. Clay Mathis, College Station, Texas
Mike McCormick, Union Church, Mississippi
Mark McCully, St. Joseph, Missouri
Joe Morgan, Scott City, Kansas
Jackie Moore, Carthage, Missouri
Jake Parnell, Galt, California
Rich Porter, Reading, Kansas
Don Schiefelbein, Kimball, Minnesota
Doug Shepperd, Mills, Nebraska
Wade Small, Mountain City, Nevada
Eric Smith, Reform, Alabama
Lamar Steiger, Bentonville, Arkansas
Steve Sunderman, Norfolk, Nebraska
Derek Thompson, Paxico, Kansas
Justin Tupper, St. Onge, South Dakota
Cyndi Van Newkirk, Oshkosh, Nebraska
Fred Wacker, Miles City, Montana
Warren White, Hereford, Texas