Cattle group seeks concessions from packer

A Billings-based cattle group is calling on the world's largest meatpacker to surrender its Western feedlots as part of a settlement agreement with state and federal antitrust lawyers. Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund USA contends that getting Brazilian based JBS S.A. to surrender its feedlots is crucial to Montana cow-calf operations, which are faced with fewer buyers and less competition for their product. "Our position is that the market is already too highly concentrated," said Bill Bullard, R-CALF chief executive. R-CALF sued JBS last year over its would-be purchase of Kansas City, Mo.-based National Beef Packing Co. JBS has been on a two-year buying spree of U.S. meatpackers, picking up Colorado-based Swift & Co. in 2007 and Smithfield Beef Group last fall. The National Beef purchase would make JBS the largest beef packer in the United States and would trim the number of major packing companies from five to three. The governments sued JBS and National Beef last year to stop the sale. But all parties agreed in mid-December to set aside litigation and work out a settlement. The first signs of an agreement between the governments and JBS allowing the sale could come Jan. 16 at a status hearing in Chicago, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman said. JBS did not return messages left with the company Monday. Early indications were that National Beef might cut one of its packing plants out of the deal to shrink JBS's footprint in the U.S. beef industry. Bullard said R-CALF's concern is that any packing plant cut from the deal wouldn't really stimulate market competition....