Rancher's Advocate. People's Advocate. Animal's Advocate.
Colorado Springs
Joined October 2010
- Tweets8.5K
- Following1.1K
- Followers3.2K
- Likes6.8K
Mike Callicrate retweeted
The colonies knew what a ban on manufacturing felt like. Under the Wool Act of 1699 a Massachusetts weaver could not ship his cloth to England, and he could not ship it to Connecticut. Production permitted, trade denied. A renaissance has to be built on a home market.
Mike Callicrate retweeted
That pretty much sums it up. #MAGACult
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Managed economy managed outcomes!
This isn’t the win she thinks it is!
The cost of raising all those items is higher than ever where is the free market that says those costs get passed on?
Oh yeah we stepped in and borrowed money from our grandchildren to pay farmers the shortfall!
Well at least we made the appearance that we made up the shortfall.
Our kids won’t have food but they will get the bill!
Affordability matters to every American family, and @POTUS is making real progress!!
The numbers don’t lie!
🥚 Eggs: DOWN 54.1%
🐖 Pork chops: DOWN 0.7%
🍗Chicken legs: DOWN 3.0%
🥓 Bacon: DOWN 4.1%
🐖 Ham: DOWN 0.5%
Under Biden, food prices skyrocketed roughly 26%. Today, food inflation is holding near the 20-year average at around 2.5%.
There’s more work to do, but we’re moving in the right direction. President Trump is putting American families FIRST!
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Independent hog farmers have found viable markets thanks to Prop 12. The Save Our Bacon Act is only being promoted by China owned Smithfield to fuel more consolidation. We appreciate FAF endorsed Josh Turek @turek4iowa for standing with us against Big Pork
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek visited a farm Thursday to discuss his plans to support Iowa farmers if elected to Congress — a plan he said will not include the “Save Our Bacon” act proposed by Republican Ashley Hinson, @robinlopsahl reports. iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026…
Mike Callicrate retweeted
I hired on in harvest maintenance at IBP's Finney County, Kansas plant in 1983, the biggest beef plant in the world then. In August 2019 it burned. Fed cattle fell about 10 percent in a month. Boxed beef went up. The cowherd paid for that fire. The packer didn't.
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Source: @mikecallicrate, who retold the District 11 story on Curious Pundits this week. The 2015 record: news.mikecallicrate.com/fund…
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Iowa's Farmers Union endorsed every Democrat for Congress this year. Their president knows exactly how that sounds.
"That's unusual for us," Aaron Lehman told Iowa PBS. "But our farmers are facing such a huge crisis."
The crisis is diesel, and the reason it is a crisis is what the money counts. The $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief program pays by the planted acre of Title I crops. Corn, wheat and soybeans are on that list. A cattle operation's fuel bill is not.
Lehman's own figures, in @IowaPBS's report: an extra $1,000 a day in fuel and a 75 percent jump in fertilizer costs. Those are the reporter's numbers, attributed to him.
EIA had diesel at $6.276 the week of Oct. 19, up $2.656 from a year earlier and about 25 cents under the record set the week of Sept. 21.
What a farmer buys to run a tractor is now an election issue in farm country. @NewsHour @petertubbs
Mike Callicrate retweeted
I was harvest maintenance superintendent at the Greeley beef plant when the sign said ConAgra. Before that it said Monfort. After that, Swift. Today it says JBS. Same kill floor every time. What changed was where the money that plant made went home to.
Mike Callicrate retweeted
The big meatpackers failed us during COVID, and rancher Mike Callicrate says they're failing us again.
"The big plants are failing us now."
Giant packing plants are closing across the country, leaving ranchers with nowhere to sell their cattle.
Meanwhile, the small local plants that could fill the gap can't compete with packers that dump their costs onto ranchers, workers, and communities.
Rancher Mike Callicrate’s solution is simple:
"If the government would prioritize purchasing to the small local regional plants... what you support prospers."
Instead of propping up the meatpacking monopoly, Washington should invest in the local processing ranchers actually need.
@MikeCallicrate
Hallie Shoffner is right on farming and farm policy: youtube.com/watch?v=BzDsCFGN…
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Rancher Mike Callicrate has seen firsthand what happens when schools cut out the corporate middlemen.
A Colorado Springs school district dropped Sodexo, started buying local meat and produce, and saved money.
Mike says the food service giants have been running a racket:
"There's almost a cartel of food management companies... Compass, Sodexo, Aramark, and they really dominate food management across the country."
When a few corporations control what ends up on our kids' plates, taxpayers pay more and local ranchers get shut out.
"You go back to local, you scratch cook, you employ people that actually cook, you pay them better wages."
@MikeCallicrate
Now that we’ve reached the inevitable end of what monopoly power delivers, a simple reminder follows:
When Profiteering Betrays Public Trust – It’s Time to Break ‘Em Up! nobull.mikecallicrate.com/20…
Mike Callicrate retweeted
I believe this will be considered one of the most important videos in US history from this time.
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Brutal….rural America and the graph looks like hogs went from the mortgage lifter to the mortgage.
The pork receipt. Where a dollar spent on pork went in 2025, from USDA ERS.
Hog farmer: 24.0¢
Packing: 15.6¢
Store: 60.4¢
In 2021 the farmer's share was 25.8¢. The second chart shows retail, wholesale and farm pork prices back to 1970.
We need more independent packing in this country. The Big 4 own more of the market than most people know, and the independent guy gets squeezed a little more every day.
Mike Callicrate retweeted
Producers build a plant they complain. Big packers who they say have to much of the kill close a plant they complain. They should change the name to RComplain 🤪😂
Walmart is expanding its reach into the cattle and beef industries, building a supply chain that stretches from cattle genetics to the retail meat case. But what does that mean for independent American ranchers?
Through investments, partnerships and production requirements, Walmart is gaining greater influence over how cattle are raised, marketed and processed. While new processing capacity can create opportunities for producers, increased vertical integration raises serious concerns about market access, price discovery and rancher independence.
As more cattle move through coordinated corporate supply chains, independent producers risk losing competing buyers, bargaining power and the freedom to make their own business decisions. The poultry and hog industries offer a warning of what can happen when farmers retain ownership of their operations but become dependent on corporations that control production and marketing.
R-CALF USA is urging federal antitrust agencies and USDA to examine Walmart's expanding influence over the beef supply chain and enforce laws that protect competition. Independent ranchers need competing buyers, competitive cattle markets and the freedom to negotiate the value of their cattle.
Watch 📷: Walmart’s Beef Empire Threatens Rancher Independence