The Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska are holding their annual meeting in Broken Bow on Friday. President Jim Dinklage says one of their top concerns and topics of discussion will be the consumption tax proposed by State Senator Steve Erdman to replace all state taxes with one consumption tax. He says ICON backs the measure and will be lobbying for it when it’s reintroduced in January after falling short this past session.

He says the other major concern are the numbers of producers leaving the cattle business because they’re getting either depressed or no prices for their animals while the packers are making record profits.

Dinklage says ICON believes the answer to the cattle market price problem is the Grassley Tester bill which calls for the packers to purchase 50 percent of their cattle from the spot market within a 14 day time period. He says they’re opposing Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer’s legislation which he says appears slanted to the packers.

ICON’s Annual meeting gets underway 1pm mountain time, 2pm central time October 29 in Broken Bow.