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Raisers Association, said a number of his group's members along the border have ranches in both Texas and Mexico, and those operations typically use the same bulls between ranches. Having to split calves by birth nation cuts down on profit, he said.
• "The quality of the cattle is identical, and yet the cattle coming from Mexico are being discounted between $40 and $70 a head because of the additional bookkeeping requirement," White said.
• Eich, a cow-calf rancher from Canova, S.D., said country of origin labeling too often is incorrectly portrayed as a food safety issue, as all meat sold in the United States is inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He noted the dozens of voluntary marketing programs, such as Certified Angus Beef, that allow consumers to buy whatever they want.
• "It's perceived sometimes that we're against country of origin labeling, and it's not that," Eich said. "We're against the mandatory part."
• Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the farm bill is a huge win for ranchers, as it includes a permanent livestock disaster assistance program, a livestock forage program and export assistance. But some of the groups came in to the House and Senate wanting to repeal country of origin labeling and "there was no way," she said.
• "The votes were not there in either body to do that," Stabenow said during a Jan. 28 farm bill conference call. "And so we moved forward to achieve what we could together."
• Congress' decision not to address the issue has drawn criticism from Canadian officials, who say the country may retaliate by imposing tariffs on a wide range of American products.
• Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast said the detailed origin labels drive up the price of Canadian exports and undermine competitiveness, causing about $1 billion a year in losses. A public hearing before the World Trade Organization is set for Feb. 18 in Geneva.
• "By refusing to fix country of origin labelling, the U.S. is effectively legislating its own citizens out of work, and harming Canadian and American livestock producers alike by disrupting the highly-integrated North American meat industry supply chain," the ministers said last week in a statement.
• Kenny Graner, a farmer and rancher with a 250-head cow herd in North Dakota's Morgan County, said he is surprised by Canada's reaction to the labeling mandate because most residents of the United States' northern tier know that the quality of the breeds are nearly identical.
• "Canada is just 100 miles north of us," said Graner, president of the Independent

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