DOMINALAwpc LLO

To: Cattlelawyers.com

Western Livestock Reporter

Livestock Weekly

Bill Hord

SD Stockgrowers

Associated Press

KCA

Jim Coody

High Plains Journal

Tri State Livestock News

Western Livestock Journal

April 15, 2003

Fr: David A Domina, Esq. Contact: 402 493 4100

Cell 586 291 1483

Re: PRESS RELEASE

Trial will begin January 12, 2004, in U.S. District Court, Montgomery, Alabama, in the first nationwide class action to reach trial under anti-trust provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921.

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom, Omaha, Nebraska, ruled that Dr. Robert Taylor, Auburn University, Dr. Catherine Durham, Oregon State University and Dr. Bernard Siskin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, may render statistical and econometric opinions as expert witnesses at trial. The ruling cleared the way for trial to proceed in January. The court scheduled trial for January 12, 2004, trial date and expected to issue administrative rulings to confirm the trial date.

The lawsuit, known as Pickett v. IBP, inc., was filed in 1996. It seeks a money judgment, and an injunction on behalf of cattlemen who claim that the nation’s largest beef slaughter company has used forward contracts, joint venture cattle ownership, and other cattle procurement methods unfairly to "captively supply" large blocks of cattle. By doing so, cattlemen contend IBP has purposefully, or effectively, shrunk the cash market, diminished competition for cattle at the marketplace, and unfairly reduced the cash price paid to the nation’s cattlemen.

Dave Domina, Omaha, Nebraska, one of the cattleman’s attorneys, called the court’s ruling "expected, but welcome." Domina said "nearly 100 persons have given testimony in depositions already, and documentary evidence of mountainous proportions has been gathered." Domina said "cattlemen are keenly aware that states dependent upon livestock and livestock production have an overwhelming economic interest in the success or failure of the Pickett case." He called "restoring fair competition to the market place essential to the future of agriculture." Without these steps Domina said "independent farming, by independent farmers acting as businessmen, will not remain possible much longer."