Legislation Filed Mandating Packer Transparency in Cattle Trade

WASHINGTON, DC – In an effort to bring more transparency to the cattle markets, two farm-state Senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that requires meat processing facilities slaughtering more than 125,000 head of cattle each year to purchase fifty percent of their weekly volume of beef slaughter on the open or ‘spot’ market. The bill would amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to foster efficient markets and increase competition and transparency among packers that purchase cattle from producers. Sponsored by Sem. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), the bill referred to as the “50-14” bill or spot-market bill are different from but along the same lines as the Cattle Market Transparency Act introduced earlier by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE). United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) President Brooke Miller is looking toward the expiration of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Program (LMR) on September 30, 2021, and says “LMR must be better utilized as a mechanism for accurate and transparent reporting in order to advance price discovery and shore up the fundamentals of the CME cattle futures contracts.”
(SOURCE: All Ag News)