Recently introduced legislation would create greater price discovery and transparency within the cattle market, while giving producers more tools and useful information. The Farm Bureau-backed Optimizing the Cattle Market Act of 2021 would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a cattle formula contracts library and increase the reporting window for “cattle committed” from seven to 14 days.
The bill would also require USDA, in consultation with the department’s chief economist, to establish mandated minimums for regional negotiated cash and negotiated grid live cattle trade.
“America’s families are paying more for meat at the grocery store while rock bottom prices are paid to farmers. Ranchers can’t continue to lose money on the cattle they work hard to raise. Farmers and ranchers have legitimate questions, and this legislation takes important steps toward ensuring they have fair access to markets and are fully informed on pricing,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said. “We appreciate Rep. Hartzler (R-Mo.) and Representative Cleaver (D-Mo.) for introducing the Optimizing the Cattle Market Act of 2021 and we look forward to working with Congress to make certain farmers and ranchers can continue to put dinner on the table in homes across America.”
The measure also expresses the sense of Congress that there is a need for expedited reauthorization of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting program, including base prices subject to the same reporting requirements as negotiated cash and the creation of a contract library, and directs USDA to provide educational outreach activities for producers on how to best use the library.
The Optimizing the Cattle Market Act of 2021 is similar to Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Ron Wyden’s (D-Oregon) Cattle Market Transparency Act of 2021 (S. 543). This Market Intel goes into detail about the new legislation, cattle transactions and regional minimum negotiated trade.
The fact that no more is spelled out about what the bill does leads one to suspect it is more government interference.
I do not see any control of beef or hogs from other countries. We, the little farmer produce grass fed beef with little to no growth enhancers. We need to
know where our meet comes from. Our stores are flooded with beef from who knows
where that is not displayed on the label. A simple law requiring all meet sold
in stores labeled US produced or china produced or wherever produced.
We need honest reporting and not sending our beef to another country to be processed and then sent back to the US not labeled where grown are processed.
I want my voice heard.
Labeling beef and pork a certain way is a completely different topic than this article. Consumers already have options to buy farm and location verified if they choose. Beef products that are imported from other countries are primarily used to mix with American beef fat to make ground beef and it must meet equivalent food safety standards as beef produced in the U.S.