AFBF Cattle Market Transparency Act Will Bring Needed Reform

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the recently introduced Cattle Market Transparency Act would bring much needed changes to cattle markets. AFBF Congressional Relations Director Scott Bennett said the events of 2020 highlighted the need for reform.

“After an extremely volatile 2020 in the cattle market, producers became exceedingly frustrated. This bill helps ease much of that frustration by creating a contract library for producers to compare the terms of their contracts versus others in the industry. It also mandates that a packer report the number of cattle scheduled to be delivered for slaughter each day for the next 14 days. This is a requirement that already exists in the swine industry and will better help industry to project estimated slaughter numbers and the packers need for cattle.”

During this year’s Convention, AFBF passed policy objectives detailing how cattle markets can be more transparent.

“This was after an extensive review of the cattle markets by our Cattle Market Working Group in 2020. If AFBF is to support a mandatory minimum negotiated trade, it must be cognizant of regional differences, and this bill does exactly that. Supporting Senator Deb Fischer and Ron Wyden’s Cattle Market Transparency Act is a huge step forward for AFBF.”

Bennett said because of the leadership of the Cattle Market Working Group, AFBF proudly supports the Act, which he said will certainly move the industry forward.

Click Here to read the entire Cattle Market Transparency Act

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com