Statewide Iowa — Senator Chuck Grassley and three other Senators say they have developed a compromise plan that gives independent cattle producers more clues about what meatpackers are paying for cattle raised under private contracts.
Grassley, along with a Republican senator from Nebraska and Democratic senators from Montana and Oregon are co-sponsors of the legislation. It would create a sort of library of sale contracts and require meat packers to disclose how many cattle they plan to buy for slaughter in each of the next 14 days. Grassley says the aim now is to tack this proposal onto an already-existing livestock-related law that congress has to vote to reauthorize in December.
Grassley says a key senator who had blocked action on the issue in the past retired from the senate a year ago and leaders of the House and Senate ag committees appear open to negotiations.
Cattle producers have complained there’s a growing disparity between what they’re being paid for their livestock and what consumers are paying for beef at the grocery store.
