IARN — The Senate Ag Committee will hold a hearing later this month on Senator Chuck Grassley’s updated cattle market reform legislation.
Grassley announced on Twitter Thursday evening that a hearing takes place at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 26th on the recently updated Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act. The proposed bill would require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish 5-7 regions encompassing the entire continental U.S. and then establish minimum levels of fed cattle purchases made through approved pricing mechanisms.
“If you are one of the “Big Four” you will be required to provide price transparency to the market,” Grassley said in his weekly call with farm reporters. “Price transparency for all of the prices of all cattle sold in the United States is very important for anybody that hasn’t contracted head, wants a price on a certain date, and that he’s got the latest information instead of just a fraction of the cattle that’s been priced beforehand.”
Grassley says the updated bill would also establish a maximum penalty for covered packers of $90,000 for mandatory minimum violations.
“There’s never been this much momentum for industry change, both at the grassroots and in the Congress,” said Grassley. “Every cattle group in the country acknowledges that additional price discovery is needed.”
The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act also includes provisions to create a publicly available library of marketing contracts. It has received support from the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
Photo by Anna Hastert
