USDA Transparency Effort Does Not Excite R-CALF

A new effort from USDA to bring transparency to cattle pricing is getting a lukewarm response from the industry, and some criticism. R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said the problem is that large amounts of cattle taken out of the cash market that don't contribute to price discovery.

"USDA is using what limited authority it has to address this issue and what it's trying to do is increase transparency in the marketplace, but it's won't increase competition. The competition was lost because the formula cattle were removed from the market and now what USDA is going to do is provide more information about those formula cattle."

Bullard said that those cattle don't contribute to price discovery and simply knowing the information is not fixing the industry. Bullard added these new USDA reports are backwards looking, and with the marketplace not working, it's just providing info that is not helpful.

"You have to force the packers to compete where they don't want to compete and that is in the competitive price discovery market, the negotiated cash market, and that's why we support the Grassley-Tester bill, S.949."

Senate Bill 949 amends the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act and requires the major packers to purchase at least 50% of their weekly cattle needs in the competitive cash market.

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