Cattle Contract Library Act
Livestock producers may have one more tool to reduce the challenges that come with the job. A bill that would create more price transparency in the market place introduced by Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.
Johnson: “What this bill does is takes the information, basic nonconfidential information from those alternative marketing agreements and makes it available. And it makes sure that there is a mechanism for that information to be put into resources that can actually be used by the independent cattle producers and the small feeders that are so critically important to this marketplace.”
Johnson who serves as the Republican Leader of the Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee speaking in favor of HR 5609 in the House.
Johnson says the bill has broad support of both parties and a wide cross-section of the livestock industry including the NCBA, The Farmers Union, The National Farm Bureau, and the Livestock Marketing Association.
Johnson: “Good people who have come together and understand that while this does not solve the problem it is a critically important step in moving us in the right direction.”
Cattlemen say the information potentially would help cattle producers know if they are being offered a fair price for their stock in a market where a handful of meatpackers control the processing.
