California Cattle Industry and New Union Contract for West Coast Ports
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Short supplies of cattle have sent prices soaring at a time when California ranchers have less to sell after years
of drought forced them to shrink their herds.
With more rain and an explosion of feed on pastures this year, ranchers are eager to rebuild their numbers while the market is hot.
In its May forecast, the USDA anticipates beef production in 2024 to decline 8%, resulting in the lowest per capita beef available since records began in 1970.
**Last Wednesday, the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union announced a tentative agreement on a new six-year contract.
The agreement covers all West Coast ports and must still be ratified.
U.S. Meat Export Federation President Dan Halstrom says this is tremendous news for U.S. red meat exporters and their overseas customers.
**Kansas Senator Roger Marshall will introduce a bill designed to address California’s Prop 12, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
The Hagstrom Report says Marshall’s bill, the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, or EATS Act, would stop states from enacting laws that affect agricultural production in other states.
Marshall says, the last thing we need is a big state like California imposing its will on ag-heavy states with regulations that restrict trade.
