Iowa Farm Bureau president hopes for progress on cattle market transparency


August 23, 2021 By Filed Under: Beef, Iowa, Livestock, News

The president of Iowa Farm Bureau is encouraged as Congress works with stakeholders to improve cattle market transparency.

Craig Hill tells Brownfield congressional hearings over the summer touched on antitrust and anticompetitive issues within the livestock industry.

“I think the resolve that we’ve kind of come to is we need more transparency in the market, whether it be a contract library held at USDA for cattle like there is for hogs. Whether it be formula pricing, a reveal of what’s offered in those contracts and how markets are developed.”

He says there are very few negotiated sales across the country.

“And if you don’t have a second bidder, the second bidder is the one who makes the market. And a lot of our producers get only but one bid and are told to wait two to three weeks to deliver, and it’s just not a tenable situation.”

Hill says some resolution to the cattle market imbalance might be coming by the end of September depending on whether Congress extends current livestock marketing regulations or introduces a new rule.

Brownfield interviewed Hill during the 2021 Iowa State Fair.