Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Senate requiring a minimum 50 percent of a meat packer’s weekly volume to be purchased on the open or spot market.
However, NCBA says that the bill is not the solution the industry needs.
This morning Sen. Grassley stated that he is willing to work with the organization to tweak the bill, but he wants to make sure they are supporting independent packers.
“In other words, I want to make sure that this national group is not representing the views of the meatpackers to a greater extent, and not worried about the family farmer,” the Senator stated. “Too often we see sometimes agriculture groups, getting in with big business, and when these four biggest producers have 80 percent of the market, and there’s not a lot of competition. It just seems to me that anything that opens up competition is going to help every beef producer.”
According to Successful Farming, NCBA says that the Grassley-Tester Bill “simply misses the mark.” Highlighting how that the first step should be a voluntary approach that asks packers to buy a specified number of cattle each week in four cattle-producing regions.