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Cattle contract library pilot program starts

The USDA’s Ag Marketing Service has started to collect information for a new cattle contract library pilot program. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Don Schiefelbein explains how the library could work for a cattle producer.

“You want to be able to give producers a chance to find an area where they may be able to negotiate more aggressively in their grid or say, here’s an area I’d never thought to negotiate that I should consider. Those are positive outcomes, but when you can start deciphering and say that looks like Joe’s grid, it’s not good for capitalism or business.”

The pilot program requires most packers give USDA contract information for cattle purchases and the number of actual and estimated cattle purchased under active contracts in a certain time. To protect confidential business information, USDA says the AMS will not collect entire contracts. But Schiefelbein tells Brownfield there are concerns.

“Do you put a tool together the packers can use more effectively than the producers? If that becomes the way it’s constructed, we’ve failed at our attempt. That’s what many are worried about.”

Schiefelbein says the goal of the program is to improve price transparency. NCBA says it will be a few weeks before the program is available to producers.