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Grassley calls for hearing on cattle pricing issues

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley wants the Senate Agriculture Committee to hold a hearing on concerns about beef packers and cattle pricing. 

“Because these farmers are hurting and we’ve just got to get it moving,” Grassley says. “This stuff is not the marketplace working.”

Grassley says he is also trying to garner more support for his bill mandating that 50 percent of fed cattle purchases be done through negotiated cash trade. But Grassley says one key member of the committee—Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas—does not support it.

“And I don’t understand—they’ve got to have a big cattle operation in Kansas–I don’t know why he would be against 50 percent of a daily kill to be negotiated, as opposed to about 20 percent.”

Grassley says with the reauthorization of Mandatory Livestock Reporting coming up later this year, now is the time to address issues with the cattle market.  

Grassley made those comments in his weekly conference call with ag reporters.