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Grassley looking forward to Senate Ag Committee hearing on cattle markets

The Senate Ag Committee will hold a hearing on the cattle markets Wednesday.

Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley says he’s been calling for a hearing to address concerns for months.

“We’re going to be examining the lack of transparency, and prices from the cattle producer to the consumer.”

During his weekly call with reporters, Grassley says he continues to hear from family farmers negatively affected by consolidation in the beef industry.

“Independent cattle farmers are losing money on each head of cattle while packers are profiting $1,200 per-head, when the price (for) the consumer hasn’t gone down any and the farmer is losing money.”

He says cattle producers have every reason to be fed up with anticompetitive practices happening in the marketplace, pointing out 80 percent of the slaughter is done by the four biggest packers and less than 20 percent of the daily kill is negotiated on the spot market.

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