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NCBA says Grassley’s 50/14 bill not the solution the industry needs
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s 50/14 bill is not the solution the beef industry needs to increase price discovery and improve competitiveness in the cattle market.
The bipartisan legislation, cosponsored by Jon Tester of Montana, would require a minimum of 50% of meat packers’ weekly volume to be purchased on the open or spot market and require it to be delivered within 14 days.
Ethan Lane is vice president of government affairs. “The discussion over how to make sure we’re returning leverage to the producer segment of the supply chain and how we make sure there’s enough cash trade in the marketplace to make sure we have price discovery has really evolved past this bill,” he says.
He tells Brownfield the conversations have moved to a more regional approach. “While we understand this bill works in Iowa, because the cattle industry in Iowa trades a lot more cash than the rest of the country, it doesn’t work for a lot of the rest of the country,” he says. “There’s just a more advanced conversation out there now about how to solve this issue and it’s a regional conversation.”
Lane says NCBA agrees more price discovery is needed; it’s just figuring out how to get there. “How do we make sure we get a level that that really gives everybody what they want,” he says. “The producers who want to trade cattle on the cash market can do that and the producers who like those formula and grid contracts can do that. And we’re getting enough price discovery in the market place that the whole system works.”
NCBA policy, affirmed during the 2020 Summer Business Meeting, supports a voluntary approach first to increase negotiated trade and if that is unsuccessful, the same policy provides guidance toward a legislative fix.
AUDIO: Ethan Lane, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Ncba represents packers, not us cow calf producers