Proposed cattle bill causes beef among Texas ranching community
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The Texas cattle community is eye-balling a proposed bill that critics believe will stress regional producers.
The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act would require Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to “establish minimum thresholds below which negotiated trade volumes cannot fall, allowing for public input and the review and modification of those thresholds.”
Amending the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, the bill states regional minimum cannot be less than the average percentage of negotiated purchases made in that region between the beginning of 2020 and end of 2021. Additionally, no regional mandatory minimum can exceed 50% of total weekly or total monthly trade. The bill was approved by the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry earlier this year and introduced to the full Senate for consideration earlier this week.
In its most recent analysis of the bill -- which it has observed since Senators Jon Tester (R-Mont.), Ernest Grassley (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the bill in November – the Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center states it will create a “significant burden that falls largely on the Southern Plains.”
The center estimates that the bill will require cattle producers to market an additional 2.3 million head of cattle via negotiated sales compared to existing law.
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Additionally, the Texas Farm Bureau – the state’s largest agriculture-focused non-profit – said in a news release that the organization is “extremely disappointed” that the U.S. Senate ag committee OK'd the new act, with the Farm Bureau stating that “an overwhelming amount of analysis” has proven a government mandate in the cattle market will “only hurt cattle ranchers.”
“We encourage leaders of Congress to continue opposing this bill as long as the mandate language remains intact,” the release states.
Although supporters of the new bill are few and far between here in Texas, Kyle Williams – the manager and co-owner of Lubbock Feeders – is one of them.
“I truly believe that the small producers are (currently) not getting a fair shake compared to some of these big boys,” Williams said. “And I would like to see some transparency.”
Williams said Lubbock Feeders produces about 60,000 head of cattle annually.
“Don't get me wrong -- I'm not for big government,” Williams said. “But at some point, if we can’t somehow do this ourselves, which it doesn’t seem like we can, and if it takes some kind of government involvement to help us get some kind of fairness or transparency, I’m all for it.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Critics say new cattle bill could stress Texas regional producers
