Last week’s hearings over proposed cattle market reforms took up nine hours across two days in both chambers of Congress. These hearings, like the six preceding hearings over the past year, were contentious, and now, a week later, there is no clear path forward.  The Grassley-Fischer negotiated cash trade minimum bill is mortally wounded if not dead as more than 30 state cattle organizations opposed it and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) also expressed its opposition during the House Agriculture Committee. There are other parts of the legislation that have more support. First, the contract library proposal that would establish a library for cattle formula and contract sales agreements like the swine indus...

TAGS – Livestock, North America