The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says creating trade mandates could limit value-added marketing options for cattle producers.
NCBA’s Tanner Beymer says it “puts the government in a position where it is picking winners and losers”.
He tells Brownfield the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, if passed, may force producers to take a different route to market their cattle. Beymer gives an example of a producer, who is a stocker and retains ownership of their cattle through the feedyard. “If they get to sale time, and a packer has already reached their quota of Alternative Marketing Arrangements for the week, then that particular producer, if he wants to trade cattle that week, is going to have to take a different marketing method on that approved list,” he says.
He says the incentives to raise higher-quality cattle would still exist, but the question now becomes if producers will be able to access some of those premiums and some of those programs.
