Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from Farm Director KC Sheperd’s visit with the Senior Director of Government Affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Tanner Beymer talking about Livestock Mandatory Reporting and more.
“Unfortunately, we are in much of the same place we have been for the last three years, which is, ‘hurry up and wait and see,’” Beymer said. “Livestock Mandatory Reporting is obviously a very critical market transparency tool for cattle producers. It is supposed to be authorized by Congress every five years. It last expired in September of 2020.”
Almost three years later, Beymer said Congress has not provided a clean authorization.
“This is a farm bill year,” Beymer said. “That means that a lot of focus is going to be on the ag committee and the kind of bills it turns out, so we may see some renewed optimism and a renewed push to try and get that legislation over the finish line.”
Ultimately Beymer said NCBA’s main message to Capitol Hill is that whatever it takes, the LMR program must not expire. Seeing some progress on this issue, Beymer said, will rely on Congress finding the time.
“There have been so many other high-priority bills moving, and in this political environment, I think it might be a little bit difficult to clear things off the floor,” Beymer said. “You have got super tight margins in both the House and the Senate.”
Republicans control the House, Beymer said, and Democrats control the Senate.
“This is typically a bipartisan issue that gets a lot of support,” Beymer said. “It is just a matter of finding that time and that legislative package that it can move forward with. Ultimately, I think a lot of the livestock groups are ready to see it move. It is just a matter of when we can find the time to do it.”
Beymer said NCBA is against adding a livestock title to the 2023 farm bill, as it invites more Washington involvement in farms and ranches. This makes it unlikely that LMR will have a place inside the farm bill itself.
“Ideally, we could get that accomplished outside of the farm bill, but who knows what Congress has up their sleeve going into this,” Beymer said. “What will be a very different farm bill experience than years passed.”
Beymer also touched on the Packers and Stockyards rules coming out of USDA, formally known as the GIPSA rules.
“We are going to continue to push back against it, we are going to use our allies on Capitol Hill to the best of our ability, and we are going to make our voices heard through the judicial process as well in the event that these rules do finalize,” Beymer said.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
