President Barack Obama signed into law legislation that would extend livestock mandatory price reporting until 2020. The legislation requires meat packers to report to the USDA the prices they pay livestock producers for cattle, hogs and lambs, and the prices they receive for wholesale meat cuts.
The legislation includes technical changes to swine and lamb reporting that would capture a higher number of transactions and yield more accurate reports. The bill requires the USDA to conduct a study, with input from the livestock and meat industries, on the workability of the reporting program prior to the next reauthorization in 2020.
The bill does not include a provision advocated by livestock groups that would have declared price reporting to be an essential service, which would have required the USDA to continue issue reports during a government shutdown.
