The Nebraska Farm Bureau is recommending to USDA a series of reforms to the way beef cattle are marketed. President Steve Nelson says they’ve written Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue with constructive changes to help producers suffering from low prices.
He says one of the recommendations involves creating regulatory standards requiring cattle marketing contracts have a set, negotiated base price. Another suggests cattle market contracts utilize reference or base prices that are more publicly available.
Nelson says contract standards should also have base prices that are more value based. Plus, developing a live cattle value index would ensure cattle are marketed on a value discovery system, rather than price discovery.
Nelson says they hope the Ag Secretary will consider their reforms and move the beef industry towards this system.
