Many cattlemen are disappointed with the outcome of the Mandatory Price Reporting reauthorization. Ed Greiman is past President of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association. He led an NCBA committee that worked on changes to the livestock price reporting program to improve transparency.

However, he says they weren’t able to get any of the changes implemented because they couldn’t reach industry consensus among packers and producers. This was a pre-requisite from lawmakers to consider any reforms.

Greiman says livestock price discovery has not improved since Mandatory Price Reporting went into effect and in fact it may have gotten worse.

He doesn’t think there is any input they can provide during the comment period to improve price reporting, so their only hope is to get changes during the rulemaking process.