The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published for public inspection a final rule in the Federal Register to secure the contract information needed to populate a Cattle Contracts Library. The official publication of the final rule is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. The final rule will require packers that slaughtered an average of not less than five percent of the number of fed cattle slaughtered nationally during the immediately preceding five calendar years to submit contractual information for the purchase of cattle.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to create a Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program (library) to increase market transparency for cattle producers. AMS hosted a listening session in April 2022 to begin the process of gathering feedback from stakeholders. Feedback gleaned from this meeting and over the subsequent months has informed the development of the pilot library, including comments related to content, frequency of reporting, and usability. From this process, AMS developed a working library model which was primarily populated with inactive contracts. The model was presented to a wide range of stakeholders and end users, with a focus on content and usage.