The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the June 2023 dates for listening sessions to gather stakeholder feedback on the Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program. On April 27, 2023, AMS announced that it would hold these new sessions at locations in key cattle-producing states to provide an opportunity for interested stakeholders to attend either in person or virtually.

The first of these sessions was held on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at the USDA Cattle & Carcass Training Center located at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. A recording of this session is available on the AMS website.

Below are details about the upcoming June 2023 listening sessions.

At each session, AMS will provide an overview of the current pilot, then participants will be given an opportunity to share their feedback. Attendees may participate in person, with limited seating available, or virtually. For virtual attendees, the meetings will be broadcast live as webinars. To join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device, join via Zoom. Register in advance using the unique link provided for each session. Attendees will be permitted to submit Q&A via the Zoom meeting.

The events will be recorded, and the recordings will be posted on the AMS website.

In addition, AMS will accept written comments about the Cattle Contracts Library Pilot through Sept. 30, 2023. Written feedback can be submitted to Wash.LPGMN@usda.gov. All written feedback and a recording of each listening session will be posted on the AMS website.

June 2023 listening sessions

• Wednesday, June 14, 2023, 1 p.m. Central Time at the Iowa State University Wallace Foundation Learning and Outreach Center located at 53020 Hitchcock Avenue, Lewis, IA 51544
  • In-person seating at this Iowa session is limited to 50 people.
  • Virtual attendees can register in advance for the webinar session at https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_gc4iU3_QQDyBZkSxQG-5cg. After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with additional instructions.
  • The event will start promptly at 1 p.m. Central Time.
• Friday, June 16, 2023, 1 p.m. Central Time at the USDA Cattle & Carcass Training Center located on the campus of University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Loeffel Meat Science Laboratory, Lincoln, NE 68583
  
  • In-person seating at this Nebraska session is limited to 100 people.
  • Virtual attendees can register in advance for the webinar session at https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_ES-XutWkSo-jzovwf4LgRA. After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with additional instructions.
  • The event will start promptly at 1 p.m. Central Time. Attendees will be permitted to submit Q&A via the Zoom meeting. The event will be recorded, and the recording will be posted on the AMS website.
• Friday, June 23, 2023, 8:30 a.m. Central Time at St Onge Livestock Co., located at 11693 Sale Barn Rd, St Onge, SD 57779
  
  • In-person seating at this South Dakota session is limited to 100 people.
  • Virtual attendees can register in advance for the webinar session at https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_RJWF_E1zR22eYrlFF3akbA. After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with additional instructions.
  • The event will start promptly at 8:30 a.m. Central Time and end no later than 10:00 a.m. Central Time.
• Tuesday, June 27, 2023, 1 p.m. Central Time in the El Vaquero room at the historic Santa Fe Depot, located at 201 E Wyatt Earp Blvd, Dodge City, KS 67801
  • In-person seating at this Kansas session is limited to 50 people.
  • Virtual attendees can register in advance for the webinar session at https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_AkUoKqBJTQyuPUcGdmME0w. After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with additional instructions.
  • The event will start promptly at 1 p.m. Central Time.

For additional information about any of these sessions, contact Michael Sheats, livestock, poultry, and grain market news director, at 202-690-3145.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Pub. L. 117-103, March 15, 2022) directed AMS to establish a Cattle Contracts Library pilot program to increase market transparency for cattle producers. The library provides transparency into both commonalities and key differences in contracts, as well as the context for those terms through the provision of relevant volume numbers.  The Final Rule implementing the Pilot was published in the Federal Register on December 7, 2022, with an effective date on January 6, 2023. The pilot became publicly accessible on Jan. 31, 2023.

In the development of the pilot, AMS held nearly 50 outreach sessions with cattle industry stakeholders in which feedback was gathered and, when possible, incorporated into the pilot’s design. Since the public launch of the pilot, AMS has continued its outreach and feedback gathering efforts through participation at industry conferences, training events, and direct outreach to industry members.

Source: USDA's AMS