News

Two new market reports from AMS aimed at improving transparency

The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has announced it will begin publishing two new cattle market reports to provide more transparency in cattle pricing.

Tanner Beymer is director of government affairs & market regulatory policy, for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “The publication of these two new reports will shed a little light on the formula bucket and help producers better compare the arrangements they have negotiated between themselves and their buyers and hopefully have some more information to make more informed marketing decisions of their own,” he says. 

Beymer says this will help give cattle producers an advantage when choosing how to market their cattle. “Allowing other producers to better understand how those marketing arrangements work and lead them to analyze their own transaction methods and make adjustments to their own or pursue a formula,” he says.  “Or, maybe transition to something like a negotiated grid that allows for negotiation of their base price but they also get to take advantage of some premiums for their quality cattle.”

He tells Brownfield while this is a significant step forward, the work doesn’t stop here. “When we talk about market transparency, that also involves things like the cattle contract library, dealing with the USDA’s confidentiality rules, to reduce the instances of non-reporting due to confidentiality,” he says.  “It really is a full-featured approach.”

The National Daily Direct Formula Base Cattle report will share national base price information of formula agreements starting Monday, August 9 and the National Weekly Cattle Net Price Distribution report will share what levels (price and volume) trade occurred across the weekly weighted average price for each purchase type (negotiated, negotiated grid, formula, and forward contract) beginning Tuesday, August 10. 

AUDIO: Tannery Beymer, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association