USDA Holds Pricing Sessions

December 1, 2000

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service will provide educational and outreach sessions around the country to assist producers and other market participants in understanding how the new mandatory livestock price reporting program will affect them.

"The informational sessions will help ensure that interested parties fully understand the different types of new information that will be made available as well as what this change will mean to users of the current voluntary market news reports that AMS now publishes," said Dr. Enrique Figueroa, deputy under secretary for USDA's marketing and regulatory program.

The new program will require large packers and importers to report to AMS the details of their transactions involving purchases of livestock as well as sales of boxed beef, boxed lamb, lamb carcasses and imported boxed lamb cuts. AMS estimates that this new mandatory market reporting program will cover 80-95% of the volume of all cattle, boxed beef, slaughter hog, sheep, lamb meat, and imported lamb meat traded.

AMS' Livestock and Grain Market News Branch will compile and release market reports covering the prior day swine market, forward contract and formula marketing arrangement cattle purchases, packer-owned cattle and sheep information, sales of imported boxed lamb cuts, and live lamb premiums and discounts. This means that in many instances this program will provide market information that has never before been made publicly available. In some instances, information that is already being collected and reported as a part of the current voluntary AMS livestock market news reporting service will now result in the publication of reports based on information required to be reported to AMS through the mandatory reporting program.

Sessions are planned for Dec. 19, Washington, DC (Reporting Industry Informational Meeting); Jan. 25-27, Reno, NV (American Sheep Industry Association Meeting); Jan. 31-Feb. 3, San Antonio, TX, (National Cattlemen's Beef Association Meeting). Future sessions are being planned for the following locations in January: Ames, IA; Sioux Falls and Rapid City, SD; Billings, MT; Denver, CO; Amarillo, TX; Indianapolis, IN; and Clinton, NC.

Exact dates as well as registration information for these as well as other sessions that may be planned in the future will be placed on the AMS website at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/price.htm.

The final regulations for this program will be published in the Federal Register today. A copy of the regulation, as well as additional background information is also available over the above AMS web site. For further information, contact John VanDyke, Chief, AMS Livestock and Grain Market News Branch, (202) 720-6231 or fax (202) 690-3732.