The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association will host a series of ten cattle marketing meetings starting this week.
Cora Fox, the association’s director of government relations, says they’ll be sharing information on possible solutions before the U.S. Senate to the long-running cattle marketing problem.
“You do not have to be a member of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association to attend these meetings,” Fox says. “The purpose of these meetings is to inform and engage with our producers on these specific issues. We’ll be talking about the three potential options that are on the table to drive some lasting change within our industry.”
Fox says one of the cattle market reform proposals involves legislation co-sponsored by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.
“It requires that packers participate in the cash market 50% of the time and it also requires that you have delivery of cattle that you make an agreement on within two weeks,” Fox says. “That legislation has widespread support.”
Fox says another possible solution comes from a National Cattlemen’s Beef Association working group. “The voluntary proposal is obviously going a different route than having government intervention, but it also still says the packers have to get involved in the cash market, just in a different way,” Fox says. “We want to make sure producers have access to the most up-to-date, accurate information so we’re going to put that out in front of them.”
The meetings begin Tuesday)and run through November 19th. Learn more at: iacattlemen.org.
(By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)