990572 Livestock Price Reporting Bill Runs Into Snags

Washington - Proposed legislation to require U.S. meat packers to report daily prices paid for cattle and pigs ran into opposition from IBP Inc , which said some of the data would be costly and unreasonable to gather.

A push by U.S. farm groups for mandatory price reporting had picked up momentum in Congress in recent months as farm prices slumped while retail grocery prices remained stable.

Minnesota, Missouri and other farm states have threatened to adopt their own price reporting laws to protect producers if Congress failed to act swiftly.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council each unveiled price reporting legislation that grew out of lengthy negotiations with the four biggest U.S. packers -- including IBP.

The livestock groups and the biggest U.S. packers had been meeting for weeks to hammer out a bill acceptable to both sides.

But IBP surprised a Senate Agriculture panel by saying it opposed draft provisions applying to pig prices that it claimed would “far exceed” what was workable.

Bruce Bass, vice president of cattle procurement for IBP, said companies were willing to submit daily transactions to the U.S. Agriculture Department. However, it is unreasonable to require packers to provide the exact time of each pig purchase throughout the day.

“This information is not currently maintained and would be difficult, if not impossible, to record,” Bass said. “IBP buys livestock throughout the country at all times during the day. Some offers are left open until later in the day, while other transactions are completed immediately.”

The IBP objections are likely to slow federal price reporting legislation, industry officials said privately.

Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Richard Lugar made it clear, however, that some sort of legislation would be taken up this year because of the broad support for it.

“This issue will not go away,” Lugar said. “The need for more information is evident.”

Lugar, an Indiana Republican, noted that there is a “greater and greater gap” between farmers using sophisticated marketing techniques and data to sell their goods, and those who do not.

Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat, said he also wanted some fine-tuning of the draft legislation. Beef packers should be required to report their expected slaughter for the coming two weeks, in addition to actual figures, he said.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who also appeared before the Senate panel, repeated his support for mandatory price reporting. The Clinton Administration's own bill, unveiled last month, would give the USDA power to change reporting requirements as industry needs evolve.

The price reporting legislation proposed by the livestock groups was also criticized by the National Meat Association, which represents small and medium- sized packers.

Those companies were not included in the negotiations between livestock groups and the big U.S. packers, said Rosemary Mucklow, director of the association. Gathering data on every transaction could be done only at an “enormous, mind-boggling cost” and would create information overload for all farmers and meat companies, she said.

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