{
  "id": "R45777",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R45777",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 607175,
      "date": "2019-06-19",
      "retrieved": "2019-11-07T23:21:59.405555",
      "title": "Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act: Overview for Reauthorization in the 116th Congress",
      "summary": "The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) collects livestock and meat price data and related market information from meat packers under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. \u00a71621 et seq.). This information was collected on a voluntary basis until 2001, when most of it became mandatory. As the livestock industry became increasingly concentrated in the 1990s, fewer animals were sold through negotiated (cash or \u201cspot\u201d) purchases and with increasing frequency were sold under alternative marketing arrangements that were not publicly disclosed under voluntary reporting. Some livestock producers, believing such arrangements made it difficult to impossible for them to assess \u201cfair\u201d market prices for livestock going to slaughter, called for livestock mandatory reporting (LMR) for packers who purchase livestock, process them, and market the meat.\nIn response, Congress passed the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-78) that mandated price reporting for cattle, boxed beef, and swine and allowed USDA to establish mandatory price reporting for lamb purchases. USDA issued a final rule that included lamb reporting in December 2000 and took effect in April 2001. Since then, the law has been amended to include more detail on swine reporting and has added wholesale pork as a covered product. The act has been reauthorized four times, and most recently the Agriculture Reauthorizations Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-54) reauthorized LMR through September 30, 2020. In addition to extending LMR, the enacted legislation established the \u201cnegotiated formula purchase\u201d category for swine and added additional swine reporting requirements (e.g., net prices and head counts by type of swine). The act also amended reporting volume thresholds for lamb importers and lamb packers.\nThe reauthorization required USDA to conduct a study that analyzed current marketing practices, identified livestock industry stakeholder concerns, and solicited stakeholder legislative and regulatory recommendations for LMR. AMS submitted this report to Congress in April 2018.\nThe LMR study found that the meatpacking industry has become more concentrated and vertically integrated since LMR was established. It also found that the industry is responding to domestic and global consumer meat demand with product differentiation and a mix of new products that did not exist when LMR began. And it concluded that the types of transactions for livestock and meat have significantly changed as negotiated trades decrease and are replaced by formula pricing, forward contracts, and other arrangements.\nAMS held several meetings with cattle, swine, and lamb industry stakeholders to gather feedback on the LMR program in 2016 and 2017. Stakeholders represented at the meetings included industry associations, farm groups, meat processors, and food companies. Since then, AMS has implemented reporting changes that address several concerns raised by stakeholders.\nA common concern among stakeholders is the low volume of negotiated purchases and a parallel trend toward increased formula purchases or other marketing arrangements. Other concerns are about confidentiality and a lack of clarity on how transactions are categorized in reports, with some stakeholders advocating for the inclusion of more details about transactions, such as premium levels\u2014especially as the market changes\u2014and reporting on the number of livestock committed to packers.\nSwine and lamb stakeholders have provided specific legislative recommendations to be considered during possible reauthorization of the act in the 116th Congress. Swine stakeholders have recommended eliminating the \u201cnegotiated formula purchase\u201d transaction and the reporting of wholesale pork prices based on shipment to Omaha, Nebraska, because these reporting requirements are rarely used in the swine industry today. They also recommended expanding definitions and reporting on certain swine attributes. Lamb stakeholders have recommended setting a lower threshold for the number of lambs processed by a packer to be covered by LMR and requiring custom slaughtered lambs and the number of lambs committed to packers to be reported.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": true,
      "formats": [
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "encoding": "utf-8",
          "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45777",
          "sha1": "d8e631aba02deec168107a0b34235e2be78f51f0",
          "filename": "files/20190619_R45777_d8e631aba02deec168107a0b34235e2be78f51f0.html",
          "images": {
            "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45777_files&id=/0.png": "files/20190619_R45777_images_aa0a6cacb2d6e41209f69b12dc7d278859fff202.png",
            "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45777_files&id=/1.png": "files/20190619_R45777_images_f067c074e82a1fc3cded8e84d079956c45b06990.png"
          }
        },
        {
          "format": "PDF",
          "encoding": null,
          "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45777",
          "sha1": "c2fd02288444c11c8eac32996df771d436fd1d65",
          "filename": "files/20190619_R45777_c2fd02288444c11c8eac32996df771d436fd1d65.pdf",
          "images": {}
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "IBCList",
          "id": 4743,
          "name": "Animal Agriculture"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Agricultural Policy"
  ]
}