Why is there a need for marketplace reforms in the U.S. cattle industry?
The U.S. packing industry now with only four firms controlling over 80 percent of the market is controlling market access and artificially lowering prices paid to U.S. cattle producers. Q: Who gets harmed if marketplace reforms are not passed? A. The estimated 800,000 independent cattle producers who raise beef cattle and depend on a competitive market for their income will continue to be harmed, with many leaving the business, because of restricted market access and artificially low cattle prices if reforms are not passed. Q: How are packers lowering cattle prices? A: When the major U.S. packers consolidated their industry, they began also to control market access. Packers achieved this control by accumulating off-market cattle (known as captive supply cattle) to meet available plant capacity, thus restricting plant access for independent producers who sell in the open market. However, the price of slaughter-ready cattle is tied to the open market a market depressed by severe access r
