ICA Supports Packers & Stockyards Investigation

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association applauds the decision by USDA to utilize its authority via the Packers and Stockyards Division to investigate price changes experienced on both the boxed beef and live cattle side of the cattle market in the weeks following the Tyson Holcomb, KS plant fire on August 9th.

 As a grassroots organization, ICA takes the input of our members very seriously. Over the past two weeks, cattle producers have expressed concern that changes in the live cattle and boxed beef markets since the fire are unjustified. ICA has been working on behalf of members across the state to provide market certainty via monitoring and fully supports an investigation.

“We recognize that there are market fundamentals at play,” says David Trowbridge, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association President, “But given the extreme effect the current market conditions are having on Iowa’s cattle industry, we believe it is in our members’ best interests to eliminate any doubts regarding the market reaction.”

The Packers and Stockyards Act was signed by President Harding in 1921 to address concerns about anticompetitive activities among meat packers. The Act has been updated by Congress many times since then. Section 202 of the Act states that it is unlawful for packers to “Engage in or use any unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practice or device,” or “[E]ngage in any course of business or do any act for the purpose or with the effect of manipulating or controlling prices, or of creating a monopoly in the acquisition of, buying, selling, or dealing in, any article, or of restraining commerce”