Current Cattle Market Daily Headlines for Thursday, October 1, 2020

Mackenzie Johnston

6 years ago

Minnesota judge tosses cattle price-fixing lawsuit

A case brought before a Minnesota federal court by cattle ranchers that alleged JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National beef of conspiring to reduce cattle prices by limiting production has been tossed out of federal court.
A new ruling from U.S. District Judge John Tunheim dismissed the complaint due to problems with the lawsuit’s witnesses.
The plaintiff’s case was built on two confidential witnesses.
- A quality-assurance officer at a processing plant in the Texas panhandle/western Kansas region and a feedlot manager in the Texas panhandle. Both were ready to testify to price fixing by the plaintiffs (big four beef packers.)
According to the lawsuit, the quality-assurance officer claimed that a processor’s head of fabrication admitted to reducing purchase/slaughter volumes to reduce cattle prices. The feedlot manager alleged that the packers bid for cattle in a convoluted way that involved collusion and also drove cattle prices down.
Despite both claims, Judge Tunheim ruled that the witnesses didn’t provide enough detail, meaning that the feedlot manager’s company and the quality-assurance officer’s employer were not named.
- Tunheim also ruled that the witnesses’ claims were targeting different areas of meat processing, which meant they were “mismatched.”
Judge Tunheim has allowed the plaintiffs 90 days to file amended complaints.

According to a survey conducted by DTN, farmers and rural American’s back Trump over Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden by a large margin, 50 percent to 32 percent, with 11 percent being undecided.
The survey contacted approximately 1,000 adults in rural counties across the U.S.
Despite rural Americans planning to vote for Trump in the coming election, most believe U.S. agriculture is worse off than it was four years ago.
According to Grey Montgomery, DTN’s senior vice president-agriculture and managing director of content, 57 percent of farmers believe that President Trump’s focus on agriculture has improved their farming and ranching financial outlook. Fifty-three percent approve of what President Trump has done while in office.
The survey also gathered information on the key concerns of rural Americans driving their decision on who to vote for in November;
- 62 percent say that strength of economy.
- 48 percent say health care is their main concern.
- 39 percent say the protection of the Second Amendment.
- 28 percent say trade.
- 27 percent climate change.

The Strengthening Local Processing Act was introduced on Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE.)
The Act seeks to address market disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic.
- We saw local meat lockers become flooded with animals to process during the pandemic because the large processors either slowed their chain speed or completely shutdown. This caused a backup at the local level and local lockers were forced to schedule longtime customers a year or more out.
  - It is expected that local demand by consumers will continue going forward.
- This bill will enable small meat lockers to grow and develop by expanding their capacity to process animals and serve more rural livestock producers.
- This legislation includes a grant program that will help cover costs associated with meeting federal and/or state inspection guidelines and help processors expand their infrastructure.
- Furthermore, the bill offers grants to train small-plant operators and employees.