Important Information:

Bipartisan Bill Aims to Help Small Meat Processors

Sens. Roger Marshall, R- Kan., and Peter Welsch, D-Vt., introduced a bill that would allow new ways for small producers and butchers to sell products across state lines.

Currently, raw meat and poultry can not be sold between states without being processed at a USDA inspection facility. The Direct Intestate Retail Exemption for Certain Transaction Act, or DIRECT Act, would create an exemption for processors, butchers and retail processors to sell limited quantities through e-commerce directly to consumers. The exemptions would cover normal retail quantities including 300 pounds of beef, 100 pounds of pork and 27.5 pounds of lamb. Those products would be subject to state inspection processes overseen and subject to audit by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service.

March Pork Exports Largest in Nearly Two Years; Beef Exports Show Signs of Rebound

Beef production from cattle and calves dropped 1% in 2022 to 45.7 billion pounds, while total production from cattle, calves, hogs and pigs jumped up to 86.3 billion pounds.

New figures were released April 27 in the USDA’s Meat Animals Production, Disposition and Income 2022 report. Total cash receipts from marketings of meat animals in 2022 jumped 16% to $117 billion, with cattle and calves accounting for 74% of that total. Receipts from marketings are defined as any sale of farm-slaughtered meats. Marketings include animals for slaughter market and younger animals shipped to other states for feeding and breeding purposes.

The selloff of cattle in the past year, due largely to the continuing drought seen in another La Nina weather pattern, was especially noteworthy in the southern Plains and California.

Lawmakers Meet with Biden to Discuss Farm Bill 2023

President Biden invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the White House this afternoon to discuss the upcoming farm bill reauthorization. Invitees include Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Stabenow labeled the session as a chance to “have a broader discussion about the farm bill and all the implications for it,” and that it will show “we are working together in a bipartisan way.” She also noted it was a chance for both sides to share their priorities for the bill.

Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association

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