YANKTON, S.D. (WNAX) — The Senate Ag Committee will be holding a hearing on Thursday to look at the issue of cattle market manipulation and anti-competitive practices by the meat packers. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a member of the committee, said they are turning up the heat on the subject and hope to get assistance from the Department of Justice.
“Part of it is to shine a light on the problem and start putting pressure on the packers to reform their ways, to be more transparent, to be more accountable,” Thune said.
Thune said cattle producers have expressed frustration about the huge disparity between boxed beef prices and cash cattle prices.
“The purpose of the hearing more than anything else is to give a voice to all the frustration that livestock producers across South Dakota and for that matter across the country are experiencing,” Thune said.
Thune said the cattle market is clearly broken and the fix may take a multi-pronged approach. That would include investigating whether the four largest meatpackers are acting like a monopoly in violation of antitrust law.
Thune said politically the time is right to get legislative action in Congress, the key is that cattle organizations have to be unified on the solution to get passage.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed to this report.)
