A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Urging efforts to increase competition and transparency among livestock packers.

WHEREAS, true price discovery in the livestock industry is achievable only through competitive bidding and cash trades; and

WHEREAS, market consolidation in the livestock industry has caused large packers to reduce their reliance on spot transactions for the purchase of live cattle; and

WHEREAS, the impact on slaughtering operations following the fire at the Tyson beef packing plant in Holcomb, Kansas, together with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry in general, have highlighted the need for additional price transparency measures, in order to ensure that producers receive a fair price for their cattle; and

WHEREAS, cattle prices in South Dakota are significantly affected by the average cash trade nationwide; and

WHEREAS, South Dakota producers have, in recent years, witnessed the largest downturn in the cattle market since the 1930s; and

WHEREAS, there is a critical need to restore price discovery, not only to ensure a fair and stable market for cattle producers, but to ensure the short-term and long-term economic viability of the United States beef supply system;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Sixth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the Legislature urges the Congress of the United States to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, 7 U.S.C. § 1621, et seq., with a view to fostering efficient livestock markets and to increasing competition and transparency among packers who purchase livestock, by requiring that at least fifty percent of each packer's packing facility's weekly value of beef for slaughter be purchased on the spot or open market and that those livestock be delivered no later than fourteen days after the date on which the purchase agreement is signed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the speaker and clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the president pro tempore and secretary of the United States Senate, and to the members of the South Dakota Congressional delegation.