THE US Department of Agriculture has introduced a public database on payment terms for private cattle sales, designed to give US producers more leverage in negotiating with the large meat processing companies that dominate US beef processing.
Under the pilot program launched last week, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has establishing a cattle contracts library, where AMS collects, maintains and reports aggregated information on contracts between meat processors and cattle producers for the purchase of fed cattle.
In addition to active contracts in use, the library will also…
