WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced that the comment deadline for the proposed Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets rule would move from Aug. 27 to Sept. 11.

After the notice, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) explained its position and pointed out the difficulty of obtaining the public comments by September. 

“Cattle markets are immensely complicated, and USDA is planning to make sweeping changes to those markets with only 75 days of public input,” said Tanner Beymer, senior director of government affairs at NCBA. “While today’s extension is welcome, it is not nearly enough time to properly solicit public comment and review a rule that will have such an overarching impact on the cattle industry. The proposed rule is already a direct attack on producer profitability and now USDA is running down the clock to prevent meaningful input from cattle producers.” 

In its June announcement, the USDA said if the proposed rule was finalized, it would clarify the interpretation of “unfair” as it appears in the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Following the proposed rule a few months ago the Meat Institute and other industry groups disagreed with the agency’s assessment. 

“Contrary to USDA’s assertion, these changes would introduce uncertainty into the market and de-couple the demand signals producers receive from beef consumers, including consumers’ willingness to pay for value-added attributes,” the Meat Institute said in June. “At low points in the cattle cycle, like this year’s historically small cattle herd, it puts at risk the value producers earn from sustained beef demand, and as the expansion phase of the cattle cycle begins, it would undermine the benefits earned from growing beef demand.”