The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), through its USDA Market News service, compiles and disseminates information to aid producers, consumers, and distributors in the sale and purchase of livestock, meat, poultry, eggs, grains, and related products. AMS is adding two new premiums to its Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) weekly slaughter cattle premiums and discounts reports, effective Aug. 1, 2016.
A Non-Hormone Treated Cattle (NHTC) premium and a Natural premium will be added to two weekly slaughter cattle reports. The NHTC premium will reflect the premium for cattle that have never been treated with hormones, while the Natural premium is applied to cattle that have never been administered hormones or antibiotics. The range of premiums that packers expect to pay in the current week, along with an average, will be featured on the reports. This average will provide users with information in a rapidly growing sector of the industry.
Reports affected by these additions are the National Weekly Direct Slaughter Cattle Premiums and Discounts (LM_CT155), which will show the range of the two new premiums along with a simple average, and the 5-Area Weekly Direct Slaughter Cattle Premiums and Discounts (LM_CT169), which will show the premium range along with a weighted average. These new additions will be listed on the report along with multiple other premiums and discounts already being shown for quality, yield grade, and weight. These reports will be published every Monday morning by 10:00 a.m. Central, and will only include data passing the 3/70/20 confidentiality guidelines.
If you have any questions, contact Mike Sheats, Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News Director, at (202) 690-3145; or Russ Travelute, Chief, at (816) 676-7000. The affected reports can be found at: www.ams.usda.gov/market-news/national-direct-slaughter-cattle-reports and www.ams.usda.gov/market-news/regional-direct-slaughter-cattle.