USDA strengthens protections for poultry growers

Jun 04, 2024

Transparency tools launched for cattle market

By Farms.com

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is taking a stand for fairer poultry markets and increased transparency in the cattle market. These actions support the President's agenda of promoting a more competitive and transparent agricultural sector.

A proposed rule named "Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems" targets issues surrounding grower ranking systems and capital investment demands placed on poultry growers by companies. The rule aims to prevent deductions from base prices and ensure fairness in performance-based comparisons.

USDA prioritizes protecting producers from unfair treatment and fostering a level playing field. This proposed rule empowers poultry growers with greater control over their contracts and safeguards their financial well-being.

In a separate initiative, USDA is launching the Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) Live Cattle Data Dashboard to enhance cattle market transparency. This user-friendly tool allows easy access to LMR live cattle market information.

Additionally, USDA will publish data on premiums and discounts paid to cattle producers, along with detailed quality grade price distribution information.

These actions, combined with previous efforts, fulfill President Biden's Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.

By creating a fairer marketplace, USDA aims to benefit both producers and consumers by lowering grocery prices and strengthening the agricultural sector as a whole.

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”