Sen. Rounds Pushes DOJ On Packer Probe

The growing disparity between wholesale beef prices and live cattle prices is hurting both consumers and cattlemen, says Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD). This week he and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called on their colleagues in Congress to join in signing an open letter to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking protection for consumers and cattlemen from what they call “anticompetitive practices in the beef processing market.”

Rounds posted on his Twitter account (@SenatorRounds) Wednesday: “We have a big problem: families are paying way too much for beef at the grocery store, while our independent cattle producers are going broke despite the high demand for their product. It's time the DOJ examined the meatpacker oligopoly that continues to profit.”

We have a big problem: families are paying way too much for beef at the grocery store, while our independent cattle producers are going broke despite the high demand for their product.

It's time the DOJ examined the meatpacker oligopoly that continues to profit. pic.twitter.com/yR07RksQ9G — Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) May 19, 2021

In a Facebook Live event sponsored by R-CALF USA, Senator Rounds helped launch a drive to get 200 members of Congress, from both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, to join with Rounds and Smith by adding their name to the bipartisan letter within the next 10 days.

“The most important step consumers and cattle producers can do today is to share this senate letter with their own senators and representative and get them to sign on,” said Brett Kenzy, a rancher and director of R-CALF USA.

Rounds appeared on AgriTalk this week and told host Chip Flory he wants members of Congress to hear from consumers who are paying high prices at the supermarket.

Rounds said the wide-spread between wholesale beef and cash cattle is “a problem. And it has a lot to do with whether or not there are antitrust activities and whether or not the markets are being manipulated.”

The letter notes that over the last several years the price of live cattle has declined while the wholesale beef price has increased significantly, raising consumer prices at the grocery store. “Concurrently, the major packing companies realized significant profits, while both U.S. beef consumers and independent cattle producers paid the price. These large price disparities are leading independent cattle producers to go broke and causing consumers to pay an unnecessary, over-inflated premium on beef,” the letter says.