Market agencies selling on commission, GIPSA accepting comments

Posted July 14, 2015 

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is seeking comments from the public regarding regulations issued under the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, as amended and supplemented.

GIPSA regulations address circumstances under which a market agency is allowed to sell livestock on a commission basis to its owners, officers, and employees. GIPSA would like to determine whether additional information is needed in clarifying the circumstances under which key employees of the market agency, those designated as an auctioneer, weighmaster, or salesman, may purchase livestock.

Comments are accepted until August 14, 2015.

For more information, the Federal Register is available here.

For more information on GIPSA, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.

GIPSA Proposed Revisions Under USGSA

Posted July 28, 2014

The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is proposing to revise the U.S. Standards for Barley under the U.S. Grain Standards Act (USGSA) by revising the Definitions of Other Terms to remove Blue Malting barley and the reference to kernels with white aleurone layers.

GIPSA will also revise the standards to add the factors injured-by-mold and mold-damaged kernels.

The proposal recommends revisions to the grade and grade requirements for Two-rowed Malting Barley, Six-rowed Malting barley, and Six-rowed Blue Malting barley, and these changes will assist in facilitating the marketing of barley.

Comments are accepted until September 23, 2014.

The Federal Register is available here.

New GIPSA Amendments for Idaho

Posted July 16, 2014

In response to a request from the Secretary of State for the State of Idaho, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) has approved amendments to the State of Idaho's certified central filing system.

These amendments allow Idaho to convert debtor social security and taxpayer identification numbers into approved unique identifiers.

The proposed specific procedure will automatically convert social security numbers and taxpayer identification numbers into ten-number unique identifiers has been reviewed and determined to permit the numerical searching of master lists while providing protection against identity theft.

The effective date is July 15, 2014.

The Federal Register is available here.

Direct Final Rule Corrected by GIPSA

Posted June 10, 2014

The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is correcting a direct final rule from the Federal Register on April 29, 2014(FR Doc. 2014-9655). The Federal Register Notice is available here.

The direct final rule required all scales used to weigh livestock, livestock carcasses, live poultry, or feed meet requirements contained in section 5.59, Electronic Livestock, Meat, and Poultry Evaluation Systems and/or Devices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Specifications, Tolerances, and other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices (NIST Handbook 44) 2013 edition.

The NIST Handbook 44 includes additional requirements for scales used to weigh live animals, livestock, and poultry carcasses, which should have been included in the rule.

The correction is in effect June 30, 2014.

For more information on GIPSA, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.

Congress Passes FY 2014 Spending Bill with Directives for USDA and FDA

Posted January 20, 2014

Late last week, Congress passed a $1 trillion omnibus spending package to fund the federal government through fiscal year 2014, according to an Agri-Pulse article available here.

The legislation, H.R. 3547, passed the Senate 72-25 and the House passed the bill with bipartisan support the day before.  The spending package funds 12 departments, “giving USDA and FDA a combined increase of $350 million for a total of $20.9 billion in discretionary spending.”

The FDA will receive $2.55 billion in discretionary funding, with an additional $1.79 billion to come from user fees, according to a Food Safety News article available here.  Congress also issued a directive to FDA to “implement a comprehensive training program” on regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), saying it is “one of the most critical issues facing FSMA implementation.”

The bill prevents USDA’s Grain Inspection, Stockyards and Packers Administration (GIPSA) from finalizing regulations related to contracts for livestock and poultry growers, according to a Feedstuffs article available here.

The bill also “strongly encourages” USDA to halt the finalizing of the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations until after the World Trade Organization (WTO) issues a ruling.

In addition, the legislation reinstates a ban on horse slaughter, defunding the inspection program and stipulating that funding should not be restored “until and unless” the FDA determines that meat from American horses can be made safe to enter the food supply.

Please visit the National Agricultural Law Center for more information on food safety, GIPSA, COOL, or animal welfare.

GIPSA Releases Final Rule on Weighing; Feed and Swine Contractors

Posted August 26, 2013

USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) has released a final rule on “Weighing; Feed and Swine Contractors” according to the Federal Register notice, available here. 

The final rule amends regulations issued under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 “to ensure that payments by live poultry dealers and swine contractors to poultry and swine production contract growers are based on accurate weighing of both inputs and outputs.”  Specifically, GIPSA is amending: a regulation about scale tickets to reduce redundant wording and to clarify weighing procedures, a regulation about reweighing to add swine contractors to the list of firms that must comply, and adding feed to the list of items for which reweighing may be requested.

The final rule also amends two other regulations about weighing livestock and poultry to add weighing processes for feed, to add a specific time limit for weighing poultry, and to add swine contractors to the list of firms that must comply with care and promptness requirements.

The effective date for the final rule is September 20.

For more information on the Packers and Stockyards Act and GIPSA, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website, here.

Upcoming: 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Agricultural Law Association

The 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Agricultural Law Association will be held October 18-20, 2012 at the downtown Sheraton Hotel 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee. If you are interested in networking with attorneys and other professionals who work in agriculture and food throughout the U.S. and the world, AALA is the organization for you.

As described on the AALA website:

"The American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) is the only national professional organization focusing on the legal needs of the agricultural community. Crossing traditional barriers, it offers an independent forum for investigation of innovative and workable solutions to complex agricultural law problems. This role has taken on greater importance in the midst of the current international and environmental issues, reshaping agriculture and the impending technological advances which promise equally dramatic changes."

Becoming a member of AALA is very easy, and new members are welcomed and greatly appreciated. For information about joining AALA, visit the AALA site here. If you have any questions about AALA, joining, and/or membership benefits, please contact AALA Executive Director Robert Achenbach at RobertA@aglaw-assn.org. Also, you can contact AALA Membership Committee Chair Harrison Pittman at hmpittm@uark.edu. 

GIPSA Releases Final Rule

Today, the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) released the final version of the rules they first proposed last summer. The proposed rule is available here, while the final rule is available here. A discussion about the provisions that were left out of the final rule is available here.

For the provisions that were left out, USDA-GIPSA originally planned

to seek additional public comment on several other revised provisions from the June 22, 2010 proposed rule including changes to the tournament system of payment for poultry growers, requirements to collect and post sample contracts and to address the issue of need for producers to show harm to competition prior to asserting a violation of the Packer and Stockyards Act. However, the FY2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill passed by Congress included language prohibiting the Department from moving forward on these important provisions.

GIPSA Press Release

The final rule will become effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register (it is scheduled to be published on 12/9/11).

During the comment period last year, the National Agricultural Law Center presented a series of workshops for producers that discussed the proposed rules. To access the handouts and powerpoint from those workshops, please click here

GIPSA Settle Cases Resulting in $17,160 in Civil Penalties

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) announced settlements resulting in $17,160 in civil penalties.

1. AMVC Management Services, LLC, Audubon, Iowa - agreed to pay a penalty of $4,000 after GIPSA found that in their swine production contracts they did not disclose the grower's right to cancel the contract, including the method and dealing for cancellation, and contain an "Addition Capital Investments Disclosure Statement."
   
   


2. Oak Lake Cattle Co., Inc., I.E. Bryd, President, Okeechobee, Fla. - agreed to pay a penalty of $825 after GIPSA found that they failed to timely pay, when due, for livestock purchases.




3. Barney M. Gibson, Statesville, N.C. - agreed to pay a penalty of $2,585 after GIPSA found that he failed to timely pay, when due, for livestock purchases.
   
   


4. Shannon Davis, Winnsboro Livestock Commission, Inc., dba Winnsboro Livestock & Dairy Auction, Winnsboro, Texas - agreed to pay a penalty of $2,000 after GIPSA found that they operated as a market agency selling livestock on commission with shortages in the market's Custodial Account for Shippers Proceeds on two occasions in April of 2010.



5. Randall Reynolds, dba Geneva-Berne Salebarn, Geneva, Ind. - agreed to pay a penalty of $2,500 after GIPSA found that he charged a per head fee and changed the price per pound when buying cattle on a carcass basis.
   
   


6. Holden Farms, Inc., New Ulm, Minn. - agreed to pay a penalty of $2,500 after GIPSA found that they failed to comply with contractual requirements.




7. Randy R. Wientjes, dba Brookport Cattle Co., Metropolis, Ill. - agreed to pay a penalty of $2,000 after GIPSA found that he failed to pay, when due, for livestock purchases on 14 occasions and failed to maintain all sales invoices and adequate records to trace livestock from purchase to sale.




8. Decker's Livestock, Inc., Milford, Ill. - agreed to pay a penalty of $750 after GIPSA found that they used unfair and captive tariff practices.

For more information, click here.

Posted 11/25/2010

Indications USDA is Backing Off Some Proposed GIPSA Rules

There are some reports in Washington that USDA officials are sending a modified version of the GIPSA rule to the Office of Management and Budget.

According to a report from Hoosier Ag Today, "Speculation is that USDA would strip out the controversial parts of the proposed rule - and that would result in little impact on the cattle and hog producers of this country - while poultry operations would be subject to more change coming from the amended marketing rule."

Chris Clayton, in an update posted yesterday at the DTN Ag Policy Blog, reported that, "The proposed rule has several major provisions, including language that livestock producers would not be required to show 'harm to competition' in federal lawsuits against packers. Federal courts have repeatedly ruled against producers by citing that the producers have failed o show that a packer's actions harmed overall livestock competition."

"Another provision in the rule would have prevented packer-to-packer sales of livestock, but it too was removed. That provision had raised questions about the effect it could have on small packers who may own livestock several states away, or producers who also are investor-owners of a packing plant."

Posted 11/7/2011

After one year, Lawmakers still wait for cost-benefit analysis of GIPSA rule

A year has gone by since a group of lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting a public report on the costs and benefits of the proposed Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule.

This week during The Ag Minute, Chairman Frank Lucas discussed the importance of transparent economic analysis in federal rulemaking.

"It's been more than a year since USDA released a proposed rule that would dramatically chance how we market livestock in this country.

"After the rule was proposed, I joined 114 Members of Congress asking the Secretary of Agriculture to release a cost-benefit analysis on this rule for public comment.

"At that time, our request was denied.

"A year later, one administration official has finally conceded that a cost-benefit analysis of this rule for public comment is the right thing to do.

"I'm glad that someone in the administration has seen reason. But, until they complete a cost-benefit analysis and release it for public evaluation, they should not move forward.

"With a struggling economy, the last thing we need is ill-considered government regulations that could wind up hurting the very producers they intend to help."

For more information, click here.

Posted 9/23/2011

GIPSA Timeline is Flexible

The Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) livestock marketing rule is currently under a cost-benefit analysis, but Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has stated that there is no deadline for completing those considerations.

Public comments were accepted on an extended timeframe regarding perceptions of GIPSA and how the marketing rule should be treated, and those comments are now being processed by chief economist Dr. Joe Glauber of the USDA and his team. These comments may have a significant effect on the final analysis produced by Dr. Glauber.

Despite the lack of a firm deadline, Vilsack has expressed interest in completing the process as quickly as possible while still focusing on accuracy. Vilsack discussed the topic during a hearing regarding the state of the national agricultural economy, during which participants discussed GIPSA and other relevant concerns.

Posted: 3/15/11