A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 7,2001
USDA Announces Improvements To
Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting
WASHINGTON, D.C. The
USDA announced recently a se
ries of improvements to be made
in USDA’s Livestock Mandatory
Price Reporting Program to en
sure more accurate and complete
collecting, disseminating and re
porting of market data by the
Agricultural Marketing Service
(AMS).
“The review by our team out
lines several important measures
that USDA will begin taking im
mediately to ensure the effective
ness and reliability of these pro
grams,” said USDA Secretary
Ann M. Veneman. “It is impor
tant that we continue to build
and maintain a system of checks
and balances to prevent any po
tential error in reporting.”
On May 18, Secretary Vene
man assigned a team of experts
to review the program after inac
curate reports for boxed beef car
cass values were released during
its first six weeks in operation.
The team submitted its report,
outlining key findings and rec
ommendations as follows:
There was a programming
error and inadequate testing done
prior to and after April 2 to en
sure accuracy of reports. To cor
rect this, AMS will now parallel
test the data to experience a wide
range of reporting conditions;
work with livestock/meat indus
try to develop realistic validation
Berry Meeting
NEW EGYPT, New Jersey
Rutgers Cooperative Extension
and the Northeast Organic Farm
ing Association of New Jersey are
sponsoring a twilight meeting
July 18 to demonstrate organic
and sustainable production of
blueberries and raspberries.
The event will be held at Em
ery’s Berry Patch in New Egypt.
Speakers will discuss variety se
lection, fertility, disease, insects
and cultural practices for organic
weed control.
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data sets; use validation data sets
to test any change in pro
gramming; test all changes on
test systems and develop addi
tional procedures to ensure cor
rect input data.
The audit surveillance plan for
ensuring the accuracy of data
being submitted is behind sched
ule and needs improvement. To
correct this, AMS will accelerate
the audit process, change job hir
ing specifications, seek additional
personnel details or utilize other
agency personnel for audit pur
poses.
Confidentiality provisions are
preventing release of a significant
portion of information, and re
quires change. The Department
will move forward on an alterna
tive confidentiality standard to
the 3/60 which will apply confi
dentiality standards to data col
lected over a multi-day period
rather than the current several
hour collection period.
Cow-calf operators and feed
lots incurred financial losses to
taling $l5-$25 million, while
losses to packers and futures
traders are undetermined. Be
cause producer losses are an indi
rect effect of the misreported
data, loss estimates may vary
widely, depending on assump
tions used to develop the esti
mates. The review team found
that USDA is not liable for any
Set for July 18
The event will begin with a
light supper at 5:15 p.m. The ed
ucational program will begin at 6
p.m.
Emery’s Berry Patch is located
on Long Swamp Road in New
Egypt, just off of Route 539. To
RSVP or for more information
(including directions), call RCE
of Monmouth County,
732-431-7260, or check the
NOFA-NJ website at www.no
fanj.org. Pesticide credit applica
tion is pending.
losses incurred and has no au
thority to make compensation
payments as a result of the misre
ported data. The review team did
not recommend that USDA sup
port legislation to provide pay
ment to producers.
“The change in this reporting
structure under the new law was
a huge undertaking that funda
mentally changed the reporting
system,” said USDA chief econo
mist Keith Collins. “Through
these recommendations, our ded
icated team of employees will
have more effective tools to en
sure collectively the continued in
tegrity of the system.”
On April 2, AMS began collect
ing and disseminating livestock
market information under the
Livestock Mandatory Reporting
Act of 1999. The new law re
quired substantial changes to the
reporting program, including
nearly doubling the number of re
quired reports and releasing re
ports in a more expeditious man
ner. Under the program, larger
packers and importers are re
quired to report to USDA the de
tails of all transactions involving
purchases of livestock and im
ported boxed lamb cuts, and the
details of all transactions involv
ing domestic and export sales of
boxed beef cuts, sales of domestic
and imported boxed lamb cuts,
and sales of lamb carcasses.
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ASA Seeks Conservation
Legacy Awards Nominees
ST. LOUIS, Mo. The
American Soybean Associa
tion (ASA) is seeking nomi
nees for the 2002 Conservation
Legacy Awards. The Conser
vation Legacy Program is a
national program designed to
recognize the outstanding en
vironmental and conservation
achievements of U.S. soybean
farmers. Along with ASA, the
program is co-sponsored by
Monsanto and Soybean Di
gest, an Intertec/Primedia
publication.
A national selection com
mittee; composed of soybean
farmers, conservationists, and
natural resource professionals,
will evaluate all nominations
based on each farmer’s envi
ronmental and economic pro
gram.
One ASA member actively
engaged in soybean produc
tion will be selected from each
of the following four regions:
western, southern, midwestern
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and northeastern. One nation
al winner will be selected from
the regional winners, based on
the nomination form and on
farm visits to each regional
winner’s farm.
All four regional winners
and a spouse/guest will receive
a trip to Commodity Classic,
the annual joint convention of
the American Soybean Associ
ation and National Corn
Growers Association, Feb.
21-23, 2002, at the Opryland
Hotel in Nashville, Term. The
national winner will also re
ceive a plaque and yard sign
and will be featured in a spe
cial Soybean Digest article.
Nomination forms for the
2002 Conservation Legacy
Awards program are available
by calling (800) 688-7692 or on
ASA’s electronic community,
www.SoyGrowers.com. Nomi
nations should be returned to
ASA by July 15.
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