USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is updating its Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) cash cattle reports in an effort to bring greater transparency to cattle market cash reporting.
The move comes following President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, Supporting American Ranchers, and Promoting Fair Competition in Livestock Markets and Expanding Market Access for American Meat Producers.
Cash purchases accounted for more than 50% of transactions in 2005 but fell to less than 18% in 2025, according to USDA.
“Because cash purchases serve as the basis for many formula transactions, the decline in negotiated trade has reduced the number of reportable transactions and created confidentiality challenges that can limit the usefulness of existing price reports,” the department said.
Beginning Oct. 26, AMS will use data already collected through the LMR system to create additional cash cattle regional report aggregating data from Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas.
“This update supports USDA’s cattle and beef-market transparency objectives by providing producers, livestock sellers, packers, and other market participants with more meaningful information about negotiated cash cattle prices,” USDA said.
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