Agricultural News
State Lawmakers Looking to Provide Way for Producers to Hold Lien on Livestock Until the Check Clears
Tue, 22 Feb 2011 5:23:04 CST
Cattle Producers are asking two questions in the aftermath of the trainwreck in the cattle industry that happened last fall when checks started bouncing all across the middle of the country when Eastern Livestock went belly up. Eastern, the nation's largest cattle buyer, left cattle producers holding millions of dollars of hot checks that have not been honored by their bank- Fifth Third Bank.
The first question the cattle industry is asking is how do we make the cattle producers who were left holding those hot checks whole? That appears to be in the hands of the bankruptcy court and could take years to sort out. The second question is how do we not allow this scenario to happen again. One possible fix is being talked about in the Oklahoma legislature. Senate Bill 530 is being touted by the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau in an effort to ensure livestock producers maintain a security interest in livestock they sell until such time as the proceeds from the sale clear the bank. This is in response to the recent Eastern Livestock Bankruptcy which left some producers holding hot checks. The weekly OCA newsletter reports they anticipate easy passage of this measure as it has been shared with the banking community, the livestock marketing communities and others. Representative Lesley Osborn says that this measure won't help those already stung by Eastern Livestock this past fall when they got checks for cattle they sold to Eastern- and found those checks were worthless as Eastern's Bank, Fifth Third Bank, had decided to freeze their account during the height of the fall stocker cattle run of last fall.
One lawmaker says he is not sure that this bill will find smooth sailing- Don Armes says this is a very complicated issue and a lot of people will be weighing in on this bill before it finds its way into law.
On today's Beef Buzz, we talk with both Don Armes and Lesley Osborn about Senate Bill 530- and the effort to fix the issue with a new law at the state level.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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