SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

AMS administers and enforces the P&S Act of 1921, (7 U.S.C. 181 et seq.). The P&S Act prohibits unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent practices by livestock market agencies, dealers, stockyard owners, meat packers, swine contractors, and live poultry dealers in the livestock, poultry, and meatpacking industries.

Section 302 of the P&S Act (7 U.S.C. 202) defines the term “stockyard” as, “. . . any place, establishment, or facility commonly known as stockyards, conducted, operated, or managed for profit or nonprofit as a public market for livestock producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers, consisting of pens, or other enclosures, and their appurtenances, in which live cattle, sheep, swine, horses, mules, or goats are received, held, or kept for sale or shipment in commerce.”

Section 302 (b) of the P&S Act requires the Secretary of Agriculture to determine which stockyards meet this definition, and to notify the owner of the stockyard and the public of that determination by posting a notice in each designated stockyard. Once the Secretary provides notice to the stockyard owner and the public, the stockyard is subject to the provisions of Title III of the P&S Act (7 U.S.C. 201-203 and 205-217a) until the Secretary de-posts the stockyard by public notice. To post a stockyard, we assign the stockyard a facility number, notify the stockyard owner, and send an official posting notice to the stockyard owner to display in a public area of the stockyard. This process is referred to as “posting.” The date of posting is the date that the posting notices are physically displayed at the stockyard. A facility that does not meet the definition of a stockyard is not subject to the P&S Act and therefore cannot be posted. A posted stockyard can be “de-posted,” which occurs when the facility is no longer used as a stockyard.

We are hereby notifying stockyard owners and the public that the following 10 stockyards meet the definition of a stockyard and that we propose to designate these stockyards as posted stockyards.

We are also notifying the public that the stockyards listed in the following table meet the P&S Act's definition of a stockyard, and therefore, we have posted these stockyards. On June 7, 2019, we published a notice in the Federal Register (Vol. 84. No. 110) proposing to post these 10 stockyards. Since we received no comments to our proposal, we assigned the stockyards a facility number and notified the owners of the stockyard facilities. Posting notices were sent to each stockyard owner to display in public areas of their stockyard. The table below reflects the date of posting for these stockyards.

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 202.

85 FR 28928