AAD Provides Livestock Market News Reporting f For 100 years, the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) has provided free, unbiased price and sales information to assist in the marketing and distribution of farm commodities. USDA-AMS Market News works with State Departments of Agriculture and local and regional food systems to provide prices, volume, and other information on agricultural commodities sold at local and regional markets throughout the United States. The Arkansas Agriculture Department (AAD) signed a cooperative agreement in 2018 with USDAAMS to serve as the state partner for the Livestock Market News reporting program. In August, AAD employees began collecting data at livestock auctions across the state to be used by AMS to create daily and weekly reports for the cattle industry “This serves not only local markets and agriculture entities but also national audiences via the USDA Market News website and online resources.” to measure local, state, and regional market trends. “The Arkansas Agriculture Department is proud to partner with the USDA-AMS to provide information that will help Arkansas 86 ARKANSAS GROWN cattlemen make informed marketing decisions based on reliable data,” said Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward. “Livestock market news reporting is another way that we can equip our farmers and ranchers with the best available tools to help make their operations as competitive and profitable as possible.” AAD previously managed the Livestock Market News reporting program until the mid-1970s when the duties were transferred to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service (UAEX). “The Cooperative Extension –James Ward UAEX. Daily and weekly market reports are listed on the USDA website and at the AAD website. Livestock market news reporters started by collecting industry-specific data from Service was glad to host it for the last 40 years as a service to our clients, but it’s good to have it return to its original home,” said Dr. Vic Ford, Interim Associate Director, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Extension with
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