There are ways to have more price reporting without a government mandate or appending costs to cattle procurement. Identified as “blockchain technology,” various leaders in the cattle industry think it’s a viable option. Veteran Texas cattleman Bill O’Brien describes blockchain as “a public ledger of all transactions that are executed in a particular market.” He understands the industry’s focus on the Grassley bill is mislaid and could lead to more confidentiality about pricing.

“People will figure out all kinds of ways to game the system, and pretty soon, we will find we’ve not accomplished anything except create an environment where there are a bunch of subdeals, and no one knows what anyone is paying,” he says in a statement.

O’Brien, owner, and manager of Texas Beef, based at Amarillo, markets more than 200,000 cattle heads each year. His ties to the cattle business run deep, going back to the late 1800s, when his grandfather moved to the Texas Panhandle from Missouri. He remembers in the early days of commercial cattle feeding; the industry commenced trading everything FOB (Free on Board) from the feedyard for seven-day delivery. All the packers would bid, and that was it. Today, there are many more ways to sell cattle, but O’Brien says few are being properly reported.

“We’re selling on negotiated grids, live FOB, delivered, basis futures, formulas, the list goes on. We’ve got a lot of ways to sell cattle. The problem is that mandatory price reporters simply don’t know how to parse all those transactions into an understandable form. We are using arcane reporting methods.”

With blockchain, O’Brien states the cattle industry would not have to depend on mandatory price reporting. A longtime proponent of the technology, he sees there’s a vital connector: the RFID (radio-frequency identification) ear tag. This is how blockchain traces cattle and the data tied to individual animals when ownership transitions.

“Whether it’s one head, 100 head or 100,000 head, there’s a price point, and there’s a weight, and it’s reported with blockchain. What could be better for understanding the market than every time cattle change hands in real-time, you are able to see that? It’s data-based management, it’s not expensive, and we have the capability to do it right now.”

Questioned about producer confidentiality in such a system, O’Brien states the way he envisions the system; this would not be a problem. “In my proposal, the only right the government would have would be to trace a diseased animal in the event of an outbreak. If that happens, wouldn’t it be better to immediately pinpoint where the animal came from and wherein the system it has been?”

The other common concern when it comes to the blockchain is the $1 to $2 cost of the RFID tag. It’s a nonissue, O’Brien insists. “What no one wants to acknowledge is that with RFID, we open U.S. cattle to new export markets and new branding opportunities. If we’re truly looking for transparency as opposed to mandates, this is where our leadership needs to be focused.”