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A federal jury trial date has been set to consider allegations
that four of the U.S. beef industry's largest packers misreported
boxed-beef prices to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
in 2001.
The case, to be tried on April 3, 2006, was first filed
two and a half years ago by cattle producers Herman Schumacher,
Michael Callicrate and Roger Koch, who all sold cattle to
the defendant packing companies — Tyson Fresh Meats, Cargill
Meat Solutions, Swift & Co and National Beef Packing.
District Court Judge Charles Kornmann certified the case
as a class action on behalf of all cattle producers who
sold fed cattle on the cash market, and the trial follows
motions by the defendants to have the case dismissed, which
Judge Kornmann denied in January.
Under boxed-beef reporting laws, packers have to report
twice daily to USDA certain cattle-price information. During
the period in question, the packers are alleged to have
underreported the price they were receiving for boxed beef,
which had the effect of depressing the prices cattle producers
received for fed cattle sold to the packers during the same
time period.
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