"The mandatory price reporting law is an important tool that helps producers make business and production decisions," said NPPC President Jill Appell, a pork producer from Altona, Illinois.

The reauthorised price reporting law includes three enhancements to the pork reporting provisions:

• More sows are included in pricing reports to more accurately reflect the sales and prices paid in the sow market.
  
  
• Changes to the timing for data reporting were made to help USDA with its workload and, thus, to increase report accuracy and efficiency.
  
  
• USDA may publish price distributions for net prices to provide more information that is more reflective of market situations.

The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act is a program administered by USDA to provide information on pricing, contracting for purchase and supply and demand conditions for livestock, livestock production and livestock products to producers, packers and other market participants. It was first approved in 1999 and amended and reauthorised last September.