Livestock Mandatory Reporting; Amendment To Revise Lamb Reporting Definitions

This final rule amends the Livestock Mandatory Reporting regulations to modify the requirements for the submission of information on domestic and imported boxed lamb cuts sales. This rule amends the definition of "carlot-based" by inserting language to limit carlot-based sales of boxed lamb cuts to transactions between a buyer and a seller consisting of 1,000 pounds or more of one or more individual boxed lamb items. This rule also amends the definition of "importer" by reducing the volume level of annual lamb imports establishing a person as an importer from 5,000 metric tons of lamb meat products per year to 2,500 metric tons. This amendment will improve the accuracy and reliability of the data being reported by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on domestic boxed lamb cuts sales by ensuring that the bulk of data being reported is representative of the market, thus enabling producers to evaluate market conditions and make more informed marketing decisions. This amendment will also increase the volume of imported products that will be reported to AMS, which will permit AMS to publish reports on the sales of imported boxed lamb cuts.