Release No.: 018-20

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2020 - As part of its commitment to ensuring fair and competitive markets for the livestock, meat and poultry industries, on Dec. 20, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) entered into a stipulation agreement with H.D. Hume doing business as H&H Livestock (Hume) of Taylorsville, Ky., for alleged violations of the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act. Under the terms of the stipulation agreement, Hume waived his rights to a hearing and agreed to pay a civil penalty of $3,500.

An investigation by USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) revealed Hume failed to pay timely for six livestock transactions totaling $90,625 from January through June 2019. In addition, Hume issued two insufficient funds checks that were subsequently paid.

The P&S Act requires subject entities to issue the full payment for livestock by the close of the first business day following purchase and transfer of possession. Failure to timely pay for livestock purchases and issuing payment from accounts with insufficient funds is a violation of the P&S Act.

The P&S Act authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to assess civil penalties up to $28,061 per violation against any person after the notice and opportunity for hearing on the record. USDA may offer alleged violators the option of waiving their right to a hearing and enter into a stipulation agreement to quickly resolve alleged violations.

The P&S Act is a fair trade practice and payment protection law that promotes fair and competitive marketing environments for the livestock, meat and poultry industries.

For further information about the Packers and Stockyards Act, contact Stuart Frank, Packers and Stockyards Division, at (515) 323-2586, or by email at stuart.frank@usda.gov.

Get the latest Agricultural Marketing Service news at www.ams.usda.gov/news or follow us on Twitter@USDA_AMS. You can alsoread about us on the USDA blog.

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Agricultural Marketing Service published this content on 27 January 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 January 2020 17:24:01 UTC