Title 7, AgricultureRelease 119-102

§202 “stockyard” Defined; Determination by Secretary as to Particular Yard

Title 7 › CHAPTER 9 — PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS › SUBCHAPTER III — STOCKYARDS AND STOCKYARD DEALERS › § 202

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Defines a "stockyard" as a place run as a public market for livestock, for profit or not. It has pens or other fenced areas and equipment. Live cattle, sheep, swine, horses, mules, or goats are brought there to be held, sold, or shipped, and it serves producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers. The Secretary will check from time to time which places meet that definition. After any inquiry, the Secretary will notify the yard owner and the public (including posting notices at the yard). Once a yard is declared covered, it must follow these rules until the Secretary says it no longer qualifies.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §202

Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)When used in this subchapter the term “stockyard” means any place, establishment, or facility commonly known as stockyards, conducted, operated, or managed for profit or nonprofit as a public market for livestock producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers, consisting of pens, or other inclosures, and their appurtenances, in which live cattle, sheep, swine, horses, mules, or goats are received, held, or kept for sale or shipment in commerce.
(b)The Secretary shall from time to time ascertain, after such inquiry as he deems necessary, the stockyards which come within the foregoing definition, and shall give notice thereof to the stockyard owners concerned, and give public notice thereof by posting copies of such notice in the stockyard, and in such other manner as he may determine. After the giving of such notice to the stockyard owner and to the public, the stockyard shall remain subject to the provisions of this subchapter until like notice is given by the Secretary that such stockyard no longer comes within the foregoing definition.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1968—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90–446 substituted “operated, or managed for profit or nonprofit as a public market for livestock producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers” for “or operated for compensation or profit as a public market”. 1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–909 struck out “Said sections shall not apply to a stockyard of which the area normally available for handling livestock, exclusive of runs, alleys, or passage ways, is less than twenty thousand square feet.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Transportation of Livestock Pub. L. 85–909, § 2(2), Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1750, provided in part: “That nothing herein [this section] shall be deemed a definition of the term ‘public stockyards’ as used in section 15(5) of the Interstate Commerce Act [former 49 U.S.C. 15(5)]”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 202

Title 7, Agriculture

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102