I disagree. We need good sale barns, especially for those of us who are not large producers.  What do you do with cull cows and bulls or less than truckload calves? Recall the average size cow/calf operation in the US is still around just 50 cows.

We are very fortunate in this area of Wisconsin/Iowa to have several good ones. A good sale barn is perhaps the last vestige of a free market in agriculture.  Unfortunately the local sale barn price range is still somewhat set by the futures market but it a place to sell where you can get a slightly above market price if you've got a good product that the order buyers are looking for that day.

And frankly I don't have any problem with asking beef producers to attend a class every few years, or with premises ID or with traceability in general. I do expect my cattle to then be worth more than the no name/no idea where they've come from/mystery trader cattle. Hopefully that will come eventually. As a beef consumer I would feel better knowing where my family's beef came from and willing to pay a bit more for that beef.