---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 202"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "202"
heading: "“Stockyard” defined; determination by Secretary as to particular yard"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/202"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Packers and Stockyards"
  - "Subchapter III — Stockyards and Stockyard Dealers"
---

# §202. “Stockyard” defined; determination by Secretary as to particular yard

- (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](/usc/7/198.md?p=1) for [livestock](/usc/7/182.md?p=4) producers, feeders, [market agencies](/usc/7/201.md?p=c), and buyers, consisting of pens, or other inclosures, and their appurtenances, in which live cattle, sheep, [swine](/usc/7/198.md?p=6), horses, mules, or goats are received, held, or kept for sale or shipment in [commerce](/usc/7/182.md?p=11).
- (b) The [Secretary](/usc/7/182.md?p=2) shall from time to time ascertain, after such inquiry as he deems necessary, the [stockyards](#a) which come within the foregoing definition, and shall give notice thereof to the [stockyard owners](/usc/7/201.md?p=a) concerned, and give public notice thereof by posting copies of such notice in the [stockyard](#a), and in such other manner as he may determine. After the giving of such notice to the [stockyard owner](/usc/7/201.md?p=a) and to the public, the [stockyard](#a) shall remain subject to the provisions of this subchapter until like notice is given by the [Secretary](/usc/7/182.md?p=2) that such [stockyard](#a) no longer comes within the foregoing definition.

## Source credit

(Aug. 15, 1921, ch. 64, title III, § 302, 42 Stat. 163; Pub. L. 85–909, § 2(2), Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1750; Pub. L. 90–446, § 1(a), July 31, 1968, 82 Stat. 474.)

## Notes

### 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)]”.