Replaced with revised version of paper 02/15/11.

This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the effects of market prices on cattle marketing decisions, using futures prices as measures of unobserved price expectations. This approach has been used successfully in explaining feeder cattle placements, but not in marketings. Our aim is to...

We were asked by the Legislature to conduct "research into the effects feedlots have on the value of nearby property." To do so, we carried out a statistical examination of the interrelationships among residential property sales prices and nearby feedlots in a southwestern Minnesota study area....

The U.S. consumption pattern of livestock products has changed considerably and is expected to keep changing. The first part of this paper reviews the consumption trends and the price and nonprice factors affecting those trends. In the second part, future consumption patterns are projected. The...