Stochastic simulation of daily slaughter level was used in conjunction with estimated packing plant cost curves to assess potential reductions in processing costs due to improved vertical coordination between feedlots and packing plants. Results indicate that processing cost reductions of $1 to...

A feeder-calf price model is estimated which incorporates elements of break-even budget analysis, including estimates of placement weights, slaughter weights, ration cost, and feed-conversion rates. From this model, a corn price multiplier is calculated which quantifies the corn/feeder-calf...

Elasticities calculated from an econometric model of cost of gain (COG) for cattle in feedlots indicate that COG is considerably less responsive to corn price changes than breakeven budgets assume. This difference in elasticities can lead to substantial errors in COG estimates obtained from...

Stochastic simulation of daily slaughter level was used in conjunction with an estimated packing plant cost curve to assess potential reductions in processing costs due to improved vertical coordination between feedlots and packing plants. Results indicate that processing cost reductions of $1...

Federal budgetary pressures raise questions regarding the importance of public market information. This study assesses the impact of price discovery and production efficiency of reducing public price and quantity information. The amount and type of information provided to Fed Cattle Market...