Valuing Double Vaccination in Feeder Cattle

Iowa leads the nation in egg production, producing more than the second and third largest states combined. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that approximately 52.9 million layers in Iowa produced 14.5 billion eggs in 2011. This level of production consumes 49.2 million...

Sorting Cattle with Accumulated Data: What is the Accuracy and Economics?

This research extends Preston and Elam's earlier work by using meta-analysis to combine information from over 170 research trials evaluating pharmaceutical technologies in the cow-calf, stocker and feedlot segments of beef production. These results were used to estimate the economic value of...

USDA grader called yield grade was compared to a calculated yield grade based on ribeye area and fat thickness measured by trained technicians. The predicted yield grade from the measurement was contrasted with the called yield grade distribution for two different time periods (January 2000-...

We study the incidence and economic rationale for cooperative bargaining in U.S. agricultural markets. Bargaining is not just about increasing price paid to farmers; indeed, there is no empirical research indicating that cooperative bargaining has any direct influence on price. Nevertheless, the...

The West Liberty Foods turkey cooperative was formed in 1996 to purchase the assets and assume operations of Louis Rich Foods (an investor-owned processing firm), which, at the time, announced the imminent shutdown of its West Liberty, Iowa, processing facility. We study the creation and...

This paper identifies market and commodity characteristics that seem to support successful cooperative bargaining in markets for farm output. Bargaining is not just about increasing prices paid to farmers; indeed, although there is very little empirical research that addresses the issue, what...