In general, economic conditions have favored Iowa as a premier livestock-producing state, but at the same time, government policies have worked against Iowa's livestock-feeding industries. The authors trace Iowa's dilemma as it must decide whether to become self-sufficient in feed, or be one of...

Participants in U.S. markets for live cattle increasingly rely on federal grading standards to price slaughtered animals. This change is due to the growing prominence of "grid" pricing mechanisms that specify explicit premiums and discounts contingent on an animal's graded quality class....

Canada implemented a national cattle identification system, led and developed by the industry. Initially a voluntary program beginning in July 2001, it became mandatory in July 2002 and achieved 92-95 percent compliance by that fall. The costs to develop and initiate the system were low; animals...

The declining share of beef in total U.S. meat consumption has motivated industry-­wide efforts to improve average beef quality through more effective coordination among the various market participants. Increased use of explicit "grid" pricing mechanisms over the last decade represents...

Worldwide, a segment of consumers can afford to pay substantial price premiums for very high quality agricultural products with attributes those consumers value. At the same time, many U.S. farmers are producing these high-quality products but are not using market mechanisms that allow them to...

Traditional break-even/fed cattle price projections do not provide adequate risk information to feeders, investors, lenders, and other stakeholders interested in cattle feeding decisions. The objectives of this study were two-fold: 1) develop a spreadsheet model that could estimate the net...

Australia and New Zealand are major beef producing countries and major beef exporters. Unlike the case in the United States, where less than 10 percent of beef is exported, approximately 60 percent of Australia’'s and 85 percent of New Zealand’'s beef production is exported. Because of their...

It has been argued that access to captive supply cattle improve the economic efficiency of beefpacking facilities. However, this argument has not been subject to hypothesis testing. This workmodels the cost efficiencies associated with captive supplies or cattle we refer to as beingsourced...

Information on typical differences in prices and price risk (as measured by the variances ofprices) across marketing arrangements aids fed cattle producers in making choices aboutmethods to use for selling fed cattle to beef packers. This information is also useful for policydiscussions on...

Worldwide, a segment of consumers can afford to pay substantial price premiums for very high quality agricultural products with attributes those consumers value. At the same time, many U.S. farmers are producing these high-quality products but are not using market mechanisms that allow them to...