Contagious animal diseases like foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are often referred to as economic diseases because of the magnitude of economic harm they can cause to producers and to local communities. This study demonstrates the local economic impact of a hypothetical FMD outbreak in southwest...

Debates about captive supplies have been ongoing for more than a decade. This study investigates the effects captive supplies have on the beef farm-to-wholesale marketing margin. A relative price spread (RPS) model is used to estimate beef farm-to-wholesale marketing margins. Estimates indicate...

There is little disagreement in the literature that hedging can be an effective risk management tool for agricultural firms. However, when placing a hedge the hedger must determine the futures position to take to offset the price risk on his current or anticipated cash position. When direct...

The US pork and beef sectors are rapidly moving from traditional cash markets to formal vertical linkages. In 1999, 27% of Hogs and 65% of cattle were traded in the cash market and packers owned 18% of hogs and 5% of cattle; the rest were procured via marketing contracts. Contrary to popular...

Data from a western Kansas feedlot were analyzed to estimate the quantitative impacts of price and performance variables on profits per head from finishing cattle. Sale prices, feeder prices, and corn prices had the most impact on profit variability over time. Differences in sale prices, feeder...

Data from Kansas cattle auctions were analyzed to estimate the impact a wide variety of physical characteristics had upon cow prices. Weight, lot size, health, pregnancy, grade, dressing percent, breed, time of sale, and market location were important factors affecting the differences in cow...

Three procedures are used to test Fama semistrong from efficiency of harvesttime price of Kansas City July wheat futures from 1947 through 1995. The three methods are (a) testing for jointly significant parameter estimates on nonfutures explanatory variables in econometric forecasting models,...

Grid pricing is an increasingly popular method of pricing fed cattle. However, there are several issues related to grid pricing. This paper discusses those issues and alternatives both for base prices in grids and the premium-discount grids themselves. Included is information on the status of...

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