Information on prices and price risk differences across marketing arrangements aids fed cattle producers in making choices about marketing methods. As part of the congressionally mandated Livestock and Meat Marketing Study, we investigated fed cattle price and price risk differences across...

This paper analyzes the optimal procurement, processing, and production decisions of a meat-processing company (hereafter, a "packer") in a beef supply chain. The packer processes fed cattle to produce two beef products, program (premium) boxed beef and commodity boxed beef, in fixed...

The cattle industry batch markets animals in pens. Because of this, animals within any one pen can be both underfed and overfed. Thus, there is a production inefficiency associated with batch marketing. We simulate the value of sorting animals through weight and ultrasound measurements from...

This research examines the returns to a cattle feeding operation that sorts animals prior to marketing using ultrasound technology. The returns to sorting are between $11 and $25 per head depending on the number of groups the pens in which cattle can be sorted. Sorting faces declining returns....

In 2003, Congress mandated a study of the effects of alternative marketing arrangements (AMAs) on livestock and meat markets. This paper summarizes the results of analyses on the distribution and sales of beef and pork products downstream from the packer from Volume 2 (Cates et al., 2007) and...

Abstract Currently Unavailable.

Marketing agreements between meatpacking and cattle feeding firms have created concerns about their effects on fed cattle prices. Profit-sharing marketing agreements were imposed onto a simulated fed cattle market. Price level and variability differences with and without agreements, between...