Preferential pricing was one of several concerns leading to mandatory price reporting. Seven years of “new” data from mandatory reports are examined to determine if evidence exists of preferential pricing by packers for fed cattle and slaughter hogs. Weekly data show some alternative...

Livestock producers primarily, but policy makers also, have an interest in market effects from meatpacking plant closings and openings. This article presents results from a study to determine price impacts from an anticipated hog slaughtering plant opening and an unexpected fed cattle...

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether the mandatory fees imposed by the beef checkoff violates the First Amendment. As a precaution, many states began forming voluntary beef checkoffs, where funds would be raised through voluntary contributions. This study conducted a survey of...

Seldom are observed losing bids available in industry data. A special workshop of the Fed Cattle Market Simulator was designed to capture bids for each pen of cattle traded. Data enabled identifying buyer and seller behavior in the price discovery process, both before and after imposed mergers...

Previous research has estimated price effects of meat packing plant closings and openings. However, none have been done for plants opening or closing during the last 20 years ago when concentration in meatpacking increased rapidly. Plant openings and closings affect industry slaughtering...

Beef producers need to continually incorporate new information and adopt new technology to effectively manage production costs. Oklahoma State University began a Master Cattleman program with this need in mind. Understanding technology adoption by producers requires identifying current...

To identify the value consumers place on observable characteristics of fresh beef products, primary data were collected on over 1,350 packages of beef from 66 randomly selected grocery stores located in three metropolitan areas--Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Denver, Colorado. Estimated...

With the possible elimination of the mandatory beef checkoff, some state are considering a voluntary beef checkoff. This study conducts a choice experiment to estimate the feasibility of a state and nationwide voluntary checkoff. Results indicate that a lower fee and a greater focus on...

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...