The US hog and dairy sectors are increasingly shifting production toward western states away from more traditional production regions in the east. In contrast, production levels in the fed-cattle sector have increased over the last three decades only in the three main producing states. One...

Preliminary estimates of technical efficiency based on USDA data for 1997 through 2001 indicate that independent operations were significantly more efficient than contract operations. Preliminary estimates also indicate that both types of operations exhibited increasing returns to scale with...

Production risk from live weight variation of market pigs has become a more important concern in U.S. swine production. Packers are concerned about the variation in carcass size because of the demand for standardized cuts and the use of automation in the slaughter process. Swine producers care...

Legislation has prompted changes in milk price volatility. Milk price volatility impacts the producer's exposure to business risk which is compound by the firms financial risk. Financial risk is a function of the firms capital structure. In the short run it is difficult for the producer to...

The U.S. live hog production has undergone a significant structural change characterized by a trend toward larger operations. Experts argue that there is a cost advantage for larger farms due to industrialization and increased management intensity. One important element in production, mainly for...

The U.S. pork sector is evolving from an industry of small, independent firms vertically linked by spot markets to one of substantially larger firms vertically connected through contractual agreements and integration. Potential benefits to this tighter vertical arrangement include lower consumer...

Recent studies have tested whether futures prices respond to U.S. Department of Agriculture inventory reports in accordance with the efficient markets hypothesis. These studies use survey forecasts to identify the anticipated and unanticipated information contained in a report. However, this...

Developing a multitask principal-agent model, this paper theoretically analyzes the incentive provisions in the existing cattle feeding contracts under alternative fed cattle pricing methods. Comparative statics from the theoretical model are evaluated by simulation experiments. Feedlot and...

Many livestock sector models have limited coverage of relevant variables, and are somewhat ad hoc in their choice of what should be specified as behavioral equations. This study develops a generic conceptual approach to modeling the livestock sector that provides consistent rules of...

This research focuses on developing a biannual net revenue forecasting model for hog producers based on Monte Carlo simulation of the joint distribution of hog, corn and soybean meal price series. The relative forecasting power of historical volatility, implied volatility and GARCH-based...