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....

Conventional wisdom and earlier research have concluded that cattle feeding profitability is more determined by feeder and fed cattle prices than by animal performance. This study examined cross-sectional and time-series data from over 1600 pens of cattle in more than 220 feedlots in the upper...

"Changes in the Midwestern U.S. Pork Industry." Presented at the 3rd London Swine Conference, London, Ontario, Canada, April 9-10, 2003. Proceedings pages 75-82.

Year round grazing systems that utilize stockpiled forage and/or crop residue are often promoted as a way for Northern and Western cow-calf producers to reduce winter feeding costs and improve overall profitability. This study compared the profitability of a conventional spring calving/summer...

The egg production and processing industry has a significant impact on Iowa's economy. And if consumer demand for eggs continues to increase and Iowa continues its commitment to grow the industry, expansion of Iowa's egg industry will continue.

(with John McKissick and Emmet Rawls). "Pork Producers and the Futures Markets. PIH-19, National Pork Industry Handbook, Purdue University Extension, 1997.

This paper evaluates the results of a survey of Iowa pork producers, examining potential price discrimination by packers. Prices varied greatly across producers, and the examined variables explain just over half of the variation. Factors under the producer's control were the most significant...

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...

Conventional wisdom and earlier research have concluded that cattle feeding profitability is more determined by feeder and fed cattle prices than by animal performance. This study examined cross-sectional and time-series data from over 1600 pens of cattle in more than 220 feedlots in the upper...