Discontinued Voluntary Price Reports For Live Cattle: Will They Be Missed By Producers?

One consequence of the new federal mandatory price reporting regime in the livestock industry was the discontinuation of eight regional voluntary price reports for live slaughter cattle. The economic implication for price discovery and market transparency in those affected regional markets is investigated. Two sets of price reports, collected from discontinued price reports for a five-year period just prior to the elimination by the Agricultural Marketing News Service, were analyzed to determine if any of the price series, could be used as a replacement for the discontinued reports in their respective regions. We conclude that price discovery and market transparency were degraded in western regional markets to a greater extent than Midwest regional markets. Empirical results suggest that the lack of adequate alternative sources of market information in western regional markets may result in further deterioration in market transparency and price discovery in the future.