Estimating the Value of Source Verification of Feeder Cattle

Source-verified (SV) feeder cattle auctions were held in Bloomfield, Iowa, each October, November, and December from 1997-2000. This study compares price data from these SV auctions to traditional auctions at the same loation to determine whether a premium exists for SV feeder cattle. Hedonic pricing models were estimated to evaluate the price effects of lot characteristics, market forces and type of market(SV verus regular sale). The SV cattle were sorted and pooled into large lots. The larger the lot size, consistent with early research, earned large price premiums. After accounting for lot size, the SV premium for lighter cattle(