This paper analyzes the optimal procurement, processing and production decisions of a meat processing company (hereafter a "packer") in a beef supply chain. The packer processes fed cattle to produce two beef products, program (premium) boxed beef and commodity boxed beef, in fixed proportions,...

The efficiency of livestock futures markets continues to receive attention, particularly with regard to their forward pricing or forecasting ability. The purpose of this paper is to present a more general theory that encompasses the forward pricing concept. It is argued that futures contract...

It has been argued that access to captive supply cattle improve the economic efficiency of beef packing facilities. However, this argument has not been subject to hypothesis testing. This work models the cost efficiencies associated with captive supplies or cattle we refer to as being sourced...

Information on typical differences in prices and price risk (as measured by the variances of prices) across marketing arrangements aids fed cattle producers in making choices about methods to use for selling fed cattle to beef packers. This information is also useful for policy discussions on...

This research examines returns to cattle feeding operations that sort animals prior to marketing using ultrasound technology. The returns to sorting are between $11 and $25 per head depending on the number of groups the pens into which cattle can be sorted. Sorting faces declining returns. These...

Information on prices and price risk differences across marketing arrangements aids fed cattle producers in making choices about marketing methods. As part of the congressionally mandated Livestock and Meat Marketing Study, we investigated fed cattle price and price risk differences across...

Mandatory price reporting legislation will make available to the public on a weekly basis information on terms of trade for forward contracts. The new information will provide marketing intentions details that were previously unavailable to agents in the fed cattle market. An experiment was...

This paper addresses the economic impacts of growth variability on market timing decisions in an all-in, all-out production system. Marketing decisions based on the pen average are determined to be different than those based on the entire distribution of output levels. A case study data set of...