It has been argued that access to captive supply cattle improve the economic efficiency of beefpacking facilities. However, this argument has not been subject to hypothesis testing. This workmodels the cost efficiencies associated with captive supplies or cattle we refer to as beingsourced...

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

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/24/09.

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...

Portions of the western U.S. are experiencing the worst drought in 80 years (Piechota et al. 2004). Figure 1 indicates that Wyoming has experienced multiple periods where precipitation was below normal for consecutive years, with the most recent period being between 2000 and 2005. Average annual...