U.S. Beef Industry: Cattle Cycles, Price Spreads, and Packer Concentration
by Kenneth H. Matthews, Jr.,
William Hahn, Kenneth Nelson, Lawrence A. Duewer, and Ronald A. Gustafson
Technical Bulletin No. (TB-1874) 47 pp, April 1999
Cover Image
In early 1996, the peak in the current cycle of cattle inventories coincided with a long list of negative factors--negative returns at the farm and feedlot, record-high feed grain prices, a severe drought in 1995-96, widening farm-retail price spreads, a low farmers' share of the consumers' Choice beef dollar, and reports of high profits for beefpackers. This confluence created an atmosphere in which some producers and members of Congress questioned whether the cattle industry was adversely affected by high packer concentration and market power. This report examines the cattle cycle of the 1990's to determine if there are differences from previous cattle cycles and, if so, how and why any differences occurred.
Keywords: Cattle cycles, price spreads, packer concentration, cattle slaughter, steer and heifer slaughter, cow slaughter
In this publication...
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Title Page, Table of Contents, Summary, Pdf file 93 kb
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Introduction, Pdf file 49 kb
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Characteristics of Cattle Cycles, Pdf file 39 kb
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Cattle Inventory Adjustments, Pdf file 40 kb
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Price Spreads, Pdf file 73 kb
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Beefpacker Concentration, Pdf file 54 kb
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Comparing the 1990's With Past Cycles of Cattle Inventories, Pdf file 110 kb
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Price Spreads and the Cattle Cycle, Pdf file 160 kb
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Concentration Measures for the Beef Packing Industry, Pdf file 108 kb
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Conclusions, Pdf file 39 kb
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References, Pdf file 54 kb
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Appendix table: Data Series for Cattle Cycle Analysis, Pdf file 58 kb
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Appendix: Our Asymmetric Model of Price Movements, Pdf file 56 kb
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Entire Report, Pdf file 882 kb
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