Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Discontinued Voluntary Price Reports For Live Cattle: Will They Be Missed By Producers?, Scott Fausti, He Sun, Matthew Diersen

Economics Staff Paper Series

One consequence of federal mandatory livestock price reporting regulations for the cattle industry was the discontinuation of eight regional voluntary price reports for slaughter cattle. The economic implication for market transparency in those affected regional markets is investigated. Agricultural Marketing News Services data were collected from discontinued price reports for a five-year period, along with aggregated regional price reports that were not eliminated under the new price reporting regime. Both sets of price reports were analyzed to determine if any of the price series, which continued to be published as mandatory reports, could be used by producers as a replacement …