How likely are calf value-added management practices to pay off?

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Feeder Cattle Price Fundamentals

The cattle industry consists of a complex set of production and marketing activities across unrelated market participants widely dispersed in time, place and form (Peel, 2015). The industry relies on market prices and signals to coordinate these diverse activities. Feeder cattle markets collectively represent the principal point of market contact between all production sectors of the industry (Peel, 2011). Feeder cattle markets provide the market venue for the sale of calves from the cow-calf sector; the source of feeder cattle purchased by feedlots for finishing; and, in between, stocker and back grounding activities that arbitrage feeder cattle across weights, space and time to provide an efficient set of market prices (Peel, 2011)