Price Signals as Indicators of Profitability at Various Stages of Production in Oklahoma Beef

Brian R. Williams and Eric DeVuyst

No 98769, 2011 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2011, Corpus Christi, Texas from Southern Agricultural Economics Association

Abstract: Cow-calf producers face an annual decision on when to sell their calves. They can sell them at any point between weaning and slaughter, with the objective of finding the profit maximizing selling point. This paper investigates the use of price signals to determine profit maximizing selling points/retention strategies. Three retention strategies, one for fall calving and two for spring calving, are considered. Producers can sell their calves at weaning, after preconditioning, after grass pasture, after wheat pasture, or after the feedlot depending on the retention strategy. These price signals indicate the optimal selling point based on an observable price ratio at weaning. This paper also considers factors such as the level of preconditioning premiums and the length of the preconditioning period required to impact the profit maximizing selling point.

Keywords: Farm Management; Livestock Production/Industries; Production Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cse and nep-ind
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/98769/files/Re ... p%20Jan14%202011.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:saea11:98769

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.98769

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2011 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2011, Corpus Christi, Texas from Southern Agricultural Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().