KENTUCKY FEEDER CATTLE PRICE ANALYSIS: MODELS FOR PRICE PREDICTIONS AND GRAZING MANAGEMENT

Kentucky plays an important role in the complex U.S. beef cattle industry. Thisstudy focused on the feeder cattle production sector of Kentucky\u27s beef cattle industry.Primarily a cow-calf state with a substantial backgrounding sector, Kentucky is a largesupplier of feeder cattle to the cattle finishing sector. Price relationships within themarket for Kentucky feeder cattle were examined using historical price data fromKentucky livestock auction markets. This research revealed many interesting pricerelationships that Kentucky producers may use in order to increase the profitability of thecow-calf and/or backgrounding operations. A segment of this research includes aGrazing Management Decision Tool which was constructed to enable producers toevaluate the potential profitability of various grazing scenarios using current marketforecasts