Relationships between Alternative Marketing Arrangement Prices for Fed Cattle and Hogs, 2001-2013

Research identifies relationships among weekly alternative marketing arrangement (AMA) prices since the advent of mandatory price reporting in 2001. Relationships between cash prices and other AMA prices, both for fed cattle and hogs, changed little over the twelve years. For fed cattle, cash prices were closer to formula prices and negotiated grid prices than to forward contract prices. For hogs, cash prices were closer to swine market formula prices than to either other market formula prices or other purchase prices. Both for fed cattle and hogs, cash prices were above other AMA prices in upward moving markets and below other AMA prices in downward moving markets. However, there was no indication the thinning negotiated cash market adversely affected these relationships