A COMPARISON OF PRICING STRUCTURES AT VIDEO AND TRADITIONAL CATTLE AUCTIONS

The number of cattle sold through video auctions has increased dramatically during the past five years. In this study structural differences in pricing between a group of traditional auctions and the nation's largest satellite video cattle auction are examined. A Chow test for structural pricing differences reveals that the influence of lot characteristics, market information, and merchandising strategies on cattle prices are essentially identical at both types of auctions. However, optimal lot size is larger at video auctions than at traditional auctions