When cattle gain or lose $150 in per-head value in a week, it’s easy to lose sight of what lifts that value trend over the years. A University of Missouri study of 2003-’16 boxed-beef cutout values isolates the contribution of branded and Prime sales.
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ONAGA, Kan. – When cattle gain or lose $150 in per-head value in a week, it’s easy to lose sight of what lifts that value trend over the years. A University of Missouri study of 2003-’16 boxed-beef cutout values isolates the contribution of branded and Prime sales.
The work by MU economist Scott Brown builds on the 2007 CattleFax “Value of Quality Analysis” and updates Brown’s earlier finding that quality “added $4.5 billion to the beef economy in the nine years from 2005 through 2013.”
That total at the start of this year and going back to 2003 comes to $7.28 billion, including $750 million last year, with a 14-year average annual increase of $34 million. The impact is rising, with the average yearly gain since 2009 at $46 million, and up $100 million last year.
The simple upward trend “explains 80% of the variation in quality premiums,” Brown notes (see chart). Year-to-year variation comes from many factors, such as changes in global markets, income, weather and consumer preferences.