Generic promotions of commodities are growing in importance. In the US, commodity industry assessments or checkoffs (i.e. a per unit levy or tax) are used to underwrite domestic and international promotions by commodity groups. The US beef checkoff is one of the largest of these new national commodity programmes. Evaluation of the economic impact of the beef promotion is an essential part of the beef checkoff. A model for evaluating the US beef programmes is estimated and the methodology is applicable to other commodity models that include advertising and promotion expenditures. The beef analysis shows a positive and significant return to the beef industry, with an average of approximately $5 for each $1 invested for the quarters 1987:1 through 1991:2.

A static premium and discount analysis was used to determine whether certain management or marketing practices affect the price of feeder cattle at auction. Data included animal characteristics (sex, weight, muscle, frame, horns, breed, condition, fill, health) and market characteristics (price, lot size, market location, auction sale order). The analysis shows that marketing price can be enhanced by selling heavy muscled, crossbred cattle with either medium or large frame in large (truck-load) size lots. Cattle should carry average fill, an average or slightly fleshy amount of condition, and be dehorned.Because of the volume of cattle sold annually, management practices or animal traits which affect the value of individual feeder cattle have a large economic impact. Small influences on the price received per hundred weight have large significance when multiplied over the total production of a producer or the beef industry. Many factors such as grain and hay prices, weather, prices of competing meats, and the general economic situation of the consumer affect cattle prices. The producer has very little control over these factors.Feeder cattle auction prices observed at specific locations and times reflect the value of animal characteristics, current economic conditions, and expectations about future conditions. General models that determine factors affecting price differentials1 or evaluate adjustment processes2 are useful for analyzing the

Key determinants of monthly wholesale prices for 12 beef cuts include the quantity of the specific cut, stickiness in prices, marketing costs, quantities of pork and chicken, and seasonality. Seasonal patterns across the respective cuts are very different. Relative to the price in December, prices at the wholesale level in other months can be as much as 6 percent lower to as much as 21 percent higher.