Livestock Marketing

Report Introduction: Livestock marketing begins at the, point where livestock is sold by the producer and ends where meat is purchased by the consumer. To function well, the livestock marketing system must do a number of things efficiently in each of its phases: livestock must be assembled, transported, and bought and sold with minimal delay, movement, and cost; livestock must be converted into many kinds of meat and meat products at the lowest possible cost; timely marketing information must be made available to help buyers and sellers channel meat to consumers in an orderly manner; human health must be safeguarded; and consumer demand must be reflected through the entire system to enable producers to correctly plan their production and marketing. Economic competition among firms and among geographic regions is sharp and continuing. New technologies and changing cost structures have shifted the relative advantages among locations and among firms. The less efficient firms have been supplanted by the more efficient. In a few regions, production and processing have sharply increased, frequently at the expense of other regions. As characteristics of livestock production, meatpacking, processing, transportation, and food retailing change, functions of other marketing units also change.