Marketing Slaughter Cows and Calves in the Northeast: Present System, Alternatives for Improvement

Report Introduction: During recent times, Northeast dairymen have experienced relatively low price levels for cull dairy cows and calves while fed cattle were selling for relatively high prices. They have thus become seriously concerned about the ability of the present marketing system to effectively market their animals. They are searching for new marketing methods that will increase returns from their livestock. Their concern has resulted in some producer groups bypassing traditional marketing channels, such as selling cows direct to slaughterers in truckloads or selling meat directly to consumers. As a result of this concern, the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Association, and other Northeast Farm Bureaus, asked the Farmer Cooperative Service to study the region’s marketing system and recommend methods for improving the marketing of cull dairy cows. The study’s major emphasis was on the marketing of dairy and beef cows and dairy calves producers sell for immediate slaughter. While other types of livestock are produced in the Northeast, they received little consideration in this study. The area covered by this study included Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and 18 northeast Ohio counties.