Excerpt from the report: In recent years, several independent studies of different phases of the complex marketing process for livestock and meat have been made by the Department, and reports on them have been published. Each of these studies has been concerned with a selected segment of the overall marketing process. The immediate objective of this report is to combine and coordinate the information obtained in these numerous studies in order to present for use of the industry a more complete picture of the different agencies utilized, services rendered, and costs and margins in the marketing and processing of livestock and meat.