Excerpts from the report: The farm-retail spread is the difference between the retail price per pound of Choice beef and the return to the farmer for the equivalent quantity of live cattle, less the value of the byproducts. In this article, this spread is called the spread between the beef price and the cattle price. The purpose of this article is to place both short and long-term changes in cattle and beef prices in perspective and to discuss the trend observed in these prices and the spread between them.
