ABSTRACT
Casual reflection upon the nature of the changes in the production processes for beef, pork, and chicken over the 25 yr brings to mind numerous changes and technological innovations. Chicken production has been transformed from a backyard, morning and evening chore operation to a full-scale, capital-intensive enterprise. Costs of production data, profit estimates, breakeven price calculations, etc. are always difficult to obtain and define and thus should be viewed with caution. Economic theory suggests that, if feeder animal production activities are competitive, then profits/losses in producing feeder animals should be driven to zero in the long run. In fact, in 1955, beef had a production cost below that of chicken. Capital and land costs constitute a much larger portion of the cost of production for beef vs pork and chicken. In the beef industry, as opposed to the pork and chicken industry, longer, more severe periods of losses usually are required to cause production cutbacks that lead to higher prices.
