Systematic breeding decisions made within a vertically integrated beef supply chain

This thesis is an investigation of how the mating of selected beef sires on a set cow population, as chosen by decision makers within a vertically integrated supply chain, might utilize information within that supply chain. A systematic approach was taken to model and determine the benefits and associated sire rankings arising from the simulated mating of parent stock to create progeny for use within a vertically integrated supply chain. The measure of benefit reported is chain-wide gross margins. Supply chain revenues are in the form of quality indexed retail product revenue. Quality indexing factors included in this study are intramuscular fat and ribeye area. Two methods for arriving at a progeny gross margin are presented, a fixed and an optimum endpoint selection method. Varying progeny gross margins and sire rankings were produced. The various levels of gross margin were significantly different from zero. No current method of selecting parental stock returns similar results.