DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ED-STATES-NATIONAL-ANIMAL-HEALTH-MONITORING-SYSTEM 1994-95 CATTLE ON FEED EVALUATION, AND AN EVALUATION OFTHE IMPACT OF RESPONSE BIASES

The 1994-95 Cattle on Feed Evaluation was a cooperative project (spons ored by the United States Department of Agriculture) involving Washing ton State University, state agricultural departments, and several agen cies of the United States Department of Agriculture), The project focu sed on cattle-on-feed operations in 13 states that accounted for over 85% of the United Slates cattle on feed inventory, Participants were s elected from National Agricultural Statistics Service list frames. Que stionnaires were administered by telephone to operations with a one-ti me capacity of fewer than 1000 cattle; larger operations were visited twice to administer questionnaires. The participation rate for the fir st phase of the study was 56.7%. Ninety-one percent of eligible operat ions completed the second phase of the study. Data summarized from thi s national study can be used to profile management practices on cattle -feeding operations in the United States. Differences between particip ants and non-participants did not appear to be gnat. However, one does need to be mindful of the fact that a small percentage of the produce rs accounted for the vast majority of feedlot cattle marketed when int erpreting the results. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.