ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Cattle auction markets are business entities that facilitate the transfer of cattle among livestock producers. Transfer of ownership is typically concurrent with physical movement of livestock from a consignor's animal holding on to the auction's premises and then off again to the buyer's animal holding. Because auction markets provide hubs in the cattle transportation network, they provide a unique opportunity for livestock disease transmitting contacts between otherwise isolated farms, ranches and other animal holdings. For this reason, a post-hoc analysis of the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic in the UK supported targeting containment policies around livestock auction markets at high risk of marketing animals from an infectious holding (Shirley & Rushton 2005). Any similar analysis in the US would require basic data on the locations of auction markets and their contact with livestock producers, but no such dataset
exists; the agricultural census conducted by the US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is restricted to qualifying farms (Anon. 2014, Appendix A). However, directories of livestock auction markets are maintained by different private and public entities for various purposes. While none of these provide a comprehensive list of cattle auction markets, this study produced a compilation of four such lists yielding the most comprehensive, spatially explicit accounting of cattle auction markets currently available for the US.

The list of cattle auctions was compiled from the following publicly available directories:

1. 
   Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
   
   
   
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     Summary: Facilities approved to handle livestock for interstate commerce, pursuant to Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 71.1.
   
   
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     Link: Approved Livestock Markets
     
   
   
   
   


2. 
   Grain Inspection, Packers and Stock
   yards Administration (GIPSA) of the USDA
   
   
   
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     Summary: Market agencies selling livestock that are required to register with GIPSA under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
   
   
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     Link: Registered and Bonded Market Agencies Selling Livestock on Commission
     
   
   
   
   


3. 
   Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of the USDA
   
   
   
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     Summary: Market News publications catalogue price and sales information at cattle auctions distributed across multiple states.
     
   
   
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     Link: Slaughter Cattle Auctions
     
   
   
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     Link: Feeder and Replacement Cattle Auctions
     
   
   
   
   


4. 
   Livestock Marketing Association (LMA)
   
   
   
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     Summary: Trade association and insurance agency representing livestock markets and dealers nationwide.
     
   
   
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     Link: Auction/Dealer Locator Service
     
   
   
   
   

We employed a conservative matching procedure to identify markets represented in multiple lists and assign them a common premises identifier. Subsequently, the county or county equivalent where each premises is located was found by combining address information from each corresponding market. To identify the county containing a city or street address, we used two geocoding web services, GeoNames and Nominatim via the MapQuest Open Geocoding Service. No attempt was made to complete partial entries or correct incorrect address components in the compiled market list. Only 36 of 1814 premises could not be assigned to a county due to incomplete or contradictory address information. Links given below as Related Material provide source code for the market matching procedure and a map of the distribution of cattle auction markets from the compiled list.

Related Material:

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  GitHub repository for market de-duplication and county assignment methods
  


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  Data visualization on Google Fusion Tables