Economic analysis of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) enhanced bee

The objectives of this study were to: find the consumers' willingness to pay premium amount for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) enhanced beef and evaluate which finishing management strategy might be profitable for beef producers.;The results of this study indicated that the feedlot treatment had the lowest per pound carcass cost; the soy oil treatment beef had the highest percent of CLA. Though most consumers were willing to pay a premium for CLA beef (18.03%, 15.81%, and 7.94% higher price for soy oil, soy hulls and pasture only treatment beef respectively), the profit was unclear because the premium might not overcome the higher costs.;The pasture treatments per pound carcass costs were higher than the feedlot's because they had much lower daily weight gains. There were some factors affecting the costs results in this study. One was that the trial was delayed several weeks; the other was that there were very dry in 2002.