Live cattle futures were developed in the 1960s to serve a cattle feeding industry that was drastically different than cattle feeding in the 21st century. However, in spite of a few tweaks, the Live Cattle contract is essentially the same instrument that the CME unveiled in 1965.

Speaking at the 2011 K-State Cattle Feeders College, Bill Mies, emeritus professor of feedyard management at Texas A&M University, offered some thoughts on how the industry can modernize the contract to make it more useful to today’s cattle feeder.