American study offers insight on retail split

Have you heard of William Hahn?

Neither had I until his name popped up during an internet search I was doing for information on beef carcase meat yields; my interest in the subject having been rekindled recently by stories in the press that the IFA were proposing a 20 cents bonus for cattle who met certain conditions on the QPS grid.

Mr Hahn is an agriculture economist who works in the Economic Research Services section of the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington. Among other things his section produces what are know as price spreads.