A more appropriate title for the article would be Effect of Feed Grain Programs and Other Structural Changes on Stability of the Livestock Industry since only one major element of performance-stability-is considered. Many other elements could have been analyzed, including product improvement, innovation, efficiency of production, marketing and processing, and adjustments to consumer demand. This, of course, would be an extensive assignment. While the authors identify many of the salient factors contributing to instability or stability in livestock production and prices, several other developments might have been examined. Let me suggest a few of these. An area not discussed in the paper is the balancing mechanism of the import-export trade in livestock, meat, and livestock products. One important stabilizing element in the cattle market in recent years has been the increasing importance of beef and veal imports. Imports, mostly processed beef, tend to increase when cow slaughter drops and to decline when cow slaughter picks up. This helps to stabilize cow prices, and fedcattle prices as well. Only passing reference is made in the paper to range feed conditions, which have triggered turns in the cattle cycle in the past. As stated by the authors, the increased substitution of feed grains for forage may have contributed to the dampening of the cycle. The point also could be made that the wider dispersion of the beef-cow herd throughout the United States has also likely reduced the instability in cattle numbers. The U.S. beefcattle inventory has become less dependent on the highly variable range feed conditions in the West.