This paper presents some results of an econometric study of the Italian cattle and beef sector based on twelve equations of which, eight describe the functioning of production and supply (four for each part of the Country), two deal with demand and consumer price respectively, and one analyses the margin between consumer' prices and to producer'prices;the model is completed by four identities that make it possible to calculate producer' prices for cattle and imports of carcass beef.After a general description of the model (sections 1 and 2) and a discussion of the underlying hypotheses (section 3), the most important research results are presented and discussed in section 4.The research results confirm that there is a dualism in the structure of Italian beef production; that imports of live cattle play a complementary role; that agricultural firms are subordinated to oligopolistic firms operating in the processing and distribution phases; that at the present structure of livestock farming it is quite impossible to increase the level of self-sufficiency.