This article tests the efficiency of the hog options market and assesses the impact of the 1996 contract redesign on efficiency. We find that the hog options market is efficient, but some options yielded excess returns during the live hogs period but not during the lean hogs period. Our findings...

Cattle feeding enterprises operate amid variability originating in prices and production. Thisresearch explicitly models yield risks related to cattle feeding by relating the mean and varianceof yield performance factors to observable conditioning variables. The results demonstratethat pen...

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Cattle feeding enterprises operate amid variability originating in prices and production. This research explicitly models yield risks related to cattle feeding by relating the mean and variance of yield performance factors to observable conditioning variables. The results demonstrate that pen...

This study investigates reasons for adoption of best management practices (BMP), crawfish farmers’ participation in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and economic impacts of BMP adoption using data from a 2008 survey of crawfish producers. Most-cited reasons for BMP...

Research on the efficiency of dairy farming in New Zealand is limited and has focused predominantly on technical efficiency. We contribute to the literature on empirical analysis by examining cost efficiency of New Zealand dairy farms. We construct simplified translog stochastic cost frontiers...

In recent decades the northwestern part of Germany (Weser-Ems region) has come to focus on intensive pork production. This has led to public outrage about the disposal of biological waste, farmers’ complaints about the high cost of leasing land, soaring risks of animal diseases, and the...