After World War II, livestock slaughter decentralized and livestock producers increased direct sales to packers. As a result, livestock producers have been less likely than other agricultural producers to use cooperatives to market their farm production. Between 1994 and 1998, less than 15...

This analysis compares net returns of conventional and alternative agricultural cropping systems in northeast Kansas, with and without government commodity programs. The highest net return is consistently from the alternative system, wheat/clover-sorghum-soybeans. Sensitivity analysis reveals...

This study investigates nonparametrically the optimizing behavior of a sample of 289 Kansas farms under profit-maximizing and cost-minimizing hypotheses. The results do not support strict adherence to either optimization hypothesis. However, evidence against cost-minimizing behavior seems to be...