Technical efficiency, scale and scope economies, marginal productive contributions for inputs and outputs, and efficiency drivers were determined for the Southeastern U.S meat goat enterprise. The average technical efficiency was 0.88. We find increasing returns to scale and scope economies for...

Agriculture production in the Texas High Plains is highly dependent on climate especially with the decline in water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. There is increasing pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer as a result of an increase in population and expansion of agricultural production. The decline...

We estimate a production function for U.S. dairy farming to examine the productivity of organic and non-organic dairy production by system and size. Across organic/non-organic systems and size classes, size is the major determinant of competitiveness based on various measures of productivity and...

Grass-fed beef cost and returns survey data from 2012 were analyzed to measure technical efficiency of GFB farms in the U.S. We found all inputs with expected signs. The average technical efficiency of GFB was 70% and the farms are operating with increasing returns to scale.

Participants in the Louisiana sugar cane industry have provided little information related to the efficiency of sugar processing operations. Using panel data from the population of Louisiana sugar processors, alternative model specifications are estimated using stochastic frontier methods to...

This study estimates the elasticities of wholesale food prices, cost efficiency, and market power with respect to industrial concentration in 35 food processing industries, modifying the model of Lopez, Azzam, and Lirón-España (2002). In contrast to the results of their earlier analysis,...

To generate additional income for their members, many cooperatives consider forward integrating into processing activities. However, many market, industry, and economic issues must be considered before choosing a value-added processing activity to pursue. Gathering the necessary information to...

Stochastic simulation is used to analyze the effects of weather and output price risks on feeder cattle backgrounding systems common to the mid-south region of the United States. The results show that backgrounding systems beginning in the fall and ending from April to late August are associated...