A survey of extension administrators, department heads, and extension specialists was conducted to determine the best methods for evaluating the performance of extension economists. The results demonstrate how the groups surveyed view the relative importance of the various roles played by...

This paper investigates the response of beef cattle producers to changes in the price of cattle. Previous research has suggested that there may be a negative short-run supply response to a permanent increase in the price of cattle. We build a dynamic, rational expectations model that predicts...

Auction experiments at locations in the U.S. and Canada are used to determine consumers’ willingness to pay for red-meat traceability and other enhanced food characteristics. Consumers in both countries are found to be willing to pay a positive amount for traceability, but would pay even more...

This article reports the results from a series of laboratory auction markets in which consumers bid on meat characteristics. The characteristics examined include meat traceability (i.e., the ability to trace the retail meat back to the farm or animal or origin), transparency (e.g., knowing that...

This note addresses the issue of countercyclical strategies in the beef-cattle industry. It also attempts to clarify and comment on several issues raised by Hamilton and Kastens (2000) in their article entitled “Does Market Timing Contribute to the Cattle Cycle?”

This paper demonstrates that the U.S. pork industry is lagging its principal international competitors and major international customers in terms of developing programs for traceability, transparency, and assurance (TTA). The primary areas of weakness in U.S. TTA programs are at the producer...

The announcement on December 23, 2003 that a dairy cow in the state of Washington was diagnosed as having BSE sent shock waves through the US beef industry. This research uses auction experiments to determine the pre- and post-BSE effects of traceability and country-of-origin information on US...

A survey of state veterinarians and leaders of state cattle producer associations was conducted in January 2004 to identify the determinants of support for animal ID programs in the United States. The results indicate strong support for implementing some form of animal ID program, but that only...