Livestock producers can respond to increasing consumer demand for certain production process attributes by providing verifiable information on the practices used. Consumer willingness to pay data were used to inform producer decision-making regarding selection of verification entities for four...

Land is a natural resource that is valued for many reasons. Farmers utilize land to earn their livelihood and as a store of wealth for future retirement. Rural residents have increasingly sought open space for home sites and pursuit of a lifestyle. Developers seek financial opportunities to...

Land is a natural resource that is valued for many reasons. Farmers utilize land to earn their livelihood and as a store of wealth for future retirement. Rural residents have increasingly sought open space for home sites and pursuit of a lifestyle. Developers seek financial opportunities to...

Averting or limiting the outbreak of infectious disease in domestic livestock herds is an economic and potential human health issue that involves both the government and individual livestock producers. Producers have private information about preventive biosecurity measures they adopt on their...

This report summarizes the financial and production records of 16 dairy farms across the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. To be included, the farms must have produced at least 50 percent of gross cash farm income from milk and dairy animal sales. The records came from Michigan State...

Dairy policy often becomes a contentious topic during U.S. farm bill negotiations. The dairy subtitle of the 2012 farm bill has been debated and discussed since 2009. This research uses best-worst scenario methods to analyze dairy farmer preferences for policy options, including eliminating...

This report summarizes the financial and production records of 156 dairy farms from throughout Michigan in 2005. To be included, the farms must have produced at least 50 percent of gross cash farm income from milk and dairy animal sales. The records came from Michigan State University's TelFarm...

Accelerated prepubertal growth rates can lower heifer raising costs but may put heifers at risk for impaired mammary development and have been found to be detrimental decreased to milk production in the first lactation. The tradeoff between heifer raising costs and milk production loss is...

Livestock rations are formulated to minimize feed cost subject to nutritional requirements for a target performance level, which ignores the potentially substantial cost of disposing of nutrients fed in excess of nutritional requirements. We incorporate nutrient disposal costs into a modified...

Paper replaced with revised version 06/13/08