Buyers and sellers of agricultural commodities benefit from public provision of information in decision-making processes. The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of current preferences for public agricultural information. Results indicate preference for farm level reports by...

Cattle feeders want feeder cattle that have been weaned and preconditioned with a certified health program. Preconditioned calves perform more efficiently in the feedlot with lower morbidity and mortality. Health program claims, however, range from no claim to being USDA-certified. The value of...

Dairy policy is a contentious part of farm bill negotiations. The dairy title of the next farm bill has been discussed since 2009 with many novel policy proposals considered. This research utilizes best-worst scenario analysis to analyze dairy farmer preferences for policy options including...

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...

Proponents of the U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) law have argued that consumers prefer domestic meat and value labels confirming domestic origin. Following legislation enacted in March 2009, an ex post analysis of demand is possible to evaluate relative costs and benefits of...

"Sustainably produced" food labels have rapidly grown in popularity over the past decade (Batte 2011). Moreover, because there is no government agency overseeing certification of these production methods, consumers are generally confused about the production attributes that may or may not be...

This research evaluates the impact of using different starting conditions in estimating meat demand systems. Results suggest that as the econometric task becomes increasingly nonlinear, specification of starting conditions becomes increasingly important. This work demonstrates implications of...

Food safety concerns have had dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets in recent years. Here we examine consumer preferences for various beef food safety assurances. In particular, we evaluate the extent to which such preferences are heterogeneous within and across country-of-residence...

This research evaluates the efficiency of swine firms differing by specialization type and employed technologies. Measures of technical, allocative, scale, economic, and overall efficiency are separately and jointly estimated for farrow-to-finish, farrow-to-feeder, feeder-to-finish,...

Beef food safety events have contributed to considerable market volatility, produced varied consumer reactions, created policy debates, sparked heated trade disputes, and generally contributed to beef industry frustrations. Better understanding of the forces causing observed consumer reactions...