The objective of this study is to assess the technical efficiency and other economic performance measures of southeastern U.S. cow-calf farms. We describe and compare cow-calf operations by size, farm resource regions, and states, and measure their relative competitiveness. We estimate a Cobb-...

We estimate an input distance function for U.S. dairy farming to examine the competitiveness 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...

The extent of forage purchasing behavior in milk production and its impact on profitability are analyzed using data from the 2000 and 2005 dairy versions of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Forage outsourcing is more common with hay than with silage and haylage, and is more prevalent...

The objective of this study is to assess the scale and technical efficiencies and other economic performance measures of southeastern U.S. cow-calf farms. We describe and compare cow-calf operations by size and farm resource region and measure their relative competitiveness. We estimate an input...

The U.S. dairy industry is undergoing rapid structural change, evolving from a structure including many small farmers in the Upper Midwest and Northeast to one that includes very large farms in new production regions. Small farms are struggling to retain competitiveness via improved management...

U.S. dairy production is consolidating into fewer but larger farms. This report uses data from several USDA surveys to detail that consolidation and to analyze the financial drivers of consolidation. Specifically, larger farms realize lower production costs. Although small dairy farms realize...

U.S. dairy operations are sorted via a multinomial logit model into three production systems: pasture-based, semi-pasture-based, and conventional. Region, farm size, financial situation, and production intensity measures impact system choice. Analysis follows to determine the impact of...

Technical and scale efficiencies are estimated for organic and non-organic dairy farms in the United States using an input distance function approach. A multinomial logit analysis is used to categorize the farms by technology. Large conventional farms outperformed smaller farms in most...

Facing rapid and significant change in the sector, U.S. dairy production trends from 1993-2005 were tracked and performance measures (scale and technical efficiency and returns on assets) were estimated for conventional and pasture-based dairy farms using data from USDA's Agricultural Resource...