Replaced with revised version of paper 02/10/10

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...

Costs, returns, and profitability of cow-calf farms that are organic or transitioning to organic are compared with those of cow-calf farms that are non-organic. A method of matching samples is used for the comparison. Results suggest higher cost of organic production due to higher unpaid labor,...

We examine U.S. dairy farmer adopter characteristics and adoption rates of eleven technologies. Excepting grazing, technologies were generally adopted complementarily. Four were used on higher percentages of farms in 2005 than 2000. The interaction of farm size with adoption suggests greater...

Factors influencing farmer selection of a crawfish marketing outlet were analyzed using 2008 survey data from the Louisiana crawfish industry. Most farmers sell directly to wholesalers. Probit results show farm size, farm income, household income, age, education, and pre-market grading and...

Adoption decisions and profitability of advanced breeding technologies are analyzed for U.S. dairy farms. The bivariate probit with selection model is used. Results show that specialized, younger, more educated farmers with longer planning horizons are more likely to adopt the technologies, with...

The assumption of homogeneity between family and hired farm labor is common in farm labor research. Controlling for region and farm size, this study employs a seemingly unrelated regression analysis to jointly estimate a translog cost function and factor cost shares to determine the elasticity...

In recent years, significant structural and production system changes have been noted in the U.S. and European Union, as well as increased interest in pasture-based dairy systems. Technical efficiency, returns to scale, and farm characteristics are compared by size and production system in...

Profitability and labor associated with rotational grazing at three stocking rates and continuous grazing at a medium stocking rate are compared. On a per-acre basis, profits are lowest for low stocking rate rotational grazing. Labor is greatest on both per-acre and per-cow bases with high...