This case study uses current dynamics in the U.S. beef cattle industry to illustrate the use of financial analysis tools such as net present value in making investment decisions. Two problems face the livestock producer in this case study: 1) should the producer purchase replacement females or...

Louisiana farmers were surveyed to determine their adoption of information and record-keeping technologies, including the Internet, Dairy Herd Improvement Association membership, use of financial measures, and frequency of use of computerized records. Factors influencing adoption included having...

This work estimates Probit and Tobit models of the adoption of rbST on Connecticut dairy farms and then endogenizes that adoption in estimates of milk production and farm profit rates. The work improves on the current literature by allowing the rbST decision to be both continuous and contingent...

The data used, and the methods and assumptions fundamental to the development of an equilibrium displacement model (EDM) of the Australian sheep and wool industries specified in Mounter et al. (2007), are contained in this report. The national sheep flock is disaggregated into Merino and...

Increased demand for corn for ethanol production has helped push grain prices to record levels. This has increased livestock production costs, and producers have responded with changes to production systems. This paper explores the degree to which costs can be mitigated with alternative feeds,...

Nonparametric procedures are used to compare technological change in SIC 2011, meatpacking, and SIC 2015, poultry slaughter and processing. There has been a greater increase in total factor productivity in poultry than in the red meats. Evidence also suggests recent differences in the bias of...

The paper presents an examination of genetic-based technological change in the Canadian beef cattle industry. A model of technological change is explicitly developed in characteristics space. Production functions with genetic characteristics as arguments are estimated and two forms of...