T.W. Schultz (1975) proposed that returns to human capital were highest in economicenvironments where technology, price or production shocks were common and managerial skillsto adapt resource allocations to those shocks were most in need. We hypothesize that variationin returns to human capital...

Sometimes authorities are unable to identify rapidly the origin of a tainted product.In such cases, recalls or warnings often apply to all suppliers, even to those thathad not contributed to the contamination. Traceability enables more targetedrecalls by identifying more specically the product's...

Traditional break-even/fed cattle price projections do not provide adequate risk information to feeders, investors, lenders, and other stakeholders interested in cattle feeding decisions. The objectives of this study were two-fold: 1) develop a spreadsheet model that could estimate the net...

Australia and New Zealand are major beef producing countries and major beef exporters. Unlike the case in the United States, where less than 10 percent of beef is exported, approximately 60 percent of Australia’'s and 85 percent of New Zealand’'s beef production is exported. Because of their...

It has been argued that access to captive supply cattle improve the economic efficiency of beefpacking facilities. However, this argument has not been subject to hypothesis testing. This workmodels the cost efficiencies associated with captive supplies or cattle we refer to as beingsourced...

Information on typical differences in prices and price risk (as measured by the variances ofprices) across marketing arrangements aids fed cattle producers in making choices aboutmethods to use for selling fed cattle to beef packers. This information is also useful for policydiscussions on...

Worldwide, a segment of consumers can afford to pay substantial price premiums for very high quality agricultural products with attributes those consumers value. At the same time, many U.S. farmers are producing these high-quality products but are not using market mechanisms that allow them to...