As is the case with most rural agricultural communities, western Colorado is dependent on fossil fuels transported from distant sources. This results in vulnerability to fuel supply disruptions and price shocks (Ederington et al., 2011; Yu, Wang, and Lai, 2008). A predictable and locally derived...

This research examines returns to cattle feeding operations that sort animals prior to marketing using ultrasound technology. The returns to sorting are between $11 and $25 per head depending on the number of groups the pens into which cattle can be sorted. Sorting faces declining returns. These...

This paper addresses the economic impacts of swine growth variability. Different economic penalties are determined to be associated with over-finishing versus under-finishing an animal. Marketing decisions based on the pen average are determined to be insignificantly less than optimal for a case...

Computers change rapidly, yet the last survey on computer use in agriculture was in 1991. We surveyed Great Plains producers in 1995 and used logit analysis to characterize adopters and non-adopters. About 37% of these producers use computers which is consistent with the general population. We...

This study examined the production structure of smallholder dairy farms in Kenya’s marginal zones, using duality theory in production and costs. The restricted translog cost function was used to derive a system of six input share equations, which were estimated simultaneously with the...

Smallholder exotic dairy cattle have been adopted in the dry marginal zones of Kenya from the high potential areas over the last two decades contrary to the opinion of experts. The objective of this study therefore was to evaluate the economic performance of this dairy establishment in the...