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...

Little is known about producers' willingness to use manure. Past studies have focused on substitutability for fertilizers. We surveyed crop producers in a cattle-dense region of the Colorado Plains about whether and why they apply manure, focusing on how pressures (like owning cattle) or...

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...

A direct elicitation of utility approach is used to measure risk preferences of commercial sugar cane farmers in the Mzimkulu, Sezela and Eston sugarmill areas of KwaZulu-Natal. Arrow- Pratt absolute risk aversion coefficients are elicited, adjusted for both range and scale of the data, to allow...

"The reasons for sluggish adoption of long-run agricultural systems are not well understood. Researchers have identified risk and uneven cash flows as two likely culprits, yet the literature has done little to investigate their impacts simultaneously. We explore the unique influence of risk,...

Open space provides a range of benefits to many people of a community, beyond the benefits that accrue to private landowners. Parks and natural areas can be used for recreation; wetlands and forests supply storm-water drainage and wildlife habitat; farms and forests provide aesthetic benefits to...

The Cooperative Extension Service is an outstanding success story for education, but a model whose value is now in question. I focus on economic principles that apply to the question, "Is it time to end Extension, and if not, how can it be saved?" Six principles are identified: public goods,...