This manuscript reports on the development an expert system (DairyPert™) for application to production dairy operations in the United States. The approach combines rule and model based components in a system that permits diagnostic evaluation of a dairy's current operations. Neuron Data's...

IN THE MID TO LATE 1980S, as computer networks grew and online services were developing, companies including supermarkets started to view home shopping as an exciting, new competitive venture. Now, food retailers are struggling with the possibility of providing a home shopping or consumer direct...

While per capita fluid milk consumption has been declining for decades in the United States, generic fluid milk marketing activities sponsored by fluid milk processors and dairy farmers have helped mitigate some of this decline. We estimate that these marketing efforts have had a positive and...

Business and financial records from 253 New York dairy farm businesses are summarized and analyzed. This analysis demonstrates the use of cash accounting and accrual adjustments to measure farm profitability, cash flow, financial performance, and costs of producing milk. Traditional methods of...

This study investigates the standard procurement and merchandising practices of wholesale and retail supermarket dairy buyers in New York State. Although much anecdotal and trade information exists regarding how wholesale/retail buyers make decisions, their standard operating practices have not...

Hedonic pricing is used to value certificates of plant variety protection for soybean seed in New York. The estimated price premium of 2.3 percent (.7 ¢/lb.) is low, and another indicator that US Plant Breeders' Rights protection likely provides inadequate incentives for breeding investment....

Farm retail marketing or farmer-to-consumer direct marketing is an important outlet for many New York vegetable products. Marketing direct to consumers takes special skills and abilities on the part of marketers, and also requires a favorable location with respect to land resources and local...

This paper exploits a unique opportunity to test parallelism between the field and laboratory for the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM). Most commodities in the United States have checkoff programs assessing producers for generic advertising and promotion, a public good for producers....

Over the past several decades, the fresh fruit and vegetable industry has been one of the most dynamic sectors in the U. S. food system. Consumer demand has soared to record levels and both suppliers and distributors have responded with impressive new programs, products and technologies. The...