Considerable efforts have been made to provide cow-calf producers withinformation to help them make informed decisions about adding value tocalves. Despite demonstrated market incentives to retain calves, manyproducers still sell right after weaning. We postulate this observedbehavior is related to producer risk aversion. Our study concludes riskaversion is an important factor affecting calf retention as the mostrisk-averse producers have more than a 60% probability of selling calves atweaning and the most risk tolerant have less than a 20% probability ofselling at weaning.

In this article, we used bootstrap data envelopment analysis techniques toexamine technical and scale efficiency scores for a balanced panel of 564farms in Kansas for the period 1993–2007. The production technology isestimated under three different assumptions of returns to scale and theresults are compared. Technical and scale efficiency is disaggregated byfarm size and specialization. Our results suggest that farms are both scaleand technically inefficient. On average, technical efficiency hasdeteriorated over the sample period. Technical efficiency varies directly byfarm size and the differences are significant. Differences across farmspecializations are not significant.

This study focuses on managing cotton production and marketing risks usingcombinations of irrigation levels, put options (as price insurance), andcrop insurance. Stochastic cotton yields and prices are used to simulate awhole-farm financial statement for a 1,000 acre furrow-irrigated cotton farmin the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley under 16 combinations of riskmanagement strategies. Analyses for risk-averse decision makers indicatethat multiple irrigations are preferred. The benefits to purchasing putoptions increase with yields, as they are more beneficial when higher yieldsare expected from applying more irrigation applications. Crop insurance isstrongly preferred at lower irrigation levels.

The parameters of yield response functions can vary by year. Past studiesusually assume yield functions are nonstochastic or “limited” stochastic. Inthis study, we estimate rye–ryegrass yield functions in which all parametersare random. The three functional forms considered are the linear responseplateau, the quadratic, and the Spillman-Mitscherlich. Nonstochastic yieldmodels are rejected in favor of stochastic parameter models. Quadraticfunctional forms fit the data poorly. Optimal nitrogen applicationrecommendations are calculated for the linear response plateau andSpillman-Mitscherlich. The stochastic models lead to smaller recommendedlevels of nitrogen, but the economic benefits of using fully stochastic cropyield functions are small because expected profit functions are relativelyflat for the stochastic yield functions. Stochastic crop yield functionsprovide a way of incorporating production, uncertainty into inputdecisions.

Concerns about nutrient loads into our waters have focused attention onpoultry litter applications. Like many states with a large poultry industry,Georgia recently designed a subsidy program to facilitate the transportationof poultry litter out of vulnerable watersheds. This paper uses atransportation model to examine the necessity of a poultry litter subsidy toachieve water protection goals in Georgia. We also demonstrate therelationship between diesel and synthetic fertilizer prices and the value ofpoultry litter. Results suggest that a well-functioning market would be ableto remove excess litter from vulnerable watersheds in the absence of asubsidy.

Anaerobic digesters that capture and burn manure methane can provide arenewable source of energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Payingproducers for these emission reductions—either directly or through a carbonoffset market—could substantially increase digester adoption. However, thereis likely to be wide variation in the scale, location, and characteristicsof adopters, so these policies could have long run structural implicationsfor the livestock sector. Using a model of digester profits and data from anationally-representative survey of dairy operations we estimate the likelydistribution of digester adoption and profits under different carbon pricescenarios.

One source of phosphorous pollution in areas of high chicken production isrunoff from fields using fertilizer from these operations. A potentialsolution is to feed chicken high available phosphorus (HAP) corn, reducingphosphorus in manure. This study examined consumer purchase likelihood ofchickens fed HAP, created traditionally or through genetic modification, andother genetically modified (GM) corn including Bt and Roundup-ready. Surveyresults from the Delmarva Peninsula found considerable interest in non-GMHAP corn, although GM HAP corn was not typically viewed as more acceptablethan other GM varieties. Overall, the marketplace appears open to productsgeared toward environmental benefits.

Information about cigarettes can help smokers come to an informed decisionabout what cigarettes to purchase. Countermarketing information can helpsmokers make informed decisions, but little is known about the value of thisinformation to smokers. In this article, we use data from experimentalauctions to estimate the value of countermarketing information that countersindustry claims about reduced-risk cigarettes. We find that this informationhas significant value to smokers who have been exposed to marketinginformation from tobacco companies touting reduced-risk cigarettes, but wefind no evidence it provides value to smokers not exposed to this marketinginformation.