Abstract
We simulated beef cattle producers’ returns to shortening a 120-day calving season to 45 and 60 days by replacing late-calving cows for two herd sizes. We developed dynamic simulation models to consider production and price risk. We explored outcomes from annually replacing 10% or 20% of the late-calving cows to reach the desired calving-season length. The optimal scenario depends on herd size and whether the producer wants to maximize profits or certainty equivalent. The smaller herd benefited more from shortening calving season relative to the large herd.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 228-241 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright 2021 the authors
Funding
Christopher N. Boyer is an associate professor and Charley Martinez in an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Kenny Burdine is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. Justin Rhinehart is an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We thank the anonymous reviews and editors for their helpful comments. This study was supported by the leadership and staff at Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, Tennessee, and the University of Tennessee AgResearch. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Review coordinated by Darren Hudson.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| University of Tennessee AgResearch |
Keywords
- Beef cattle
- Profitability
- Reproduction
- Simulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Animal Science and Zoology
- Agronomy and Crop Science
- Economics and Econometrics