Jeremy D. Foltz

Entry, Exit, and Farm Size: Assessing an Experiment in Dairy Price Policy

This article models and estimates the forces behind farm exits and changes in herd-size among Connecticut dairy farms under the New England Dairy Compact. A model of sunk costs and farm capital investment is used to specify two econometric estimations: a random effects probit model of farm entry and exit and an autocorrelated generalized least squares panel data model of farm size. The Dairy Compacts price strategy reduced farm exits and moderately increased cow numbers. In contrast, development pressures and historically low unemployment rates increased farm exits. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Milk by Any Other Name … Consumer Benefits from Labeled Milk

This article uses revealed preferences of consumers to study the consumer benefits from rBST-free and organic labeled milk. The article specifies and estimates a quadratic AIDS demand system model for different milk types using U.S. supermarket scanner data. The introduction of rBST-free and organic milk is used to estimate consumer benefits that are decomposed into two components, competitive and variety effects. Results show significant consumer benefits from organic milk and to a lesser extent from rBST-free milk. Based on the findings, we explore implications for present U.S. labeling standards.

Universities and agricultural biotechnology patent production.

Using patent data, this work provides an initial empirical investigation into university production of agricultural biotechnology patents. We develop a consistent theoretical methodology for understanding the university patent production process and then estimate count data econometric models of university-owned agricultural biotechnology patents on a series of explanatory variables. The zero inflated negative binomial econometric model used allows inclusion of all major universities, rather than merely those dedicated to agricultural research. The results demonstrate the importance of the US land grant university infrastructure, technology transfer offices, and star scientists. lJEL Codes: L300- Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise: General Q160- Agricultural Technology: Agricultural Extension Services C240- Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models: Truncated and Censored Modelsr

Integrating Technology Traits and Producer Heterogeneity: A Mixed-Multinomial Model of Genetically Modified Corn Adoption

This article proposes a model of technology adoption that integrates demand for individual traits of new technologies with the potential for heterogeneity based on farm and farmer characteristics. The model is applied to recent genetically modified corn adoption data from Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers, using a mixed-multinomial logit (MMNL) model to estimate the effects of traits and farm and farmer characteristics on adoption outcomes. This approach allows explicit recovery of estimates of farmers’ shadow prices for individual technology traits. Results show the importance of producer and regional heterogeneity in preferences for seed traits. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

A Dynamic Analysis of University Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Production

This article examines the factors that account for agricultural biotechnology patenting success among universities using a dynamic count data model. It builds a theoretical and econometric model to capture the inherently dynamic and nonlinear process of technological innovation, wherein a feedback mechanism from previous success partially determines current patent counts. The econometric estimates reveal the importance to agricultural biotechnology patent production of land grant infrastructure, quality faculty, patent-oriented technology transfer offices, as well as dynamic feedback effects.

Agroecosystem specific climate vulnerability analysis: application of the livelihood vulnerability index to a tropical highland region

In topographically diverse highland terrain, socio-economic and environmental conditions can vary dramatically over relatively short distances. This presents a challenge for climate resilient development strategies, as exposure to climate variability and change, climate impacts, and adaptive capacity differ between communities located within common cultural and administrative units. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) framed within the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vulnerability framework (LVI-IPCC) offers a tool to assess climate vulnerability through direct household surveys. This makes it particularly appropriate for analyses at sub-community and community scales. Here we apply the LVI-IPCC to communities of Choke Mountain, located in the Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia. Recognizing the physiographic and climatic diversity that exists in this mountainous environment, we implement LVI-IPCC analysis for 793 mixed crop-livestock farming households using the five distinct agroecological systems (AES) that compose the populated area of Choke Mountain as a framework for analysis. For each AES, an LVI index, adaptive capacity metric, and LVI-IPCC vulnerability score was calculated. We found that each of these metrics varied systematically across AES. High elevation sloping lands and low elevation steep lands exhibited relatively low adaptive capacity and high vulnerability while midland AES had higher capacity and lower vulnerability. These results suggest that resilience building interventions for Choke Mountain ecosystems should be targeted to address the specific circumstances of each AES. The approach of applying LVI-IPCC at AES scale could be applicable to other climate vulnerable mountainous regions.

Synergies or Trade-Offs in University Life Sciences Research

Major legislative, legal, and technological changes paved the way for a period of remarkable growth in the patenting of life science research by U.S. universities in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a multiple-output cost framework and two decades of panel data on ninety-six universities, this article examines whether economies of scope and/or scale are present in university production of three major life science research outputs: journal articles, patents, and doctorates. The results show strong evidence of economies of scale in life science research production with mixed evidence of economies of scope between articles and patents.

Do Purchasing Patterns Differ Between Large and Small Dairy Farms? Econometric Evidence from Three Wisconsin Communities

Using farm data from three dairy-dependent communities in Wisconsin, this study addresses the question: Do small farms spend more locally than large farms? The work develops a theoretical model of farm cost functions with transaction costs varying between local and distant input sources. This model is then tested econometrically, describing farm costs and where they were spent as a function of transaction/search costs and farm characteristics. The results suggest that scale does matter to farm spending patterns.

Building climate resilience in the Blue Nile/Abay Highlands: a role for Earth system sciences.

The Blue Nile (Abay) Highlands of Ethiopia are characterized by significant interannual climate variability, complex topography and associated local climate contrasts, erosive rains and erodible soils, and intense land pressure due to an increasing population and an economy that is almost entirely dependent on smallholder, low-input agriculture. As a result, these highland zones are highly vulnerable to negative impacts of climate variability. As patterns of variability and precipitation intensity alter under anthropogenic climate change, there is concern that this vulnerability will increase, threatening economic development and food security in the region. In order to overcome these challenges and to enhance sustainable development in the context of climate change, it is necessary to establish climate resilient development strategies that are informed by best-available Earth System Science (ESS) information. This requirement is complicated by the fact that climate projections for the Abay Highlands contain significant and perhaps irreducible uncertainties. A critical challenge for ESS, then, is to generate and to communicate meaningful information for climate resilient development in the context of a highly uncertain climate forecast. Here we report on a framework for applying ESS to climate resilient development in the Abay Highlands, with a focus on the challenge of reducing land degradation.

The adoption and impact of management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) on Connecticut dairy farms

Management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) has garnered a great deal of interest in recent years as a method for returning profitability to Northeastern dairy farms. This work uses a random sample of Connecticut dairy farmers to estimate a binary choice adoption model and then cost, productivity, and profit functions that control for the adoption choice. MIRG adopters are shown to be more educated and have less rented agricultural land (a proxy for lack of access to land within a short distance of the barn). MIRG adoption had no significant effects on costs and productivity, nor did it lower profits, per cow. Evidence was found, however, to suggest that full adopters of the technology had more profitable farms than partial adopters. These results also show the importance of controlling for the different characteristics of adopters when evaluating the returns to animal grazing.