An Economic Model for Swine Production

This work begins with the observation that
significant structural changes in livestock
production practices have occurred since the
traditional or piece-wise approach to the analysis of
livestock production was established in the 1950''s
(e.g., Heady, 1954).The purpose of this work is to
analyze the effects of two sources of these changes,
shifts in consumer''s tastes and preferences and
changes in the regulatory environment in which
production takes place, on overall swine farm
profitability. The traditional approach to livestock
production analysis regards the effects of these
changes on values generated by production components
in a piece-wise way. The integrated swine production
model, developed here, is based on a more
comprehensive or integrated approach (Zering, 2001).
The integrated model simultaneously accounts for the
effects of ration, growth and manure handling
decisions on overall farm profitability and jointly
optimizes pork and manure nutrient outputs.
Accounting for value interactions between production
components expands the farmer''s choice set of
activities for either mitigating or exploiting
nutrient related parameter changes. This is the main
benefit of the integrated model. Overall farm
profitability generated under the integrated approach
will at worst be identical to overall profitability
generated under the piece-wise approach to modeling
the nutrient related aspects of livestock production.

Autorentext

O Fenton Wells IV, Ph.D., Economics; North Carolina State University. Concentrations in Agricultural and Development Economics and in Industrial Organization. Statistical Services Specialist at SAS Institute with focus on forecasting and modeling time series data.

Klappentext
This work begins with the observation that significant structural changes in livestock production practices have occurred since the traditional or piece-wise approach to the analysis of livestock production was established in the 1950's (e.g., Heady, 1954).The purpose of this work is to analyze the effects of two sources of these changes, shifts in consumer's tastes and preferences and changes in the regulatory environment in which production takes place, on overall swine farm profitability. The traditional approach to livestock production analysis regards the effects of these changes on values generated by production components in a piece-wise way. The integrated swine production model, developed here, is based on a more comprehensive or integrated approach (Zering, 2001). The integrated model simultaneously accounts for the effects of ration, growth and manure handling decisions on overall farm profitability and jointly optimizes pork and manure nutrient outputs. Accounting for value interactions between production components expands the farmer's choice set of activities for either mitigating or exploiting nutrient related parameter changes. This is the main benefit of the integrated model. Overall farm profitability generated under the integrated approach will at worst be identical to overall profitability generated under the piece-wise approach to modeling the nutrient related aspects of livestock production.