Profit maximization-does it matter?

Comparative hypotheses are statistically tested for a random sample of Texas producers who perceive themselves as profit maximizers and those who do not. Those who assert that they are in the cow-calf business primarily to maximize profits have on average larger herd sizes and acreage, they earn a greater percent of their total net income from farming and ranching, and they place more emphasis on supportive economic motivations and less on social reasons for owning cattle. Off-farm employment status and the qualitative response to changes in price expectations are not unambiguously related to perceived motivations.