Mexico is the fastest growing market for US dairy exports and it is the largest market for U.S. cheese. The U.S. has always enjoyed a large share of the Mexican cheese market. However, its share growth has been less dynamic than the share of Europe, Oceania and other countries, despite...

The spread of infectious disease among and between wild and domesticated animals has become a major problem worldwide. We analyze the socially optimal management of wildlife and livestock, including choices involving environmental habitat variables and on-farm biosecurity controls, when wildlife...

As dairy farms grow and specialize in milking cows, one enterprise that may be removed from the dairy farm to allow for milk cow herd expansion is heifer raising. Custom heifer raising is increasingly common across the country and purchasing heifers may be preferred to raising heifers. However,...

This paper examines the economics of farm decisions to prevent and control infectious livestock disease. In the case of diseases with costly control tolerating some level of disease is often rational to the producer. Public policy intervention is based on future value and public good aspects of...

Averting or limiting the outbreak of infectious disease in domestic livestock herds is an economic and potential human health issue that involves both the government and individual livestock producers. Producers have private information about preventive biosecurity measures they adopt on their...

Dairy managers today are faced with the decision to either raise their own replacements on the dairy farm or send heifers to a custom heifer grower. The largest potential challenge of contracting out the heifer raising enterprise revolves around the potential for a moral hazard problem because...

Milk sales are the largest source of revenue on dairy farms. Reproduction is necessary to generate a new lactation. However, a pregnancy also dictates when the previous lactation must end so that the cow can retain sufficient condition into her new lactation. Pregnancy rate and estrus detection...

This report summarizes the financial and production records of 11 dairy grazing farms from across Michigan. These 11 farms indicated that they grazed dairy cows at least three months of the year and that grazing provided more than 30 percent of the forage consumed during the year. To be...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/15/04.