Christopher A. Wolf

Cornell University | CU · Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

When choosing a partial factorial design for best–worst scaling (BWS) or other discrete choice experiment, researchers are faced with design size choices. This work investigates differences between two case 1 (object) BWS choice experiment designs that varied in choice set size and number of questions. Using a random-parameter logit model, preferen...

Given the revenue and cost volatility with resulting tight profit margins in dairy farming, it is increasingly important to measure, monitor, and understand farm financial risk. Solvency, liquidity, debt repayment capacity, and financial efficiency measures can reveal potential problem areas and assist in financial risk management. Financial risk i...

The complexities of the decision to adopt gene-editing technology at the farm gate are likely to be greater than a simple matter of profitability. We investigate ex ante technology adoption intentions to address how non-pecuniary motivations influence a dairy producer’s decision to adopt gene-editing (GE) technology with animal health and welfare-i...

There is debate about whether meat labeling regulations might prevent consumer confusion or simply reduce the substitution between competing products. Using a between‐subjects experiment with a sample of 1504 U.S. households, we tested whether U.S. consumers could accurately identify the nutrition content and ingredients in traditional and nontradi...

Purpose This article quantifies public sentiment for dairy products using online media and investigates potential relationships between online media, both volume and sentiment, and future prices of Class III milk. Design/methodology/approach Netbase, an online media listening platform, was used to quantify US generated online media sentiment and n...

In Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO), which use multiple component pricing schemas, farmers are paid for delivered quantity of butterfat, protein, and other solids, plus a producer price differential (PPD). The PPD captures the difference between the total handler obligations to the pool and the total component value of milk. In 2020, record neg...

Review of labor cost and efficiency measures from New York dairy farms from 2011 through 2020.

This paper examines U.S. pet owner demand for veterinary service payment plans. Results revealed a strong preference for discounts and promotions for veterinary pet care. Examining specific attributes for a wellness plan revealed that respondents were clearly willing to pay more for preferred pricing compared to discounts for multiple pets. Respond...

Product labels communicate the presence of valuable traits to consumers but, when a single label represents multiple traits, communication can be hindered by consumer misinformation. Redundant labels can address this problem by explicitly indicating included qualities within a comprehensive label. We use data from a field experiment on willingness...

This research used a survey of 995 US households to explore how dairy milk and plant-based beverage substitutes were consumed. Long-term trends of declining beverage milk consumption have been exacerbated in recent years by increasing consumption of plant-based beverages. Although beverage milk consumption has been declining, total dairy consumptio...

Enormous quantities of data are generated through social and online media in the era of Web 2.0. Understanding consumer perceptions or demand efficiently and cost effectively remains a focus for economists, retailer/consumer sciences, and production industries. Most of the efforts to understand demand for food products rely on reports of past marke...

The public perception of the veterinary medicine profession is of increasing concern given the mounting challenges facing the industry, ranging from student debt loads to mental health implications arising from compassion fatigue, euthanasia, and other challenging aspects of the profession. This analysis employs social media listening and analysis...

Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand US Upper Midwest dairy farm profitability performance over time and across herd size. Profitability is broken down into asset efficiency and operating profit margin. The primary objective is to determine how much information is required to accurately benchmark farm performance. Design/methodolo...

Changing consumer shopping behaviors, and specifically the shift towards online procurement of goods and services, have altered the retail landscape of nearly all goods, including pet products and services. Whilst it is known and commonly discussed that less retail business for products and medications is being conducted in clinics than in the past...

Pet ownership, veterinary use, and beliefs regarding veterinary care were elicited through the use of a nationally representative survey of 997 U.S. residents. Fifty-one percent of respondents have or had a dog in the past five years and 37% have or had a cat in the past five years. Over ninety percent of cat and dog owners had visited a veterinari...

U.S. residents’ perceptions of the impact of prominent animal welfare and veterinary care organizations on pet animal well-being and health care may not be linked to the organization’s stated mission and effectiveness in advancing it, but to the level of recognition people have for the groups. An online survey of 1000 U.S. residents was used to und...

Cheese is a widely consumed product in American diets and an important economic driver of US dairy markets. Given the widespread interest in credence attributes of fluid dairy products, the lack of knowledge of demand for animal welfare, environmental, and other credence attributes in cheeses is surprising. Increasing attention surrounding dairy ca...

Mastitis is the most important production disease in dairy farming, leading to considerable inefficiency in production. In 1992, an important paper describing a simple but very useful economic framework for production diseases in animal farming was published. In a systemic literature search, 77 articles were found on the economics of mastitis. Thro...

Background Consumer demand for production process traits in food and agricultural products is rapidly increasing. Recent legal measures reflect demand for high animal welfare standards. At the same time, consumers are wary of biotechnology applications in food and agriculture, with calls for natural or organic production across the industry. Howeve...

The U.S. egg industry has been moving rapidly towards “cage-free” aviary housing as an alternative to conventional cages for hens. A choice experiment was used to evaluate the U.S. public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for egg attributes including housing system, color, size, and certifying agency. A significant difference in WTP for hen housing system...

The topic of farm animal welfare (FAW) is both complex and controversial, and inherently involves expertise and views from multiple disciplines. This article provides a summary of economic perspectives on FAW issues in the United States. Practices related to FAW can occur through legal, market or voluntary programs. FAW is not a primary driver of U...

Animal welfare-related production attributes are increasingly considered by U.S. consumers making food purchasing decisions and U.S. voters at the ballot box. This research considers U.S. consumer preferences for egg production attributes. The results reveal preferences for less hen stress, more natural hen behavior, and improved worker health and...

Perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for prominent food retailers (Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Amazon.com) were analyzed through best-worst scaling methodology, which resulted in a relative ranking of perceived CSR for each retailer. Seemingly unrelated regression was used to investigate determina...

Due to the decrease in fluid milk consumption as a beverage in the United States, the importance for dairy industry stakeholders to understand attribute preferences for consumer segments has increased. This paper uses a representative sample of U.S. residents to determine shopping behavior and a Best-Worst experimental design to examine consumer pr...

This analysis examines how dairy farmers prioritize critical management areas in their operations and derives implications for future growth. A questionnaire elicited preferences from seven dairy farm management areas: production/milking, calf/heifer, feed/crop, financial planning/analysis/management, risk, milk marketing, and employee/labor manage...

Consolidation in the U.S. dairy industry, as in other agricultural industries, has long been recognized. Through surveying dairy farmers facing persistently low milk prices, we found a generally negative outlook and an ongoing trend of “get big or get out” characterized by a bias toward capital away from labor.

Milk market coordination requires balancing supply and demand daily, seasonally, across the production cycle. Several areas of the US have been struggling in recent years to manage growing milk production without matching processing capacity. The result has been an increasing amount of milk dumped and farm financial stress.

Multiple methods to improve reliability of results when using willingness-to-pay (WTP) to evaluate consumer preferences have been developed. This study compared methods of accounting for attribute non-attendance (ANA) in WTP for food product attributes. Both inferred and stated ANA were studied and estimates of WTP for pork chop and bacon attribute...

The U.S. livestock industry is increasingly faced with pressure to adjust practices in response to societal concerns—specifically related to farm animal welfare. Using best-worst scaling, we determine which practices the U.S. public and cow-calf producers view as the most effective and most practical practices to improve beef cattle welfare. Latent...

The egg industry has transitioned, or is in the process of transitioning, from conventional cages to alternative hen housing systems in response to legal changes in many states across the United States (US). However, consumers find it is increasingly difficult to understand the details behind those labels and specific attributes conveyed. There are...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of accelerated depreciation deductions, which includes Section 179 and bonus depreciation, taken in the first year of asset life by Michigan farms. The frequency, value and influence of accelerated depreciation on farm investment are also analyzed. Design/methodology/approach Accrual adjust...

Research on sexed semen breeding techniques has largely focused on purebred cattle production systems and little work has been done evaluating sexed semen use in crossbred dairy cattle. Complementing a crossbreeding reproduction strategy with sexed semen artificial insemination (AI) has the potential to increase profit potential of sexed semen tech...

Milk loss due to increased somatic cell counts (SCC) results in economic losses for dairy producers. This research uses 10 mo of consecutive dairy herd improvement data from 2013 and 2014 to estimate milk yield loss using SCC as a proxy for clinical and subclinical mastitis. A fixed effects regression was used to examine factors that affected milk...

This study utilizes a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to assess Michigan consumer demand for animal welfare practices. Results are examined in the context of changing farm production costs and producer marketing margins. We find that while consumers are willing to pay significant premiums for animal welfare standards, failing to account for...

Purpose The structural change of the dairy industry has been a long-term process with fewer, larger dairy herds in all regions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether this structural change is leading to less income and wealth equality across dairy farms and how these factors differ across the USA. Design/methodology/approach Income and...

Consumers are increasingly scrutinizing the animal welfare implications of modern agricultural production processes. We used surveys to examine both the U.S. public willingness-to-pay for and dairy farmer willingness-to-supply or change on-farm production practices related to dairy cattle welfare and find that the public has a positive WTP for all...

This paper examines the costs and benefits of selecting for polled dairy heifers versus traditional dehorning practices. Stochastic budgets were developed to analyze the expected costs (EC) associated with polled dairy genetics. The economic assessment was expanded beyond on-farm cash costs by incorporating cost and benefit estimates to generate in...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate dairy farm financial performance over time utilizing farm financial ratios from three university business analysis programs. The evaluation includes measures of profitability, solvency, and liquidity by herd size. Design/methodology/approach Financial ratios to reflect profitability (rate of return...

Respondents participating in survey or interview based research often tend to give answers that put themselves in a favorable light, displaying social desirability bias (SDB). Understanding the susceptibility of individuals to underreport their perceived unhealthy holiday behaviors or over report holiday behaviors they perceive as healthy has impor...

This research used surveys of the public and dairy farmers in the United States to assess perceptions and attitudes related to dairy cattle welfare. Sixty-three percent of public respondents indicated that they were concerned about dairy cattle welfare. Most public respondents agreed that animal welfare was more important than low milk prices but t...

US farm programs have been moving towards using insurance to provide the farm safety net for many years but this policy transformation has not been realized for dairy farms. Historically, support for dairy farmers focused on milk price but has been declining in real terms for decades. Dairy policy in the US has been in flux because of the recent in...

Incentives influence behaviour while an understanding of farmer behaviour facilitates the control and prevention of infectious livestock disease. This paper lays out several perspectives on how information problems and other externalities affect biosecurity incentives. We use the principal–agent framework to examine livestock disease management in...

There is growing concern that trade, by connecting geographically isolated regions, unintentionally facilitates the spread of invasive pathogens and pests – forms of biological pollution that pose significant risks to ecosystem and human health. We use a bioeconomic framework to examine whether trade always increases private risks, focusing specifi...

Sexed semen has recently become a topic of interest for beef cattle producers. Beef cattle producers may consider artificial insemination using conventional or sexed semen; a spreadsheet-based model was developed to calculate the expected value of breeding females with sexed and conventional semen. The objective of this research is to evaluate the...

Increasing volatility in milk and feed prices has led to higher levels of market and financial risk for dairy farmers. We examine dairy farmer use of forward pricing methods for milk sales and feed purchases. Operators with larger herds, higher levels of education, and those farm businesses that were not organized as sole proprietorships were more...

Increasing volatility in milk and feed prices has led to higher levels of market and financial risk for dairy farmers. We examine dairy farmer use of forward pricing methods for milk sales and feed purchases. Operators with larger herds, higher levels of education, and those farm businesses that were not organized as sole proprietorships were more...

Dairy policy often becomes a contentious topic during U.S. farm bill negotiations. The dairy subtitle of the 2012 farm bill has been debated and discussed since 2009. This research uses best-worst scenario methods to analyze dairy farmer preferences for policy options, including eliminating existing dairy policies, implementing new dairy policies r...

Anaerobic digestion is increasingly recognized for its ability to produce renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock operations. In 2010, there were 2645 U.S. dairy farms with herd sizes large enough to support anaerobic digesters, yet only 156 systems were in operation (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), 2010...

Agricultural producers are increasingly required to adjust production practices to satisfy retailer, and ultimately consumer, preferences. This article highlights the option value that underlies decisions related to production technologies using the case of Michigan dairy farmers and recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST). Welfare impacts were calc...

Volatility in milk and feed prices can adversely affect dairy farm profitability. Many risk management tools are available for use by US dairy farmers. This research uses surveys of Michigan dairy farmers to examine the extent to which price risk management tools have been used, the farm and operator characteristics that explain the use of these to...

Video information is ubiquitous today, what with mobile devices complementing computers and television. There is virtually no time or place that consumers cannot be reached. Video related to production agriculture can be used to influence consumer demand or voter perception. For example, there is a long history of producer check-off funds paying fo...

The literature on managing animal diseases has its roots in mathematical epidemiology, which focuses on understanding the dynamics of infectious populations (Kermack and McKendrick 1927; Anderson and May 1979). Mathematical epidemiology models can be used to predict the conditions under which disease prevalence will diminish over time and eventuall...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine which financial record‐keeping system farmers use, as well as what system attributes farmers value and to what degree. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a choice experiment to examine farmer's demand for attributes of financial record‐keeping systems. A sample from the general Michigan...

A choice experiment was used to examine the value of various fluid milk attributes. Respondents were surveyed regarding half or whole gallon milk purchases. A split-sample design was used to examine consumer inferences regarding food safety. Willingness to pay for verification of production process attributes varied across attributes and verifying...

The objective of this study was to determine if increasing the energy and protein intake of heifer calves would affect growth rates, age at puberty, age at calving, and first lactation milk yield. A second objective was to perform an economic analysis of this feeding program using feed costs, number of nonproductive days, and milk yield data. Holst...

This paper assesses US resident support for mandatory labeling of animal welfare information on pork and egg products and outlines policy considerations for assessment prior to implementing any mandatory labeling policies regarding animal welfare practices. Results suggest consumers support mandatory labeling indicating use of gestation crates (sta...

The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program is a voluntary environmental management program for Michigan farms. The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program encourages farm managers to become better environmental stewards through writing Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans and incorporating changes to comply with regula...

Citizen environmental complaints filed against agricultural producers in Michigan were examined to determine farm and community factors influencing citizen complaints and the subsequent response of the farmer. Secondary citizen environmental complaint data were obtained from the Michigan Department of Agriculture from 1998 to 2007 with 1,289 observ...

As dairy farms grow and specialize in milking cows, raising replacement heifers is increasingly outsourced. Perhaps the largest challenge of outsourcing the heifer enterprise involves quality, measured as milk production potential, and the possibility for moral hazard due to hidden action on the part of the custom heifer grower. A principal-agent f...

We review the bioeconomic and disease ecology literatures on managing the spread of infectious diseases among and between wild and domestic animals. Management recommendations derived from these two literatures are compared and shown to differ due to the way each treats human behaviors. Conventional disease ecology models treat human behaviors as e...

This research examines the definition, historical pattern, and utility of the milk-to-feed price ratio (MF) as a measure of dairy farm profitability. The MF was generally an acceptable proxy of profitability in an annual sense from 1985 to 2006. The MF was steady at an average of 2.8 from 1985 to 2006 even as average annual milk price in nominal te...

Recent high profile incidents and public debates in the United States have highlighted the increasing interest residents have regarding animal rearing and handling practices. This paper examines resident support for national legislation that mirrors Proposition 2, which in November 2008 passed in California. Results suggest perceptions regarding an...

Livestock producers can respond to increasing consumer demand for certain production process attributes by providing verifiable information on the practices used. Consumer willingness to pay data were used to inform producer decision-making regarding selection of verification entities for four key production process attributes in the production of...