A Target Motad Analysis of a Crop and Livestock Farm in Jefferson County, Florida

Abstract

AbstractAn analysis of a typical crop and livestock farm in North Florida is presented. The analysis incorporates the potential competition and complementarity among crop and beef cattle enterprises. A Target MOTAD model is developed to account for risk in a decision framework.The results indicate that when income risk is ignored, peanuts, watermelon, and stocker cattle are the only enterprises included in the optimal solution. When income risk is heavily weighted, the optimal solution includes peanuts, watermelon, stocker cattle, cow-calf, and irrigated soybeans. The results suggest that the persistence of cow-calf production may be explained as a stabilizer of income.