Adoption of Warm Season Grasses by Beef Cattle Producers in the Fescue Belt
Abstract
Cattle producers in the Fescue Belt predominantly rely on cool-season grass (CSG) pastures. Supplementing CSGs with warm-season grasses (WSG) can provide economic and environmental benefits. We elicit Tennessee cattle producer willingness-to-adopt WSG using data from a hypothetical choice experiment that offered a monetary incentive to establish WSG pasture. A novel double-hurdle regression with Student-t errors was estimated using a Bayesian Hamiltonian Monte Carlo procedure. About 66% of participants were willing to convert 14%-21% of their pasture acres to WSG depending on the incentive amount. A $95/acre incentive is estimated to convert 7,631 acres to WSG, costing $0.77 million.
Supplementary notes can be added here, including [code and # math] #( https://sourcethemes.com/academic/docs/writing-markdown-latex/).
Yongwang Ren
PhD candidate in Energy, Environmental and Food Economics
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at Pennsylvania State University. My research interests are in environmental economics, agricultural economics, and public policy analysis, with a focus on adaptation and policy in response to natural disasters, such as flooding. I am on the 2023-2024 job market and will be available for interviews.