The Economic Factors Influencing Producers’ Demand for Farm Managers

Authors

Keith H. Coble, Mississippi State UniversityFollow
Thomas O. Knight, Texas A & M UniversityFollow
George F. Patrick, Purdue University
Alan Baquet, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Oscar Vergara, Mississippi State University

Date of this Version

2-5-2003

Comments

Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting. Mobile, Alabama, February 1-5, 2003. Copyright © by Oscar Vergara, Keith H. Coble, George F. Patrick, Thomas O. Knight, and Alan E. Baquet. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

Abstract

This paper primary objective is to analyze the economic factors influencing producers’ demand for farm managers. A survey of commercial farmers’ risk management was conducted by mail during the spring of 1999 in Mississippi, Texas, Indiana, and Nebraska. A Tobit econometric model was constructed to analyze the demand for farm managers. Results showed that a complementary relationship exists between marketing inputs and the decision to hire farm managers. The results indicate that, as farmers increase expenditure on marketing consultants and information systems, their expenditure on farm managers increase.