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<OL> <LI> Enhance palatability, processing, and marketing of beef by studying instrument grading, beef flavor and tenderness technologies, and carcass cutting strategies <LI>Develop science-rooted strategies and technologies to reduce foodborne illness and improve the effectiveness of policies related to food safety and trade.<LI>Determine factors influencing domestic and international consumer preferences for beef. <LI>Assess supply chain management strategies to identify and overcome barriers that interfere with the transmission of consumer preferences to producers <LI>Evaluate the cost/benefit of traceability and assess its value in market-based programs
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The beef industry lacks from product consistency. Because of the broad range of genetics used at the farm level, inability to coordinate breeding period, and unpredictable ownership of calves from farm to processing, there are ineffieciences that leave money on the table at each stage in the value chain. Various methods (e.g., snip clips) are being investigated to look at increaisng predictability of calf carcass quality and feedlot productivity. A portion of this research looks at how beef-cow producers can coordinate genetics across farms to increase predictability, while still maintaining some level of autonomy with management decision making. Also, as economies around the globe grow in wealth eating patterns change. Most importantly, consumers switch from starch based to protein based diets as incomes change. Cultural changes also occur as wealth grows. Such changes are bound to lead to a protein demand explosion over the next two decades. Understanding how, and where, global demand for protein from beef will evolve is paramount to American agribusinesses and agricutlural producers profiting in the future.
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APPROACH: Objective 3. I will focus the value of product attributes, consuemr credence attributes, and marketet attributes. I will use the hedonic modeling methodology to assess all attributes values using multivariate statistical analysis. Second, I will use quantity dependent models of international beef consumption to understand the relationship between income and non-processed and processed beef consumption. Specifically, I look at how international buyers switch to value-added beef products as their level of purchasing power (income) changes. Also, from this model own- and cross-elasitcity estimates can be obtained. <P>
Objective 4. I will focus on understanding how genetic coordination, at the beef-cow producer level, can be used to achieve scale, consistency, and efficiency throughout the beef cattle supply chain. Three methodologies are applied here. First, through frequent surveys of beef-cow producer practices and willingness-to-adopt of reproductive technologies I am able to arrive at barriers and how to overcome such barriers. Second, I use primary-level data to conduct non-parametric partial budgeting to look at cost-returns to the supply chain from coordinating genetics at the beef-cow producer level. Finally, I integrate risk into the genetic, reproduction, and management decision process using risk frontier analysis to determine dominate practices for given risk levels.