@ 1996 Southern Agricultural Economics Association A Decision Support Aid for Beef Cattle Investment Using Expert Systems

The beef cattle investment decision provides an excellent opportunity to increase the economic effi-ciency of beef cattle production. The investment questions that face beef cattle producers are of interest to beef cattle producers, educators, and financial institutions involved in lending to beef cattle producing firms. This study develops a decision support aid utilizing expert system technology to assist beef cattle producers in making well-founded investment decisions with respect to the firm’s beef cattle herd. Key Words: beef cattle investment, decision support, expert systems. The development of sound tools that use economic theory to assist beef producers in making breeding cow investment decisions is an important effort. A major study focusing on competitive issues in the beef sector for the 1990s, conducted through the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, pointed to this need (Johnson et al.). One conclu-sion reached in that study was that beef producers must lower their costs of beef production to prevent further loss of market share to competing meats. The report concluded: Two factors are likely to be important in lowering cost of production in the future. The first is the need to use the most efficient production technol-ogy available. The second is the need to consoli-date production into even larger units so that all economies of size are realized. The fact that con-solidation into larger units has been taking place at such a rapid rate in recent years suggests that Lawrence Falconer is an assistant professor with the Texa