Crops, Livestock, and Farm Programs: Overlooked Interactions

Shifts in consumer and importer demand, resource supply, technology, capital accumulation, or farm programs affect different enterprises in ways often unanticipated by economic analysts. Economic models often miss the disparate gains and losses contributed by three aspects of the agricultural economy: the feed-livestock relationship; target prices, loan rates, and deficiency payments in program crop price determination; and acreage reduction programs in sending economic information through the land market. A global, general equilibrium model examines these three aspects, shedding light on how a rise in price supports for crop farmers, for example, can hurt livestock feeders, or how tighter factor markets can hurt protected enterprises more than others