Benefit-Cost Analysis of Equipment Purchases for Calf Health Management

Lack of access to cattle handling equipment is sometimes cited as a hindrance to cowcalf producer adoption of recommended calf management practices, although those practices are shown to add market value to calves. We measure correlations between equipment access and adoption along with implementing partial budget analysis to calculate break-evens of equipment purchases for specific practice implementation. Break-even measures are calculated in number of head and in years for cash- and loan-based purchases across different operation sizes. This is a first step toward quantifying the benefit-cost relationship of cattle handling equipment with calf management practice adoption.

无法获取牲畜处理设备，常被视作阻碍母牛-犊牛养殖经营者采用推荐犊牛管理措施的障碍之一，尽管已有研究表明这类措施可提升犊牛的市场价值。本研究首先测算设备可及性与措施采用率之间的相关性，同时通过部分预算分析，计算针对特定管理措施实施所需购置设备的盈亏平衡点。针对不同经营规模，本研究分别以牲畜头数和年限为单位，核算现金购置与贷款购置两种模式下的盈亏平衡点。本研究为量化牲畜处理设备购置与犊牛管理措施采用之间的收益-成本关系迈出了第一步。