This paper presents empirical measures of the efficiency of the New York family dairy farm over its life cycle. The increase and then decrease in farm efficiency with age is only minor. Factors not correlated with age are much more important in determining efficiency. Exiting farmers who appear...

The Dixit entry/exit real option model was applied to the entry/exit decisions of New York dairy farmers. For the cost structure of a 500-cow farm, the entry milk price is $17.52 per hundredweight (cwt) and the exit milk price is $10.84. For the 50-cow farm cost structure, the entry price is...

Productivity of U.S. farmers by age is measured by non-parametric programming using 1992 Census data, decomposed into efficiency and technology Malmquist index components. Productivity increases slightly with age and then decreases. In most states productivity variations are from technology use...