Producers' Marketing Practices and Decision Making Processes

A survey of Kansas, Texas, and Iowa agricultural producers and agribusiness was taken to examine the factors affecting their grain and livestock marketing practices. Qualitative choice models (multinomial and binomial logit) were used to determine whether marketers' choices of cash market, forward contract, or futures and options oriented marketing practices were significantly affected by their individual characteristics. These individual characteristics include years of experience, enterprise specialization, attitudes toward risk, management decisions, local market conditions, and preferences for alternative types of market-related information. Results indicated that years of experience, risk attitude, on-farm storage practices, and preferences for alternative types of futures and cash market information had significant effects upon respondents' choice of grain marketing practices. However, few factors significantly affected respondents' choice of livestock marketing practices.