Beef Producers Preferences for Joining Beef Alliances: An Arizona and Western Canada Study

Abstract

Three surveys were administered to cow-calf producers in Western Canada, Arizona, and Arizona Rancher Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) members. Two separate binary probit models were used to analyze the data. The first model estimates the willingness of beef producers to join an alliance and the second model estimates which alliance attributes producers willing to join an alliance prefer. Results from model one indicate that producer’s age has a negative effect on willingness to join an alliance, producer’s education has a positive effect, herd size has a positive effect, and if respondent is a Canadian or an Arizona Rancher BQA producer, it also has a positive effect. Results from model two indicate that producer’ data collection has a positive effect on attribute preferences in joining an alliance, alliance sale type has a positive effect, alliance restriction protocols has a positive effect, and herd size has a positive effect.