Evaluating potential specialty sorghums: An application to the broiler industry
Abstract
To strategically position their product in the broiler feed industry, the sorghum industry faces the challenge of allocating limited industry resources to the development of specialty sorghums. If the sorghum industry could develop a specialty hybrid that increased broiler feed efficiency, they could expand their largest domestic market with a more valuable product than commodity sorghum. This study investigates three types of possible specialty sorghums and a technological substitute to quantify how each impacts broiler feed expenditures and sorghum utilization. The Broiler Feed Evaluation Model, consisting of a least-cost feed formulation linear program submodel, a submodel that generates stochastic values for crude protein and essential amino acids (CP-EAA) levels of feed ingredients, and a broiler growth sub-model, is developed to estimate feed expenditures and sorghum utilization for five scenarios. The scenarios are: BASE— depicts currently available sorghums; RV—sorghum with reduced variation in CP-EAA; BLRV—sorghum with RV traits and enhanced lysine concentration; BPRV—sorghum with RV traits and higher levels of CP-EAA; NIR—technological substitute based on Near Infrared (NIR) technology adoption. NIR is considered because it may erode the benefits offered by specialty sorghums through more efficient feeding of nutrients, possibly leading to lower feed costs. First and second order stochastic dominance efficiency criteria are used to evaluate the estimated broiler feed expenditures for all scenarios and each alternative scenario in pair-wise comparisons with BASE. HPRV first order stochastically dominates all scenarios making it the most appealing to the broiler industry. HPRV is also most appealing to the sorghum industry as it utilizes the most sorghum on average. In the pair-wise comparisons of feed expenditures, HLRV and NIR are more efficient than BASE. Therefore, HPRV and HLRV show promise for the sorghum industry, but the competitive threat of NIR cannot be dismissed. Further research needs to be conducted to determine how additional costs associated with the supply channel of specialty sorghums may influence the benefit of HRLV and HPRV shown in this study. Then, the sorghum industry will need to determine if pursuing the development of the specialty grains will yield the return on investment they desire.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Akridge, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agricultural economics
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