Economic Implications of the 1973 Farm Program on Wheat and Beef Production – Southern High Plains Winter Wheat Area

Interrelationships among enterprises on individual farms complicates decision-making by the individual producers and efforts to estimate producer response to alternative farm programs. This is especially true for wheat producers, where wheat both competes with other field crops and can be used for grazing (an input to beef production). Acreage allocated to wheat provides little indication of the quantity of wheat grain that will be produced since stockers may be withdrawn from grazing wheat throughout the production period. Wheat output is determined by length of grazing. With sufficiently attractive cattle prices, relative to wheat prices, wheat may be used only for graze-out (no grain harvested). The actual outcome depends primarily on price of wheat, price of beef and the characteristics of the government wheat program.