Abstract

This paper examines factors that affect agribusiness management behavior of a sample of dairy, equine, beef cattle, and hog farms in New York State to understand how they survive the ongoing economic hardship. Using a conceptual framework and a Heckman Selection model, this study analyzes the impact of managers’ perceived pressure from the unfavorable economy, their personal traits and their self-assessed managerial skills on farm adaptation strategies and their help-seeking activities to agribusiness assistance programs. The analysis of self-assessed management skills led to three distinct management styles, labeled as production experts, marketing experts, and finance experts. The results demonstrate that managers who held a leadership position in agricultural organizations are more likely to feel pressure. This pressure negatively affects management actions to adapt the farm to the adverse economy. Our results suggest that the New York agricultural policy planners should address this negative impact of the current economic difficulties on farming practices to effectively support the economic health of its agricultural industry.

Key words: New York agribusiness, farm performance, economic slowdown, economy.