Influence of Market Diversification on Farm Income Variability of Soybean Producers

Many decisions made by farm producers are based on expectations. The process of formulating and incorporating these expectations into decision making is difficult when high variability occurs in product prices, crop yields, production costs, or other factors affecting net income. Farm producers may be influenced by a number of goals in selecting combinations of crops to produce and marketing outlets for the crops. Two goals generally held to be important to farm decision makers are maximization of net income and net income stability. Given the price, yield, and cost of production variability characteristics of a farm enterprise and these two goals of farm decision makers, a fundamental problem is to determine what combination of alternative marketing actions can best satisfy the two objectives. A systematic examination of the relationship between the level of net income and net income variability for combinations of marketing alternatives would aid farmers in deciding on marketing actions to attain these goals.