Rancher Preferences for Grassland Conservation Reserve Programs in the Northern U.S. Great Plains

Md Faizul Kabir, Elliott Dennis, Simanti Banerjee, Gwendwr Meredith, Timothy Pape, Mitch Stephenson, Craig Allen and David Sandahl

No 361175, 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This study uses a discrete choice experiment to examine how ranchers in the Northern Great Plains respond to features of the Grassland CRP. We find that ranchers prefer higher payments and cost-share, shorter contract lengths, and flexibility. Ranchers value contracts that allow winter grazing and resist mandatory rotational grazing. Willingness-to-accept estimates show that ranchers require $6.47/acre for rotational grazing and $8.19 for longer contracts but would forgo $7.81, $11.77, and $7.84 per acre for cost-share, winter grazing, and flexibility, respectively. Preference heterogeneity is most evident for grazing-related practices and cost share. Nearly 69% of non-participants are unaware of the Program and perceive that payment and cost-share are more important than other contract features. Participation could be improved through flexible contract design, enhanced outreach, and financial incentives.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/361175/files/9 ... AAEA_GCRP_Faizul.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea25:361175

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.361175

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().