Dr. Kathy Larson is an Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan. Her position is one of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture’s Strategic Research Program Chairs. Prior to joining the University in 2018, Kathy worked as a Research Economist at the Western Beef Development Centre for 8 years. She researches the practices and profitability of beef cow-calf producers so producers can make informed decisions. She was the 2024 recipient of the Canadian Industries Award in Extension and Public Service. Originally from a cattle and grain farm in southeast Saskatchewan, she now calls Prince Albert home.
In today’s episode, Dr. Kathy Larson shares information about her position as a production economist, as well as her ties to the agriculture industry.
As one of few production economists, she is invited to participate in many projects, analyzing the economic data and the viability of the project topics for producers.
She shares her approach to looking at economics and what data she uses to look at the costs and returns of projects.
We talk about the net present value approach and how this is used, measuring the gain/loss from beneficial management practices that don’t necessarily have an assigned monetary value. We talk about what Kathy has seen as trends or observations when measuring the outcomes of beneficial management practices in beef production and some of the metrics she uses to measure success when thinking about sustainability in ag.
We wrap up our conversation discussing some metrics producers might be missing in their own economics and why production economics is important to share and think about for producers.
Contact Kathy on X: @kathy_a_Larson or via email at: kathy.larson@usask.ca
Links to some of the topics mentioned during the show:
MBFI - the SmartFarm page https://www.mbfi.ca/smart-farm
BCRC Calculators - https://www.beefresearch.ca/tools/interactive-calculators/
BCRC Bull Valuation calculator that uses NPV - https://www.beefresearch.ca/tools/bull-valuation-calculator/
MB Calculators - https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/farm-management/cost-production/index.html
BCRC Financial Ratios - https://www.beefresearch.ca/topics/financial-record-keeping-level-3/
Dr. Kathy Larson's Usask page - https://agbio.usask.ca/faculty-and-staff/people-pages/kathy-larson.php
Beef & Forage Roundup Podcast Episodes mentioned in the episode:
Episode # 7: Planned Grazing with Pam Iwanchysko
Episode #16: The Cost of Overwintering Cattle & Using the Feed Calculator with Ben Hamm
The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).
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