Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Elton R. Smith Endowment

Although typically not named as such, information inputs have always been a major input into both crop and animal agriculture. Good crop and animal husbandry has always involved walking (scouting) around the herd or land, discerning disease events or vulnerabilities, wet and dry spots, and poorly fertilized spots that needed better management and so on. These information inputs were entirely embedded in human capital. Increasingly, however, the distinction between acquiring and using information has been made where outside information providers have aggregated information and used technology to assist growers in their management decisions. The United Kingdom book for Thoroughbred racing horse performance was established in 1791 while UK Shorthorn cattle had a herdbook in 1822. Commercial soil tests have been available since 1850 (History and development of soil testing, Agricultural and Food Chemistry, M.S. Anderson, 8(2), 84-86, 1960). The advent of commercial global positioning systems data, DNA information, cheap sensors and data management technologies have unleashed a profusion of management opportunities for all with an interest in production agriculture. Commencing in the 1990s site-specific management of seed, fertilizer and pesticides became common. A large literature is now available on the matter where Madhu Khanna, David Bullock, Bruce Babcock, Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer and Dayton Lambert are among those who have been active in the area. My involvement has largely been in applied theory,

• Hennessy, D.A., and B.A. Babcock. “Information, Flexibility, and Value Added.” Information Economics and Policy, 10(November, 1998):431-450. Link

One application is to on-board harvest-time separation of wheat by protein content is in, 

• Miao, R., and D.A. Hennessy. “Optimal Protein Segregation Strategies for Wheat Growers.” Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 63(3, 2015):309-331. Link

Applied theory contributions to our understanding of post-harvest processing include:

• Hennessy, D.A. “Informed Control Over Inputs and Extent of Industrial Processing.” Economics Letters, 94(March, 2007):372-377. Link
• Hennessy, D.A. “Slaughterhouse Rules: Animal Uniformity and Regulating for Food Safety in Meat Packing.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 87(August, 2005):600-609. Link
• Hennessy, D.A., John A. Miranowski, and Bruce A. Babcock. “Genetic Information in Agricultural Productivity and Product Development.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 86(February, 2004):73-87. Link

With the exceptions of a grant application regarding seeding rate choices, and interests in how to use remote sensing data to better understand land use and production agriculture in the aggregate; the ERS chair is not currently active in the area.