The analysis of UK crop allocation at the farm level: Implications for supply response analysis

Supply response studies of agricultural products typically assume the dominance of profit maximising behaviour. Some qualifications may be applied to this assumption by allowing for differences in risk aversion, or differences in farm resources and farm family characteristics. However, the current study, of year-to-year changes in land allocated to arable crops on individual farms in the UK, exposes exceptionally wide variations in behaviour by individual units. One conclusion that can be drawn from the data and its analysis, is that it would be unwise to assume that the crop share changes observed are driven only, or even mainly, by observable economic variables. It seems that farm and enterprise specific factors, many of which are unrecorded, and possibly unrecordable, are responsible for the great deal of the observed changes. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.