| Cattle producers in the Greater Yellowstone Area implement a variety of management strategies to reduce the risk of cattle contracting brucellosis from elk, including: fencing haystacks, having Wyoming Game and Fish haze elk away from cattle, administering adult booster vaccination, adopting an alternative feeding schedule, spaying heifers, delayed grazing on high-risk allotments, hiring a rider to haze elk, and running stocker steers. Uncertainty about the cost and effectiveness of these strategies makes it difficult for producers to decide which (if any) to implement. To reduce uncertainty, I first calculate the cost of each management strategy, and then use expected value theory to estimate: (1) expected net benefit, (2) minimum level of effectiveness required to justify implementation, and (3) baseline cost of brucellosis required to justify implementation. Results indicate that Wyoming Game and Fish hazing of elk, fencing a haystack, and adult booster vaccination generate the largest expected net benefit, require the lowest levels of effectiveness to justify implementation, and require the lowest baseline brucellosis cost to justify implementation. Although switching to a stocker steer operation eliminates the risk of brucellosis, it may be less economically-appealing than several other management strategies. |
