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Abstract
Considerable efforts have been made to provide cow-calf producers with information to help
them make informed decisions about adding value to calves. Despite demonstrated market
incentives to retain calves, many producers still sell right after weaning. We postulate this
observed behavior is related to producer risk aversion. Our study concludes risk aversion is an
important factor affecting calf retention as the most risk-averse producers have more than
a 60% probability of selling calves at weaning and the most risk tolerant have less than a 20%
probability of selling at weaning.