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Technological Transfer Through Pure-Bred Herds in British Columbia Author(S): William A

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Technological Transfer Through Pure-Bred Herds in British Columbia Author(S): William A Technological Transfer through Pure-Bred Herds in British Columbia Author(s): William A. Kerr Source: Agricultural History, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 72-99 Published by: Agricultural History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3743682 Accessed: 01-04-2015 13:38 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3743682?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Agricultural History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Agricultural History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 201.221.122.55 on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:38:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Technological TransferThrough Pure-BredHerds in BritishColumbia WILLIAMA. KERR Breeding to select for economically important production characteristics in livestock represents one of the major techno- logical improvements available to the beef industry. For the individual cattle producer, realizing such improvements is a slow process. Further, individual beef-cattle producers seldom have the expertise or resources required to undertake the development of superior genetic stock. As a result, the beef-cattle industry has typically become segmented into opera- tions which specialize in genetic improvement and those who produce cattle for the commercial market. The former are known as pure-bred breeders. The segmentation of the industry, however, brings up the ques- tion of the efficiency with which the transfer of genetically superior stock takes place between pure-bred breeders and commercial producers. Withoutthe successful establishment of pure-bredherds it is impossible for a livestock industry to make the transition to a modern commercial agriculturalsector. At the end of World War I,the beef cattle industry in the interior of British Columbia, Canada was poised to make that transition. This paper examines those factors which influenced the establishment of pure-bredherds andtheirsuccess intransferringthetechnologyto commer- cial producers. The beef cattle industry in the British Columbia interior provides an excellent case to study the process of technological transfer. The area was relatively isolated and the number of firms sufficiently small so that they could be individually investigated. At the beginning of the 1920s there were two major breeds, Shorthorn and Hereford, which had been introduced into the area. By the beginning of the great depression in the 1930s, however, only Shorthorn breeders had been successful in estab- WILLIAMA. KERR is Professor of Agricultural Economics, Department of Economics, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. agricultural history volume 65 * number 1 * 1991. t agricultural history society 72 This content downloaded from 201.221.122.55 on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:38:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 73 Pure-BredHerds lishing a successful pure-bred industry. Hence, this allows for a compari- son between a successful and an unsuccessful industry. This comparison is only possible through the use of a unique set of agricultural records the herdbooks of the two pure-bred organizations. The registration procedures for pure-bred stock allow the transfer of ani- mals between ranchers to be identified and, hence, a monitoring of the process of technological diffusion. As a result, considerable insights into the process of farm-to-farmtechnological transfer are gained. Although there are a considerable number of studies which have exam- ined the geographic and economic aspects of the diffusion of agricultural innovations, they have had to rely heavily upon geographically diverse observations of farm use as it evolves over time.' The usual methodology then has been either to attempt to explain the process of diffusion by correlating independent economic variables to the pattern of use or to examine the process in the context of dynamic models which are similar to those applied in demographic studies. This can be done informally or more rigorously through to use of regression or more sophisticated statis- tical techniques.2 Such studies have provided considerable insights into the process of the introduction and spread of innovations in the agricul- tural sector. By their very nature, however, such studies are limited in the insights which they can provide into the process by which new technology actually passes between the suppliers of new technology and those who utilize the technology. The reason for this limitation is the nature of the data itself. The diffusion of technology is, at the most basic level, the result of market transactions between firms.3 Records of cash transactions are seldom made and the invoices of larger purchases from agribusiness firms are often confidential or not accessible. Certainlysuch data limita- tions are reduced when the innovation constitutes a patented product of an industrial manufacturerwho directly distributes the innovation or sells through franchised outlets or dealers. 1. See for example, Z. Griliches, "HybridCorn: An Explorationinto the Economics of Tech- nological Change," Econometrica 25 (1957): 501-22; J. Cordrey, "An Economic Study of an AgriculturalInnovation: Artificial Insemination," (Ph.D. dissertation, North CarolinaState Uni- versity, 1968); W.A. Kerr,"The Supply of New Germ Plasm to the CanadianBeef Cattle Indus- try," TechnologicalForecasting and Social Change 21 (1982): 103-32; J.R. Walton, "A Study in the Diffusionof AgriculturalMachinery in the Nineteenth Century,"University of OxfordSchool of Geography Research Paper 5 (1973); or A. Match, "The Mechanizationof the Harvest in South-West Lancashire, 1850-1914, " AgriculturalHistory Review 29 (1981 ): 125-32. 2. D.C. Quan and W.A. Kerr,Ongoing Technological Change in the CanadianBeef Cattle Industry-An Example of Estimation with TruncatedSamples (Discussion Paper No. 82-01, Departmentof AgriculturalEconomics, Universityof BritishColumbia, 1982). 3. This assumes that the innovation is such that it cannot be produced on the farm itself. Clearlythere are innovations which can be acquired through observation and subsequent on farm productionand, hence, require no firm to firm markettransaction. This content downloaded from 201.221.122.55 on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:38:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 74 agricultural history Many agricultural innovations, however, do not have such characteris- tics local seed potato growers provide seedstock to farmers, local (and often a subsidiary farm enterprise) feed mills provide pre-mixed rations, artificial insemination services are often provided by local firms or other farmers on a part-time basis and pure-bredstock is provided by local stock breeders. Thus, much of the transfer of technology takes place between firms in a market environment where few records are kept and, hence, available for the study of the process of technology transfer. Better under- standing of such market mechanisms is important because it is this inter- face which constitutes a major avenue for the flow of informationbetween those who utilize new technology and those who provide it. In other words, through such markets pass the information regarding which char- acteristics of the product need to be improved as a new innovation evolves into one which more closely approximates the requirements of the user.4 It would appear that much technological change is a result of improvements to existing characteristics rather than the development of entirely new production processes or even the addition of new characteristicsto exist- ing technology.5 Hence, information on the actors involved on either side of such transactions is fundamental to the understanding of the process of technological diffusion and change. Even if records of transactions exist, for example in the form of in- voices, direct examination of the complex records of one firm is likely to be extremely expensive in terms of research resources. This is particularly true when, as is the case for most firms) the relevant technology is only one of a large number of products handled. Such records are unlikelyto be conveniently organized so that the researcher can identify the relevant sales. A great deal of sorting and identificationis required.6When this task is spread over a large number of firms and over the period required to examine the process of technological diffusionf the problem becomes well nigh intractable. What is required,then, is a set of records which have been compiled in a manner that reduces research costs. Hopefully such records will cover a number of supplying firms and indicate the purchaser. Fortunately,a good 4. For evidence of the importance of this marketfor the process of technological improve- ment the reader is referred to W.A. Kerr, "Selective Breeding, HeritableCharacteristics and Genetic Based Technological Change in the CanadianBeef Cattle Industy,"Western Journal of AgriculturalEconomics 9 (1984): 14- 28. 5.
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