An approach to derive economic weights in breeding objectives using partial profile choice experiments

Area of Science:

• Animal breeding and genetics
• Agricultural economics
• Behavioral economics

Background:

• Traditional methods for deriving economic weights in breeding objectives, such as profit equations and bioeconomic models, can be impractical.
• Choice experiments offer a method to quantify respondent preferences for different traits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the utility of choice experiments for deriving economic weights in breeding objectives.
• To compare the effectiveness of different partial profile choice experiment designs.

Main Methods:

• Simulated a partial profile choice experiment with four traits at three levels each.
• Compared three designs: full profile (four traits), three traits, and two traits per choice set.
• Analyzed choice data using a conditional logit model to estimate relative economic weights.

Main Results:

• Practical choice experiment designs, using subsets of traits (e.g., two traits per choice set) with sufficient respondents and choice sets, provided accurate estimates of relative preferences.
• Regression coefficients from the conditional logit model were used to estimate economic weights.

Conclusions:

• Choice experiments provide a practical alternative for defining economic weights in animal breeding selection indexes.
• This method can help commercial breeding programs understand market preferences for genestock attributes.