records to evaluate farm performance and for investment decision-making will value their
records more highly; (j) farmers that use their tax returns for decision-making purposes (do not
simply store them) will value their records more highly.
This research can provide insight by revealing the value farmers place on their business
records. If farmers place very high valuations on their financial information, then financial
records, while not the favorite task of some farmers, are recognized as valuable and very
necessary to a farming operation. If farmer valuations for financial information are high, then
past and future university farm financial management research and Extension work has been and
will continue to be valuable to the farm business. Due consideration should be given to
resources for farm financial management work. Additionally, this research provides insight on
the use of experimental auction methods for valuing high-valued goods, which is currently
absent from the existing literature.
Conceptual Framework: Irreplaceable Goods
The manner that irreplaceable goods are valued, a topic found often in literature dealing with
insurance (e.g., Cook and Graham 1977; Shioshansi 1982), has direct application to how farmers
value their financial records. An irreplaceable good is unique and cannot be exactly replaced if
lost or stolen, unlike a replaceable good, which can be replaced if lost or stolen. Commonly
cited irreplaceable goods are family heirlooms. An extreme irreplaceable good example is
personal health (e.g., sight); there is no amount of money to fully compensate the owner over this
lost object. Specific to this research, a farmer’s financial records are considered an irreplaceable
good. Figure 1 represents the loss of an irreplaceable good. Two states exist: state a where the
object is kept and state b where the object is lost. At point A in Figure 1, the utility level U(W1,
a) is the initial position where the owner is still in possession of the good. When the object is