Dean A. McCorkle

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Dean A. McCorkle is a leading agricultural economist whose research focuses on the economic viability of specialty crop production, with a particular emphasis on the wine grape industry. His major contributions lie in quantifying the labor-intensive costs of viticulture and assessing the potential for robotic technology to transform production economics. In his highly cited work, "Economics of Robotic Technology in Texas Wine Grape Production" (2016, 5 citations), McCorkle developed detailed cost-of-production budgets that reveal the critical financial bottlenecks in manual labor tasks. He extended this analysis nationally in "The long-term viability of US wine grape vineyards: assessing vineyard labour costs for future technology development" (2019, 5 citations), creating representative budgets for vineyards across four states. These foundational studies provide essential economic frameworks for growers and engineers, demonstrating that robotic automation is not just a technical challenge but a financial imperative for the industry's long-term survival. McCorkle’s work is a cornerstone for anyone researching the intersection of agricultural economics and precision automation.