CATFISH PRODUCER HARVEST RESPONSE TO PRODUCTION AND ASYMMETRIC PRICE RISK

Harvest response to production and asymmetric price risk was analyzed using an ordinary least squares model. Statistically significant responses to production-quality and output price risk were indicated. Results suggest that alternative pricing strategies designed to reduce risk may alter harvest response and decrease month to month harvest variability.Demand and Price Analysis, Production Economics,

A STOCHASTIC SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF A SMALL-SCALE CATFISH PROCESSING PLANT

Stochastic simulation was used to analyze revenues and costs for a small-scale catfish processing plant under various combinations of operating capacity utilization and price paid for live fish. The probability for a positive level of daily net income ranged from 11 to 100 percent depending on the price paid for live fish and level of operating capacity utilized. Daily average total cost per pound of live fish processed changed by 2.10 percent given a 10 percent change in live fish processed. Short-term cyclical patterns in revenues and costs suggest a need for financial planning to provide for possible year-end revenue shortfalls.Agribusiness,

Learning about Risk and Return: A Simple Model of Bubbles and Crashes

This paper demonstrates that an asset pricing model with least-squares learning can lead to bubbles and crashes as endogenous responses to the fundamentals driving asset prices. When agents are risk-averse they need to make forecasts of the conditional variance of a stock¡¯s return. Recursive updating of both the conditional variance and the expected return implies several mechanisms through which learning impacts stock prices. Extended periods of excess volatility, bubbles and crashes arise with a frequency that depends on the extent to which past data is discounted. A central role is played by changes over time in agents¡¯ estimates of risk.Risk, Asset Pricing, Bubbles, Adaptive Learning.

A laboratory investigation of anaerobic sludge digestion for dairy manure

An increasing trend toward total confinement of dairy herds as well as livestock being fed for marketing has resulted in farmers having large volumes of manure produced in small areas. The encroachment of suburbia into farming areas has added new problems to the burden of manure disposal. Efficient, economical methods of stabilizing large volumes of manure and rendering it free from odor while reducing its potential as a pollutant are necessary. Anaerobic sludge digestion is one possible method of stabilizing manure and eliminating odor with a minimum of labor and with possible valuable by-products to help offset its cost. The purpose of this study was to design and build laboratory equipment with which to investigate anaerobic sludge digestion of dairy manure, and to investigate the effects of sludge mixing on reduction of total volume, total solids, volatile solids and on gas production. The laboratory equipment was built and was operated continuously for three months. The data collected indicated that continuously mixed digesters were considerably more effective than unmixed or partially mixed digesters. Increasing the speed of mixing had little effect on total or volatile solids content of the settled sludge. Increased mixing speed significantly increased the total and volatile solids con-tent of the supernatant. An optimum mixing speed for maximum gas pro-duction was observed, above or below which gas production decreased, The author concluded that anaerobic sludge digesters may play an important role in agricultural waste disposal and that gas mixing should be preferred to mechanical mixing

Environmental Education Programming for the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service.

Environmental education is a component of community-based education programs. Environmental education in the United States and in Louisiana was described (Objectives 1 and 2). Because of rapid changes in environmental science, and the responses of citizens to environmental topics, extension faculty need additional programming techniques and more process and strategic skills training. Programming techniques and skills training were reviewed (Objective 3). Extension has included representatives from key state and federal agencies with expertise in, and responsibility for, environmental topics on its environmental education advisory committees. The Delphi technique was utilized in this study, with agency representatives as panelists, to determine and prioritize subject matter content for an environmental education program to be delivered to farmers (Objective 4). The Round 1 instrument included a list of 55 environmental topics which was provided to 56 state and federal agency representatives. Panelists were asked to rate the topics for inclusion in an environmental education program for farmers and were invited to add topics. Of 56 potential panelists, 41 responded, and ten added 25 topics. The Round 2 instrument included the individual panelist\u27s Round 1 ratings, the mean of the panel\u27s Round 1 ratings, the 25 added topics, a request to rate the added topics, and an invitation to change any Round 1 rating. Of 41 Round 1 panelists, 40 responded to Round 2. Most chose not to change any of their Round 1 topic ratings. Drinking water and point source water quality categories of topics received higher ratings while air quality and solid waste categories received lower ratings. The Delphi method provided an efficient and inexpensive technique for obtaining the views of agency experts. It is one method for obtaining input from advisory committees, for enhancing collaboration between extension educators and agency representatives, and for helping panelists learn more about a wide range of environmental topics. It should be used by extension environmental educators

A new adder (Bitis; Viperidae) from the Western Cape Province, South Africa

A new species of small, terrestrial Bitis is described from the Western Cape Province, South Africa. It occurs in sympatry with Bitis comuta and Bifis atropos on the upper slopes and summit of the Cedarberg, and with the latter on the Swartberg. Features of scalation, colour and body form distinguish the new species from all other southern African Bitis. Its range extends in an arc from the northern Cape Fold Mountains, southwards into the western regions of the Little Karoo, with a possibly isolated population on the Roggeveldberg and Komsberg of the inland escarpment.S. Afr. J. ZooI. 1997,32(2

Adaptive learning, endogenous inattention, and changes in monetary policy

This paper develops an adaptive learning formulation of an extension to the Ball, Mankiw, and Reis (2005) sticky information model that incorporates endogenous inattention. We show that, following an exogenous increase in the policymaker’s preferences for price vs. output stability, the learning process can converge to a new equilibrium in which both output and price volatility are lower.Monetary policy ; Information theory

Learning about Risk and Return: A Simple Model of Bubbles and Crashes

This paper demonstrates that an asset pricing model with least-squares learning can lead to bubbles and crashes as endogenous responses to the fundamentals driving asset prices. When agents are risk-averse they need to make forecasts of the conditional variance of a stock’s return. Recursive updating of both the conditional variance and the expected return implies several mechanisms through which learning impacts stock prices. Extended periods of excess volatility, bubbles and crashes arise with a frequency that depends on the extent to which past data is discounted. A central role is played by changes over time in agents’ estimates of risk