Business Decisions In A Cooperative Environment

The trend for cooperative consolidation in the grain industry continues to be common throughout the United States.  In the state of Washington, for example, the total number of agribusiness cooperatives has decreased by nearly 40% over the past 3 decades.  Grain cooperatives in eastern Washington have diminished by 30% over this same period, and by 60% over the past 55 years (Monson, 2003).  The bulk of this reduction in numbers may be attributed to mergers and consolidations, but a few liquidations are also evident.  While many factors have contributed towards this long-standing trend, most would argue that a persistence of “economies of size” appears as a dominant force encouraging industry restructuring at almost every level.  The incentive and motivation to lower long-run average total costs by increasing size, capacity and volume is present for both types of grain agribusinesses (cooperatives and private (or publicly) owned businesses) while the implicit objective function for these different business forms is slightly different.  The primary objective for privately owned businesses is to maximize profit, subject to a constraint on technology which may be influenced by the private firm’s access to capital and management expertise.&nbsp

An Approach To Determining The Market For Academic Positions: Application To The Discipline Of Agricultural Economics

This paper presents relevant issues in choice of an academic career in the chosen discipline of each student.  The analytical model, applied to agricultural economics, is a supply/demand construct

Transportation Usage And Characteristics Of Washington State Warehouse/Distribution Center Businesses: A First Look

The paper provides an analysis and overview of the operations of the warehouse/distribution center businesses in the state of Washington, with implications for all national and international distribution businesses

A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPROACH TO ESTIMATING DELIVERED COST OF ENERGY FEEDSTOCKS

Due to a large variation in the current research-based recommendations about economic or environmental cost-benefits, the ethanol industry’s sustainable development may be adversely influenced. Moreover, one of the most important considerations for sustainable development of the ethanol industry – economics of transportation is often overlooked. The primary objective of this paper is to explore economic feasibility of biofuels production in the state of Washington, and to report on the availability, collection and transportation costs of feedstocks for ethanol processing using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The GIS Network Analyst Tool is used to spatially analyze forest residue biomass within given haul time area from the ethanol processing plant with the capacity of 55 million gallons per year (MGY). Using census feature classification codes, speed limit

Projecting Washington - British Columbia Truck Freight Border Crossings and Arterial Usage

Continuing adaptation to changing transportation needs is critical in maintaining efficiency and reducing costs of raw and manufactured goods to ensure economic stability and growth. With bilateral trade in excess of $1.4 billion per day between the U.S. and Canada and over 200 million annual crossings (passenger vehicles and freight trucks) (U.S. Embassy, Ottawa, 2006), knowledge of the composition of commodities crossing the border and the growth in the flow of those commodities is vital to future policy making. This report focuses on cross-border flows by truck between Washington and British Columbia, through decomposition of the northbound and southbound flows by industry and commodity, coupled with projection of the trade growth in those industries. By knowing expected increases in commodity flows across border port locations, policy makers can better adapt border ports to ensure efficiency in truck movements. Increased efficiency is important to trade competitiveness in the international marketplace

Community Needs-Based Planning for Rural Library Success

I am a librarian from rural southern Oregon, and my community is a stereotype. NPR correspondent Jeff Brady visited our town during the summer of 2017 for a story highlighting rural communities in decline (Brady, 2017). We were a convenient case study. Our natural resource industry has been dying a slow and loud death for decades, our voters have notoriously voted down numerous tax levies, and Jeff Brady just happened to grow up here. Brady being a national business correspondent from Philadelphia, we were the perfect stereotype for a piece that closed with his grim statement: “Overall, the economic prospects for my hometown of Gold Beach, Oregon, look dim. Fortunately there’s always the beautiful beach, the river, and the forests to console those who still live here.” Despite the inevitable feeling of this conclusion, Brady could have asked much different questions and listened to different voices that would have resulted in a story about much more than malaise. In fact, when presented with innovative changes taking place, Brady commented to our library staff that a storyline of innovative change in its early stages would not help NPR make the point their audience wanted to hear. I start with this story because librarians are extremely susceptible to the very mistake made by this NPR correspondent. We see what we want to see, and the decisions that follow (particularly in small rural communities) are more often than not rejected by the community because they do not truly address immediate needs. As for that Southern Oregon stereotype, our voters certainly fit the stereotype of being skeptical of paying taxes, but few taxpayers I have encountered are unwilling to pay taxes when the government entity in question has proven to be successful in addressing what they perceive as community needs. Working with this model, I believe Gold Beach is in the early phases of a renaissance rooted in the library’s community needs-based planning. Here is our story

Intercept Surveys: Productivity in Collecting Truck Trip Data, A Case Study of Portland, Oregon

This study examines and contrasts the use of intercept surveys at different locations (a highway roadside, a port and a warehouse) to generate details useful to states’ modeling and freight planning needs for truck movements, particularly at the sub-county level. Data collected at roadside locations provides complete trip detail for all inter-regional movements (highway locations) and also trip detail for almost all intra-regional freight movements (warehouse/distribution center locations). Interviews at the warehouse/distribution center and interstate highway weigh station provide the highest commodity type response rates, while the preponderance of container traffic at the port facility yields limited responses on payload information. Different locations yielded differing question response rates

The Economic Impact of Increased Congestion for Freight-Dependent Businesses in Washington State

Congestion in the transportation system necessitates select businesses to operate on a less efficient production function. A survey of freight-dependent businesses in Washington State was used to calculate the costs of congestion and economic impact of increased congestion. As these businesses spend more to provide goods, responses suggest consumers would pay 60% to 80% of the increased cost. Primary areas of increased cost were identified as additional trucking and inventory costs. Results identify an additional $8.7 billion in consumer costs for a 20$3.3 billion in total output and over 27,000 jobs