Potential Impact of Country-of-Origin Labeling on Beef Industry Structure

International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN A BEEF CATTLE MARKETING COOPERATIVE

Based on the results of a 1999 survey of Mississippi Beef Cattle Producers, producers were willing to invest $1.66 per head marketed in a beef cattle marketing cooperative. Factors that had the largest positive impact on WTP were producers who were willing to permanently identify all of their cows and calves and producers who were willing to accept prices negotiated by the cooperative. Negative factors included producer willingness to implement a pre-weaning health management program and the percentage of replacement heifers purchased through regular auctions.Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

A New Taxonomy of Thin Markets

The traditional conception of a thin market based on transactions volume remains relevant in many agricultural markets but does not adequately frame emerging thin market issues. As non-price means of pricing goods becomes more common, some cash commodity markets have become residual markets. In some of these markets, not only the volume of transactions but also the representativeness of transactions to those on the related contract market is an important issue. This paper develops a concept of thin markets that accounts for this dimension of market thinness and proposes a research agenda related to this topic.Marketing,

The Impacts of Market Structure and Contracts on Agricultural Markets

Experimental markets were used to isolate the effects of market structure and contract design on market outcomes. Preliminary results suggest that market structure drives outcomes, and not necessarily contract design. Future research will replicate experiments and add dimensions of market information.Political Economy,

The Impacts of GM Seed Technology on Cotton: Cost of Production in Mississippi, 1996 - 2005

Genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties have changed many aspects of cotton production in the United States. The rapid adoption of GM cotton varieties in Mississippi has allowed producers to alter certain production practices because of added benefits gained from GM varieties. This study analyses some of the effects of certain changes in some of the most relevant components of cotton production on yield that stem from the adoption of GM varieties in Mississippi by comparing production functions from 1996 and 2005.Mississippi cotton production, Genetically Modified cotton varieties, structural change, production function., Crop Production/Industries,

Efficient 2.87 μm fiber laser passively switched using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

A passively switched Ho3+, Pr3+ codoped fluoride fiber laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) is demonstrated. Q-switching and partial mode-locking were observed with the output power produced at a slope efficiency of 24% with respect to the absorbed pump power. The partially mode-locked 2.87 µm pulses operated at a repetition rate of 27.1 MHz with an average power of 132 mW, pulse energy of 4.9 nJ, and pulse width of 24 ps

Estimation of Farm-Forward Regional Economic Impacts for the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District in Texas

Impacts of alternative agricultural water conservation strategies are being evaluated in the Texas Panhandle. Stakeholders have expressed concern that all effects need to be accounted for including the regional economy. A methodology was developed to evaluate the effects on the backward and forward-linked processing sectors and differentiated results are presented.backward-linked, forward-linked, IMPLAN, Ogallala Aquifer, water policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q18, Q32, Q38,

High quality waveguides for the mid-infrared wavelength range in a silicon-on-sapphire platform

We report record low loss silicon-on-sapphire nanowires for applications to mid infrared optics. We achieve propagation losses as low as 0.8dB/cm at 1550nm, 1.1 to 1.4dB/cm at 2080nm and < 2dB/cm at = 5.18 microns.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 18 reference