Assumptions in the Crop Sector: A Review

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the basic assumptions that have been made or need to be made before the solutions for the 1985 RCA (Resource Conservation Act.) This paper will state the regions to be used in the programming and the assumptions used in the creation of the crop sector. It will examine technology and demands

Testimony of Burton C. English before the House Fossil and Synthetic Fuels subcommittee in Cedar Rapids on May 16, 1983

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Burton C. English. I am a staff economist with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. My area of expertise is in agricultural economics and policy. I wish to thank Congressmen Tom Tauke and Billy Tauzin for inviting me here. My testimony here today will focus on how agriculture is affected by changes in natural gas prices. In addition, the testimony will focus on supply disruptions such as those that took place in the 1970s and their potential impacts on the nation\u27s agricultural sector. First, however, I will discuss how natural gas is used in the production of crops and livestock

Some Thoughts Behind Acreage Programs and Erosion Control

The United States has both enjoyed and suffered from the ability of its agricultural sector to produce more than was demanded domestically or that could be sold abroad at a profit. Food and fiber prices, because of the abundance of supply, are below those that would otherwise have prevailed. Thus, consumers were the beneficiaries as a smaller portion of their income is spent for acquiring of food than most anywhere else in the world

Long-term impacts of soil erosion: a national and interregional analysis for the year 2030

There has been a growing concern over soil erosion in recent years. Farmers, government officials, agronomists, agricultural economists, and the general public have become concerned with growing rates and the extent of soil loss under the all out production of recent years. Soil erosion cannot be entirely arrested economically or even physically. This study examines the impacts that would be likely if attempts are made to arrest erosion;The linear programming model used in the analysis is national in nature, incorporating 28 market regions and 105 producing areas and is used to examine five solutions for 2030. The Base is an unconstrained soil loss solution and it is compared to the other four solutions. Once the Base is attained, producing area soil loss is reduced 20, 40, and 60 percent of the Base levels. A final solution, one that has the allowed level of soil loss fixed at the estimated 1977 level, is examined;The national and regional responses to the changing soil loss levels are examined. Land used to meet the projected demand levels declines as allowed soil loss declines, but irrigated land increases. Changes in rotations, conservation and tillage practices, and crop pattern shifts are also analyzed. The changes in the resource use of land, costs of production, nitrogen, pesticides, water, and energy also are examined;The analysis indicates that the agricultural sector and society will achieve long run benefits if soil is reduced from present levels. The Base indicates that the present soil loss levels can be reduced to 1.2 billion tons with society gaining from decreased food and fiber costs and agriculture gaining from less resource use and increased yields. As soil erosion declines, the trend of shifting from straight row to other conservation methods and from conventional tillage to reduced tillage practices indicate that a policy that encourages this trend would result in significant reductions of soil erosion from agricultural land

Water: Its Changing Role in U.S. Agriculture

The interrelationship between food security of the United States and a diminishing water resource balances on the condition of that water resource, the quantity of other substitute resources, and the level of future technology. The answer to whether food supplies in the United States can be threatened by a given resource such as water cannot be answered solely by examining the resource in question. Rather the interactions of all resources used in the production of agricultural commodities must be analyzed

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF VARIABLE RATE APPLICATION OF NITROGEN TO CORN FIELDS: ROLE OF VARIABILITY AND WEATHER

The use of meta-response functions based on EPIC-generated data resulted in comparisons between variable (VRAT) and uniform rate application technologies for 36 simulated fields. VRAT was more profitable and less nitrogen was lost to the environment in most cases. When spatial variability was small, uniform rate application techniques were adopted. However, when nitrogen use is restricted, VRAT is used on all simulated fields.Precision farming, site-specific farming, spatial variability, nitrogen restriction, rainfall, EPIC, crop growth simulation model, meta-response functions, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

ASSESSING SPATIAL BREAK-EVEN VARIABILITY IN FIELDS WITH TWO OR MORE MANAGEMENT ZONES

Farmers are interested in knowing whether applying inputs at variable rates across a field is economically viable. The answer depends on the crop, the input, their prices, the cost of variable rate technology (VRT) versus uninform rate technology (URT), and the spatial and yield response variability within each field. Methods were investigated for determining the range of spatial variability over which the return to VRT covers its additional cost compared with URT in fields with multiple management zones. Models developed in this article, or variants thereof, could be used to help farmers make the VRT adoption decision.management zones, nitrogen, precision farming, site-specific management, spatial break-even variability proportions, spatial variability, variable rate technology, yield response variability, Farm Management,

Risk and Return for Bioenergy Crops under Alternative Contracting Arrangements

This study evaluated the potential to supply biomass feedstocks under alternative contract arrangements for a northwest Tennessee 2,400 acre grain farm. The four potential types of contracts analyzed in this study offer different levels of biomass price, yield, and production cost risk sharing between the representative farm and the processor.Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

EVALUATING THE RETURNS TO VARIABLE RATE NITROGEN APPLICATION

Potential benefits of variable rate nitrogen application are illustrated and information needs identified. Lower costs of precision farming services, higher crop prices, and greater divergence in yield response potentials across management zones reduce the spatial variability required for profitable variable rate application. Information needs include identification and measurement of management zones within a field and estimation of management zone yield response functions, crop and input prices, and the cost of precision farming services.production economics, management zones, nitrogen, precision farming, spatial break-even variability proportions, variable rate applications, yield response variability, Crop Production/Industries,

Economic Feasibility of Kenaf Production in Three Tennessee Counties

Since the 1940s, kenaf has been viewed as a potential source of fiber, mainly for newsprint and high quality paper. Kenaf research has once again risen to the forefront due to the recent USDA tobacco buyout. Many states and farmers dependent upon tobacco revenues have been seeking alternative crops for a number of years. This study seeks to expand the current literature by examining the economic feasibility of growing kenaf within three counties in Tennessee. Nitrogen meta-yield response functions for kenaf and four traditional crops were developed for 30 soils through crop growth simulation modeling and used to compare optimal crop budgets for each soil. Results reveal that kenaf would not compete favorably with traditional crops on any soil at prices below $49/ton, while profit-maximizing farmers could supply as much as 1,385,700 tons of kenaf if the price were$55/ton.alternative crop, economic feasibility, enterprise budgeting, kenaf, plant growth modeling, yield response functions, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries,