AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING EVALUATIONS: WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?

Student evaluation of teaching helps determine faculty merit ratings. A multinomial choice, ordered data model is used to identify factors having high statistical relevance with respect to value of the course and quality of instruction. Some results agree with findings from outside Agriculture, but there are interesting exceptions.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Evidence of Scope Economies in the Australian Wheat-Sheep Zone

Scope economies can be used in studies of farming systems to provide a measure of synergies between different farm enterprises and between activities within farm enterprises. In this paper, they are reported for farms in a benchmarking group in the Wheat-Sheep Zone in New South Wales, Australia, by estimating a stochastic input distance function and calculating an ‘economies of scope parameter’. Evidence is presented of scope economies between sheep and beef enterprises, sheep and crop enterprises, and beef and crop enterprises.Australia, crops, livestock, scope economies,

Slippage Effects of the Conservation Reserve Program: New Evidence from Satellite Imagery

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is the largest land retirement program ever operated in the US. Since its inception in 1985, many researchers have studied the impacts of this program; however, only a few have analyzed how the CRP affects surrounding non–enrolled parcels. In this research I examine how the CRP may affect the conversion of non–cropped land to agriculture, a phenomenon referred to as “slippage” in the literature, and specifically addressed by Wu (2000) and Roberts and Bucholtz (2005). Building on these earlier studies, I empirically model slippage using data derived from satellite imagery that provides information on land cover changes between 1992 and 2001. The study area consists of 1,053 counties located in the Northern Plains, Corn Belt and Lake States regions. Results support the existence of slippage effects from the CRP, but they are more conservative than the ones found by Wu (2000). The evidence of slippage provided here is important information for planners, given that whether and how the CRP affects land use decisions in surrounding areas is key information for implementing conservation efforts more efficiently.CRP, Land use change, Satellite imagery, Slippage effect, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q15, Q24,

THE ROLE OF SOIL TEST INFORMATION IN REDUCING GROUNDWATER POLLUTION

Will nitrogen soil testing improve groundwater quality enough to decrease the demand for direct regulation? This question is addressed using a dynamic simulation model of irrigated agriculture in eastern Oregon. Results indicate that soil testing reduces applied nitrogen, increases farm profits and improves groundwater quality, but not enough to avoid regulation.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Computational steering of a multi-objective genetic algorithm using a PDA

The execution process of a genetic algorithm typically involves some trial-and-error. This is due to the difficulty in setting the initial parameters of the algorithm – especially when little is known about the problem domain. The problem is magnified when applied to multi-objective optimisation, as care is needed to ensure that the final population of candidate solutions is representative of the trade-off surface. We propose a computational steering system that allows the engineer to interact with the optimisation routine during execution. This interaction can be as simple as monitoring the values of some parameters during the execution process, or could involve altering those parameters to influence the quality of the solutions produce by the optimisation process

What Should Farmers Pay for Cash Rents

Determining what to pay for cash rental rates is a big problem for most farmers. Typically, crop budgets are used for this decision. However, problems arise from this approach because the average revenue contained in the budget is often not the true marginal revenue. Farm size differences certainly affect the average and thus the marginal revenue. This paper calculates the true marginal revenue per acre so that a better estimate can be made of the cash rental rate. Farm analysis data is used to calculate the total revenue per acre. The first derivative then gives the marginal revenue.Land Economics/Use,

Tailoring concurrent engineering to small companies

This thesis presents the findings of a four year collaborative programme betvveen Middlesex University and Rimmer Brothers, a small medical device manufacturer. During this time the author and other associates have introduced to the company a new approach to product design based on the principles of Concurrent Engineering (CE). A review of CE case studies reveals how its usage is mainly confmed to large organisations, despite offering universally applicable advantages. In applying such ideas to a company of only ~50 employees, it has become clear that a number of 'environmental factors' including culture, product complexity and available resources influences the implementation and success of CE schemes. Most notably, resource shortages diminish the effects of lead time compression. Use of a modified implementation for the development of several new products has yieldedcost reductions approaching 50% - results comparable with large companies. This demonstrates that if due consideration is given to these factors, then CE can be seen to be a powerful and effective tool in any size of organisation

USING ECONOMIC VALUE ADDED (EVA) TO EXAMINE FARM BUSINESSES

The four profitability measures recommended by the Farm Financial Standards Task Force have limitations for examining wealth creation. Non-farm corporations, by contrast, have started to use Economic Value Added (EVA) to measure wealth creation. EVA has some advantages over other financial ratios because it fully accounts for the resources used on the farm and it includes both realized and unrealized capital gains in the calculation. This article examines the EVA metric for three years of farm financial data to determine if it provides additional information about wealth creation and profitability than do the other four ratios. Factors that help predict EVA are also examined.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,