NEW DIMENSIONS AND POTENTIALS FOR AID-UNIVERSITY COOPERATION

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Coordinated egg production and marketing in the north central states V. Least-cost egg marketing organization under alternative production patterns

Important changes are taking place in the mid-western egg industry. Changes in Iowa are broadly representative of the transformations taking place in this industry throughout the region. One of the most significant changes has been the decline in the number of farms producing eggs. In 1940, 198,000 Iowa farms -or 93 percent of all farms-reported chickens on hand. In 1950, the number was 174,000, or 86 percent. By 1959, there had been a further decline to 68 percent. Along with the changing number of farms producing eggs, there has been a change in the sizes of flocks on farms. In Iowa, the proportion of very small flocks has remained nearly constant. In 1940 and 1950, roughly 13 percent of all Iowa flocks had fewer than 50 hens. This rose to about 15 percent in 1959. A sharp decline in medium-sized flocks of 50 to 400 hens occurred in the same period, from 86 percent in 1940 to 71 percent in 1959. Numbers of flocks larger than 400 hens have shown substantial increases, as shown in table 1 (1, 8, 14). Small flocks (less than 50 hens) are of little commercial importance. They are maintained mainly to supply the farm household with eggs for consumption. Farm flocks of 50 to 400 hens are most numerous; they have served as a means of acquiring a steady flow of cash for the household and an outlet for family labor on the family farm. For our study, flocks of this size take on great importance; they are the main component of the existing production pattern. Flocks larger than 400 hens are increasing rapidly and will probably continue to increase because of economies of scale in egg production and possible economies in marketing operations. This study emphasizes these larger flocks to ascertain their relationship to assembly and processing costs

Firm growth processes and structural changes in the grain industries of the north central region

Growth is an important objective of the modern business enterprise. It is the means by which firms adjust to the environmental factors affecting their industries and individual operations. In turn, changes in firm size and organization, including entry and exit, determine the structural characteristics of a given industry at a given point in time. Although industry structure can be described statically, obviously growth processes leading to structural changes must be analyzed over time. This report uses several static and dynamic models to describe and analyze the process of structural change in the grain industries of the North Central Region. The general objective of this study was to determine the direction and magnitude of the major changes in firm organization and growth processes associated with the structural changes in the North Central Region (NCR) grain-marketing industry. More specifically, for each major type of firm ownership, each subindustry and the entire NCR grain industry, attempts were made to: (a) measure the changes in firm size and industry concentration, (b) classify these changes into basic components of specialization and diversification and (c) assess the relative importance of these components

Location and efficiency of the Iowa feed-manufacturing industry

The American commercial mixed-feeds industry has experienced rapid growth, especially since World War II. Changes have occurred in the product produced, in the number, size, location, and technology of plants, and in the number, size, and organization of the purchasers of the industry’s products. The purpose of this study was to develop and use an analytical procedure to solve for the efficient number, size, and location of plants in the Iowa feed-manufacturing industry. Such information should assist the industry in adjusting to rapidly changing demand and technology. The problematical situation out of which the specific objectives emerge is to find the least-cost location and size pattern for feed-manufacturing plants in Iowa. The solution should take account of changing levels of demand, the changing levels of available technology, and the commercialization trends of modem farming. Are the existing feed-manufacturing plants economically efficient in size? Are their locations optimal? Should there be more or fewer of them

Market organization of grain industries in the North Central region

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Experiment Stations of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, cooperating.Digitized 2007 AES

Iowa’s grain-elevator industry: Factors affecting its organization and structural adjustment

In December 1970, there were 1,178 grain elevators in Iowa. The total storage capacity of these elevators was in excess of 432 million bushels. In recent years, both the number and the storage capacity of elevators have been increasing. More than half the elevators had a storage capacity of 300,000 bushels or less. This group, however, accounted for only 21 percent of the total storage capacity. The current organization of the industry is typified by an elevator that receives com and soybeans from a supply area with a radius of 5 to 7 miles. A statistical cost function, derived from data from over 150 cooperative elevators, indicated that significant economies of scale exist in elevator operations. This cost function showed that an elevator with a capacity of 300,000 bushels would have an average cost of 11 cents per bushel of grain handled, compared with a cost of 7.9 cents for an elevator with a capacity of 2 million bushels. Since the statistical cost function was based on accounting data reflecting historical investment costs and interest rates, these estimates of elevator costs should be regarded as conservative

Ionization of Rydberg atoms by blackbody radiation

We have studied an ionization of alkali-metal Rydberg atoms by blackbody radiation (BBR). The results of the theoretical calculations of ionization rates of Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs Rydberg atoms are presented. Calculations have been performed for nS, nP and nD states which are commonly used in a variety of experiments, at principal quantum numbers n=8-65 and at the three ambient temperatures of 77, 300 and 600 K. A peculiarity of our calculations is that we take into account the contributions of BBR-induced redistribution of population between Rydberg states prior to photoionization and field ionization by extraction electric field pulses. The obtained results show that these phenomena affect both the magnitude of measured ionization rates and shapes of their dependences on n. A Cooper minimum for BBR-induced transitions between bound Rydberg states of Li has been found. The calculated ionization rates are compared with our earlier measurements of BBR-induced ionization rates of Na nS and nD Rydberg states with n=8-20 at 300 K. A good agreement for all states except nS with n>15 is observed. Useful analytical formulas for quick estimation of BBR ionization rates of Rydberg atoms are presented. Application of BBR-induced ionization signal to measurements of collisional ionization rates is demonstrated.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures. Paper is revised following NJP referees' comments and suggestion