Impact of Off-Farm Employment on Farmers’ Willingness to Grow Switchgrass and Miscanthus

Current study analyzed the socio-economic factors that impact farmers’ willingness to grow switchgrass and Miscanthus in Missouri and Iowa. The results of study show that current level of farmers’ willingness to grow either crop is low. Hence, there are barriers to accomplishing to goal of producing 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2022, as set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The results of the ordered probit regressions show that farmers with higher education levels and smaller farm sales are more willing to grow energy crops. The results of this study show that currently growing energy crops is more attractive to small farms as a source of crop diversification, rather than an alternative crop production in the big scale by large farms.Bioenergy, Cellulosic Ethanol, Switchgrass, Miscanthus, Ordered Probit, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impact of Farm Size and Uncertainty on Technology Disadoption

For policies that promote use of new technologies by farmers to be successful, it is important that farmers continue to use these technologies. Technology disadoption has not been analyzed in the literature widely and there is no theoretical model that analyzes technology disadoption. The objective of the current study is to provide a theoretical framework that explains the impact of farm size and uncertainty with respect to production technology on farmers’ decision to disadopt a new technology. Current study found that a negative relationship between farm size and disadoption technologies that were complement to other technologies that are used by larger farms. Also, the current study predicted that larger farmers are more likely to disadopt a new technology if a fixed replacement cost is required, where average replacement cost decreases with farm size. For the impact of technological uncertainty, the current paper found that if the variance of the profit from current technology or pratice increases, farmers become more likely to disadopt the current technology or the practices.Technology Disadoption, Farm Size, Uncertainty, Environmental Quality, Environmental Economics and Policy,

IMPACT OF OFF-FARM INCOME ON ADOPTION OF CONSERVATION PRACTICES

Off-farm income has recently been incorporated into the analysis of technology adoption, due to its increasing share in total farm household income in the U.S. Previous studies, however, found inconsistent results with respect to the impact of off-farm income on adoption of conservation practices. The contribution of the current study is to provide a conceptual model which shows that off-farm work has positive impact on adoption of capital incentive practices and negative impact on adoption labor intensive technologies. The results of multivariate probit regression confirms that adoption of injecting manure into the soil, which is a capital intensive practice, is positively and significantly impacted by off-farm work, and adoption of record keeping, which is a labor intensive practice, is negatively and significantly impacted by off-farm work.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Disadoption of Agricultural Practices by Livestock Farmers

To be effective, policies that encourage farmers to use new technologies or practices need farmers both adopt and also keep using these technologies and practices. Adoption of new technologies has been widely analyzed in the literature. However, there is little known about the factors that cause farmers to keep using new technologies or quit using them. Using hazard function estimation, the current study investigates disadoption of Roundup Ready soybeans, injecting manure into the soil, and soil testing. The results of the current study show that over time farmers observe the true benefits and costs of these practices and they become more likely to disadopt these practices.Disadoption, New Technology, Hazard Function, Learning, Uncertainty, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Manure Application Rules and Environmental Considerations

Three manure application limits (N Limit, Annual P Limit and P Banking) were modeled with particular attention to the number of hours needed to appropriately distribute manure. The benefit and costs estimates indicated that P Banking was more profitable than N Limit which was more profitable than Annual P Limit. The number of hours required indicated that the Annual P Limit would not be completed within a two month window approximately 2 of 10 years. The increased number of hours for the Annual P Limit also increased the probability of a runoff event following manure application, relative to the other two scenarios. This work indicates that regulations that require Annual P Limits of manure cost the farmer and may have the unintended consequence of increasing runoff.manure, environment, policy, runoff, hours, acres, probability, rainfall, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Adoption of Phytase by Livestock Farmers

Phytase represents a potential win/win management practice for non-ruminant producers since it can reduce the need for phosphorous supplementation and also result in lower phosphorous runoff. Cost of phytase has decreased and cost of phosphorous has increased. The reported adoption rate for phytase for non-ruminants was 17.2 percent, however it is currently added to virtually all swine and poultry premixes by feed manufacturers due to the cost savings. People were more likely to say they use phytase if they think it is profitable, not time intensive, and improves water quality.manure, phytase, phosphorous, adoption, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

Off-Farm Employment Effects on Adoption of Nutrient Management Practices

Off-farm income as a share of total farm household income has been increasing. Previous studies found inconsistent results regarding the impact of off-farm income on adoption of conservation practices. We test the hypothesis that off-farm employment has a positive impact on adoption of capital incentive practices and a negative impact on adoption of labor-intensive practices. The results confirm that adoption of injecting manure into the soil, a capital intensive practice, is positively and significantly impacted by off-farm employment of the operator. However, off-farm employment variables had no effect on adoption of record keeping.adoption, nutrient management, off-farm income, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

Consumer Preference Variation between Domestic and Imported Food

Increasing concerns about a healthy diet, food safety and support for the local economy provide new opportunities for farmers to increase their farm income by locally selling their farm products. The major challenge for farmers making local sales is to predict consumer preferences correctly and provide goods to the market accordingly. By analyzing results from a consumer survey conducted in the Midwest, the current study determines the consumer preferences for domestic artisan cheese compared with processed cheese and imported French cheese compared with U.S. artisan cheese. The results of the econometric analysis show that consumer preferences vary between domestic and imported cheese. The results also show that experience attributes are more influential than search and credence attributes on consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium for a food item

Estimating the Value Added Product Life Cycle

This research analyzes factors affecting product and profit life-cycles for new value added products. The methodology used shows how sales and profits evolve and how exogenous factors affecting sales and profits. Results indicate that producers can increase the level of sales and profits over time through initial marketing efforts.Marketing,

Adoption of nutrient management practices

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 17, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Laura McCann.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2008.Off-farm income has recently been incorporated into the analysis of technology adoption, due to its increasing share in total farm household income in the U.S. Previous studies, however, found inconsistent results with respect to the impact of off-farm income on adoption of conservation practices. The contribution of the current study is to provide a conceptual model which shows that off-farm work has positive impact on adoption of capital incentive practices and negative impact on adoption labor intensive technologies. The results of multivariate probit regression confirms that adoption of injecting manure into the soil, which is a capital intensive practice, is positively and significantly impacted by off-farm work. However, adoption of record keeping, which is a labor intensive practice, is not negatively impacted by off-farm work. The current study also investigated whether insights from previous studies that analyzed primarily profit-oriented practices can be used when designing policies for conserving the environment, which is another contribution of the current study to the literature. The results from probit regressions show that there are some factors such as education and farm sales impact adoption of both types of practices in the same way, but there are also factors such as off-farm income that do not impact adoption of environment-oriented practices.Includes bibliographical reference