Future Land Use Decisions of North Dakota Conservation Reserve Program Participants

Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTH DAKOTA FARMS 1992-1994

End-of-year financial data from 700 farms enrolled in North Dakota Farm Business Management Education Program for the years 1992 to 1994 are analyzed according to 16 financial standards. All median profitability measures, median term debt coverage, term debt and capital margin, and median net farm income as a percent of gross revenue are lower in 1994 than in 1993. The median for all 16 financial measures deteriorated for 1994 in the south central and west regions due to lower livestock profitability. Financial performance of the north central region improved each of the three years.Agricultural Finance,

FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTH DAKOTA FARMS, 1993-1995

The performance of over 500 North Dakota farms, 1993-1995, is summarized using 16 financial measures. Farms are categorized by geographic region, farm type, farm size, gross cash sales, farm tenure, net farm income, debt-to-asset, and age of farmer to analyze relationships between financial performance and farm characteristics.Farm financial management, farm management, farm income, liquidity, solvency, profitability, repayment capacity, financial efficiency, financial benchmarks, tenure, North Dakota., Agricultural Finance,

OPTION VALUES FOR PROVISIONS IN EXPORT CREDIT GUARANTEES

All major exporting countries of agricultural commodities have some form of credit guarantee program. As the importance of credit programs escalates, it is incumbent on policy makers to examine the value of their program relative to those of competitors. In this study, a model based on option pricing theory was developed to estimate the value of credit guarantees extended to importers and applied to U.S. and competing countries' programs. The Canadian guarantee has the lowest implicit value, followed by the U.S., Australian, and French guarantees. French guarantees had the highest implicit value due to higher coverage for interest and freight and insurance.International Relations/Trade,

Malt Barley Risk Management Strategies

Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

PRODUCTION RISK AND CROP INSURANCE IN MALTING BARLEY: A STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE ANALYSIS

Malt barley is an important specialty crop in the Northern Plains and growers mitigate risk with federally subsidized crop insurance and production contracts. However, growers face considerable risk due to "coverage gaps" in crop insurance that result in uncertain indemnity payments due to uncertainty of their crop meeting contract specifications. A stochastic dominance model is developed to evaluate alternative risk efficient strategies for growers with differing risk attitudes and production practices (irrigation vs. dryland). Results show that efficient choices are highly dependent on risk attitudes for dryland growers, but not irrigated growers. Sensitivities with respect to acceptance risk and level of crop insurance subsidization are presented. Increased specialization of agricultural crops with greater emphasis on quality characteristics will limit dryland producer interest in federal crop insurance.Crop insurance, malting barley, stochastic dominance, stochastic efficiency, Risk and Uncertainty,

Valuing Option Provisions for Export Credit Guarantees

International Relations/Trade,

Financial Benchmarks of North Dakota Farm Operators: 1992 Update

Agricultural Finance, Farm Management,

Spatial and temporal filtering of a 10-W Nd:YAG laser with a Fabry-Perot ring-cavity premode cleaner

We report on the use of a fixed-spacer Fabry–Perot ring cavity to filter spatially and temporally a 10-W laser-diode-pumped Nd:YAG master-oscillator power amplifier. The spatial filtering leads to a 7.6-W TEMinfinity beam with 0.1% higher-order transverse mode content. The temporal filtering reduces the relative power fluctuations at 10 MHz to 2.8 x 10^-/sqrtHz, which is 1 dB above the shot-noise limit for 50 mA of detected photocurrent