Milking the plains: movement of large dairy operations into southwestern Kansas

Western Kansas has an historical identification with cattle, with a focus on cattle ranching and more specifically since the 1950s, beef-cattle feedlots. Since the mid-1990s large dairy operations have moved into southwestern Kansas. Today more than twenty large dairies house more than 70,000 milk cows. These operate as confined feeding operations similar to beef-cattle feedlots. Regional advantages for the dairy industry include affordable land with wide-open space, local residents’ cattle- and dairy-friendly attitudes, and other factors. Regional promoters have actively recruited dairies, and a dairy-business support system has emerged. The prospects for continued expansion of dairies in southwestern Kansas are unclear; despite the locational advantages and the possibility that the industry may continue to relocate here, as did the cattle-feeding industry several decades ago, further moves into the area may depend on continued resources availability and additional infrastructure development

Interannual variation in global-scale net primary production: Testing model estimates

Testing estimates of year‐to‐year variation in global net primary production (NPP) poses some challenges. Large‐scale, multiyear records of production are not readily available for natural systems but are for agricultural systems. We use records of agricultural yields at selected sites to test NPP estimates produced by CASA, a global‐scale production model driven by both meteorological data and the satellite‐derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). We also test estimates produced by the Miami model, which has underlain several analyses of biosphere response to interannual changes in climate. In addition, we test estimates against tree ring data for one boreal site for which data from both coniferous and deciduous species were available. The agricultural tests demonstrate that CASA can reasonably estimate interannual variation in production. The Miami model estimates variation more poorly. However, differences in NDVI‐processing algorithms substantially affect CASA's estimates of interannual variation. Of the four versions tested, the FASIR NDVI most closely reproduced yield data and showed the least correlation with changes in equatorial crossing time of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites. One issue raised is the source of the positive trends evident in CASA's NDVI‐based estimates of global NPP. The existence of these trends is consistent with potential stimulation of terrestrial production by factors such as CO2 enrichment, N fertilization, or temperature warming, but the magnitude of the global trends seen is significantly greater than suggested by constraints imposed by atmospheric fluxes

Farmers' willingness to contract switchgrass as a cellulosic bioenergy crop in Kansas

Farmers' adoption of cellulosic biofuel feedstock enterprises plays an important role in the future of agriculture and the renewable fuels \industry. However, no set markets currently exist for bioenergy feedstocks outside of very localized geographic locations and farmers may be reluctant to produce the feedstocks without contracts that help mitigate uncertainty and risk. This study examines farmers' willingness to grow switchgrass under contract using a stated choice approach. Data were collected using an enumerated survey of Kansas farmers and analyzed using latent class logistic regression models. Farmers whose primary enterprise is livestock are less inclined to grow switchgrass. Shorter contracts, greater harvest flexibility, crop insurance, and cost-share assistance increase the likelihood that farmers will grow switchgrass for bioenergy production