Characteristics and Production Costs of U.S. Corn Farms, 2001

Corn production costs per bushel vary considerably among U.S. producers, depending on yields, farm location, tillage practices, irrigation, previous field usage, enterprise size, and weather. In 2001, the operating and ownership costs per bushel for corn ranged from an average of $1.08 for the 25 percent of U.S. producers with the lowest costs to an average of$2.98 for the 25 percent with the highest costs. Heartland corn producers had the lowest costs per bushel on average. Corn producers with small corn enterprises had the highest costs due to their lower-than-average corn yields. Operators of part-time and low-sales corn farms have higher production costs per bushel than operators of farms with higher sales. In 2001, 59 percent of corn producers earned a positive net return per bushel after covering their operating and ownership costs from the market value of corn. When loan deficiency payments (LDPs) on corn were added to the value of corn production, 64 percent of producers covered their corn operating and ownership costs. When income consists of the value of production, LDPs, production flexibility contract, market loss, and disaster assistance payments, 73 percent of producers earned a positive return per bushel after accounting for their operating and ownership costs.corn, costs of production, operator characteristics, production practices, cost variation, Agricultural Resource Management Survey, ARMS, Crop Production/Industries,

2,4-D and Mycoleptodiscus terrestris for control of Eurasian Watermilfoil

Growth chamber studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of an indigenous fungal pathogen, Mycoleptodiscus terrestris (Gerd.) Ostazeski, and the herbicide 2,4-D applied alone and in combination with one another, on the growth of a nuisance submersed plant, Eurasian watermilfoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum L.)(PDF has 6 pages.

A design and implementation methodology for diagnostic systems

A methodology for design and implementation of diagnostic systems is presented. Also discussed are the advantages of embedding a diagnostic system in a host system environment. The methodology utilizes an architecture for diagnostic system development that is hierarchical and makes use of object-oriented representation techniques. Additionally, qualitative models are used to describe the host system components and their behavior. The methodology architecture includes a diagnostic engine that utilizes a combination of heuristic knowledge to control the sequence of diagnostic reasoning. The methodology provides an integrated approach to development of diagnostic system requirements that is more rigorous than standard systems engineering techniques. The advantages of using this methodology during various life cycle phases of the host systems (e.g., National Aerospace Plane (NASP)) include: the capability to analyze diagnostic instrumentation requirements during the host system design phase, a ready software architecture for implementation of diagnostics in the host system, and the opportunity to analyze instrumentation for failure coverage in safety critical host system operations

Tax and Policy Implications of Changes to Reporting Requirements for Construction Services

[Excerpt] New York and other states could increase revenue and improve their tax systems by requiring information reporting for all payments by businesses for construction services, utilizing a form similar to the Federal form 1099. The state could also advance other important policy goals including an increase in the fairness of the tax system and a reduction of the misclassification of workers as independent contractors

Performance-Based Long Term Incentive Compensation and Firm Performance

Awarding executives long-term incentive pay based on firm performance is often described as a natural way to improve firm performance. This brief uses an analytical approach to examine that proposed relationship. We first document the prevalence of performance-based long-term incentive (PB LTI) measures and the trends in the relative size of these measures compared to aggregate measures of compensation. We then compare the characteristics and performance of firms that have implemented a PB LTI measure in the past to those that have not. In order to understand the impact of PB LTI awards on firm performance, we separately assess the roles of the existence of the PB LTI measures, the relative size of the measures, and the type of PB LTI measure on firm performance

Multinationals and the Gains from International Diversification

One possible explanation for home bias is that investors may obtain indirect international diversification benefits by investing in multinational firms rather than by investing directly in foreign markets. This paper employs mean-variance spanning tests to examine the diversification potential of multinational firms and foreign market indices for investors domiciled in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We find that in most countries and most time periods, the portfolio of domestic stocks spans the risk and return opportunities of a portfolio that includes domestic and multinational stocks. However, there is weak evidence that U.S. multinationals provided global diversification benefits in the full 1984-92 sample and in the post-1987 subsample. We also find that the addition of foreign market indices to a domestic portfolio - inclusive of multinationals - provides diversification benefits. The economic importance of the shift of the portfolio frontier - measured as the utility gain from diversification - varies considerably from market to market and often reflects the benefits of large short positions in certain markets.

Policy Reform in the Tobacco Industry: Producers Adapt to a Changing Market

The Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 eliminated tobacco quotas and tobacco price supports and allowed producers to plant any amount or type of tobacco regardless of geographic location. The authors found that flue-cured tobacco producers made greater adjustments to their operations after the buyout than did burley tobacco producers. Flue-cured tobacco producers were more likely to increase tobacco acres per farm, pushing up the tobacco acreage per farm at a faster rate compared with burley tobacco producers. Flue-cured producers also were more likely to invest in their tobacco enterprises and invested more per farm after 2004. As a result of increased acreage, tobacco operations became more sensitive to changes in labor costs. With over 75 percent of tobacco farms using hired or contract labor in 2008, the availability and cost of workers have become increasingly important to tobacco producers. This report is based on data collected from the tobacco version of the 2008 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), which focused on U.S. producers of burley and flue-cure tobacco in 2008 and how their tobacco operations have changed since 2000 and 2004.Tobacco, structural change, farm adjustments, adaptations, Agricultural Resources Management Survey (ARMS) Acknowledgments, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL SOUTHERN RICE FARMS

The purpose of this study is to determine factors contributing to the likelihood of financial success among rice farms. The results showed that the ratio of government payments to total production value, tenure, crop diversification, cost control, education, yield, and debt-to-asset ratio were significant factors influencing at least one financial success measure. Key words: competitiveness, rice farms, farm success, farm profitability.competitiveness, rice farms, farm success, farm profitability., Crop Production/Industries,

Corporate governance, stakeholding and the nature of employment relations within the firm

This paper investigates the effect of different forms of corporate governance on the structure and nature of stakeholder relationships within organizations and the consequent impact on employment relations within the firm. In this, HRM assumes a dual role in delivering improvements in production efficiency and in fostering employee commitment to the organization and its objectives. However, different forms of corporate governance prioritise stakeholder interests in ways that may bring these two objectives into conflict. To address these questions, we examine the interrelationship between corporate governance, HRM practices and HRM outcomes in a comparative analysis of companies operating under alternative forms of governance, including private sector, public sector and family-owned firms. The empirical analysis is based on the UK Work and Employment Relations Survey (WERS98)

Diagnosis: Reasoning from first principles and experiential knowledge

Completeness, efficiency and autonomy are requirements for suture diagnostic reasoning systems. Methods for automating diagnostic reasoning systems include diagnosis from first principles (i.e., reasoning from a thorough description of structure and behavior) and diagnosis from experiential knowledge (i.e., reasoning from a set of examples obtained from experts). However, implementation of either as a single reasoning method fails to meet these requirements. The approach of combining reasoning from first principles and reasoning from experiential knowledge does address the requirements discussed above and can possibly ease some of the difficulties associated with knowledge acquisition by allowing developers to systematically enumerate a portion of the knowledge necessary to build the diagnosis program. The ability to enumerate knowledge systematically facilitates defining the program's scope, completeness, and competence and assists in bounding, controlling, and guiding the knowledge acquisition process