FUTURES AND OPTIONS MARKETS, BASIS, AND THE TIMING OF GRAIN SALES IN MONTANA

The performance of the grain transportation industry, historically low real grain prices, and decreasing government support for grain prices have renewed interest in local grain prices and shipping costs. An understanding of the relationship between local cash prices and futures prices is an important part of minimizing the price risk associated with growing and merchandising grain. The ability to recognize the seasonal patterns between these prices offers improved profit potential for marketing grain. A Montana producer's decision of when and how to market his/her crop can have a great impact on net profit. Farm managers can use cash sales at or after harvest, forward contracting with a local grain elevator, or hedging with the use of futures and options contracts. To best select between these tools, the producer must be able to interpret different price quotes in order to determine the equivalence in terms of time, place, and quality. Being able to compare the different pricing alternatives at any given time allows the producer to decide which method provides the greatest return. The local basis is the difference between the local cash price for hard red spring wheat and the current price for the relevant futures contract (usually the Minneapolis contract). By understanding the local basis, the producer can compare futures prices with cash and forward contract price quotes. There are large seasonal patterns in the basis for Montana spring wheat. These seasonal patterns primarily reflect changes in the demands placed on the transportation and handling system. The local cash value of spring wheat is effectively determined by the basis (which reflects freight and quality adjustments) and wheat futures prices. Futures exchanges provide a standardized price for a specific location, delivery time, and quality. The futures contract price gives buyers and sellers a well-known price based on the standards of the futures contract. Grain buyers and sellers can then use this standardized futures price as a base, adding quality premiums and subtracting transportation costs to price different grades of hard red spring at various locations. Besides qualitative differences, the wheat basis in Montana reflects arbitrage of wheat between different locations. The Pacific Northwest export market will normally provide the highest values for Montana spring wheat, so Montana merchandisers tend to price from Portland quotes. However, this Portland price for hard red spring wheat will reflect the Minneapolis Grain Exchange futures prices plus a transportation premium plus/minus any quality adjustments; prices will adjust to reflect all transportation costs and quality differences. This adjustment allows Northern Plains producers to use these centralized futures markets as pricing instruments, even though their wheat may move to other locations. The structure of freight pricing is critical for the movement of grain to Pacific Northwest ports and the prices received by Montana farmers. Freight rates from these Montana locations to Portland have been stable in real terms (adjusted for inflation) over the past ten years, whereas other components of the basis have shown considerable seasonal variability. The problem with Montana's freight rate stability over time is that other spring wheat growing areas with more effective grain transportation options have seen declining real freight prices. Understanding historical basis requires knowledge of the factors that influence the basis. This knowledge can be as important as knowing the cost of producing spring wheat. The first step in keeping historical basis information is to record the local cash price of spring wheat. Daily cash price quotes are available at the local grain elevator. Two useful Web sites are: (1) Montana Grain Growers Association (portions require a subscription), which provides current price and basis information at: (www.montanamarketmanager.org) and (2) USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mncs/index.htm), which provides daily prices and weekly summaries for grains and other agricultural commodities. Also, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee compiles historical price and basis information for specific state locations and the Montana Agricultural Statistics Service's annual publications give state average prices received for grains and livestock on a monthly basis. For further information contact David Buschena in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at 406-994-5623 or e-mail him at [email protected] marketing, futures, basis, freight rates, marketing strategies, Marketing, Q1,

Extension's Information Use and Need: Surveying, Analyzing and Planning Outreach to Extension Staff

Poster SessionThis study describes how University of Minnesota Extension staff locate and use information to accomplish daily activities. The major findings were: a) seeking for information is a daily or weekly need, b), staff use predominately online resources, from a variety of sources: peer-reviewed journals, technical or research reports, and government information, and use search engines most frequently to locate them, and c) Extension staff are aware of the majority of library resources and services. Extension staff welcome advanced information seeking tools and technique professional development. Since the preeminent information-seeking tool is a search engine, libraries must position themselves to inform extension staff how to setup Google Scholar to link to library licensed materials. In addition, additional tools to make the library presence seamless into extension’s workflow are needed. Librarians must integrate themselves into all areas of extension work, in order to disseminate and integrate library resources and services into extension’s daily activities

A New Class of Higher Quantum Airy Structures as Modules of W(glr)\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{gl}_r)-Algebras

Quantum $r$-Airy structures can be constructed as modules of $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{gl}_r)$-algebras via restriction of twisted modules for the underlying Heisenberg algebra. In this paper we classify all such higher quantum Airy structures that arise from modules twisted by automorphisms of the Cartan subalgebra that have repeated cycles of the same length. An interesting feature of these higher quantum Airy structures is that the dilaton shifts must be chosen carefully to satisfy a matrix invertibility condition, with a natural choice being roots of unity. We explore how these higher quantum Airy structures may provide a definition of the Chekhov, Eynard, and Orantin topological recursion for reducible algebraic spectral curves. We also study under which conditions quantum $r$-Airy structures that come from modules twisted by arbitrary automorphisms can be extended to new quantum $(r+1)$-Airy structures by appending a trivial one-cycle to the twist without changing the dilaton shifts.Comment: 24 page

The Libraries\u27 Role in the Success of First Year Students

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Caregiving: A Qualitative Concept Analysis

A common definition of caregiving does not exist. In an attempt to define the concept of caregiving, the authors used a hybrid qualitative model of concept development to analyze caregiving. The model consists of three phases: (a) theoretical, (b) fieldwork, and (c) analytical. The theoretical phase involves conducting an interdisciplinary literature search, examining existing definitions, and developing a working definition of caregiving. In the fieldwork phase, six participants were interviewed using a structured interview guide. Qualitative data analysis led to the development of two overarching themes: Holistic Care and Someone in Need of Help. Responses from participants were compared to the extant literature and a new definition of caregiving was thus formulated

Cultural Competence of Pre-Licensure Nursing Faculty

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of cultural competence (CC) in Texas pre-licensure nursing faculty and examine the relationships between demographics and CC scores. The researchers conducted a study to determine if demographics predicted the level of CC and explored the perceptions of CC. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design used data from a 2014 online survey with a qualitative interview component. Demographics were evaluated with descriptive statistics and CC was measured with The Nurses’ Cultural Competence Scale (NCCS). Qualitative data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. The level of CC was low to moderate. Three themes emerged from the interviews: knowledge is experiential, skills require emotional intelligence, and desire requires a catalyst. Nursing faculty could benefit from experiences with culturally diverse patients and students. Continuing education offerings and courses should follow best practices models of CC education and focus on providing meaningful experiences may also increase the knowledge and skills to help faculty members