Weather and our food supply

The steep rate of increase in yield of grain crops in the United States since the mid-1950\u27s has resulted in the use of the term explosion in technology. Surplus grains piled up to such proportions after the 1960 · harvest that acreage control appeared. to be in order. But despite substantial reductions in acreages after 1960 the increased output per acre has just about compensated for acreage reductions. During this period of rapid increase in output per acre there has been a growing tendency to believe that technology has reduced the influence of weather on grain production so that we no longer need to fear shortages due to unfavorable weather. There is also a popular belief that acreage control$ fail to achieve the objective of production control, and that public funds are being wasted in storing surplus grains which we don\u27t need. There is increasing evidence, however, that a period of favorable weather interacted with technology to produce our recent high yields, and that perhaps half of the increase in yield per acre since 1950 has been due to a change to more favorable weather for grain crops. These findings have important implications in continued support for research in production technology and in the way in which we look at our surplus stocks of feed and food grains. If a period of favorable weather has been responsible for half of the increase in yields since 19501 then what can we expect if the weather trend reverses itself for a few years? Do we have periodicity in weather, and have we just passed through a run of favorable years that might be followed by a run of unfavorable years? Should we treat our surplus grains as reserves? How does our rate of growth in grain output compare with the needs of a growing world population? And of course I in the background of these questions is one big question -- how much of our recent high yields is really due to weather? To answer these important questions the Center for Agriculture and Economic Development invited outstanding authorities to present their ideas under three main headings: (1) Techniques for Evaluation of Weather Variables in Agricultural Production I (2) Periodicity in Weather Patterns: Implications in Agriculture I and (3) Weather Considerations in Agricultural Policy. The papers have been assembled in the order of their presentation under the general outline above.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/card_reports/1021/thumbnail.jp

Il contributo di La Volpe alla teoria dinamica dell'economia

The paper presents the dynamic theory proposed by La Volpe in 1936. This analysis has been innovative in many ways: general equilibrium is defined as temporary, the presence and the role of expectations are introduced, the intertemporal choice of the agents is determined in such a way as to anticipate the life-cycle theory, and some important problems that emerge in the dynamic analysis are addressed. The relevance of La Volpe's book led Michio Morishima to publish its English translation

Factors affecting farmers\u27 earnings in southeastern Pennsylvania /

no.1400 (1926

Size of Sample Study, With Particular Reference to the Pig Survey of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics

Report Introduction: A considerable portion of economic forecasting is based on the "this year to last year" type of ratio. Using the semi-annual “Pig Survey" of the Division of Crop and Livestock Estimates, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, as an example, the reported number of sows farrowed this year and the reported number of sows farrowed last year are tabulated and the ratio between them taken as the ratio of the hog crop to come this year as compared with the known hog crop last year. The occasion for this study was to test the statistical accuracy of this "Sows farrowed this year to sows farrowed last year" ratio. To accomplish this required the application of some known theory and the development of some new. This paper accordingly aims (1) to set forth the theoretical considerations in measuring the accuracy of such a year-year ratio, (2) test it by application to a portion of the records used in making a pig survey, (3) draw certain conclusion specifically related to the pig survey

Factors Affecting the Price of Hogs

Excerpts from the report Summary: The returns to the producers of hogs depend to a considerable extent upon how well they adjust the volume of their production to the demand for the product. They can make the best adjustment only if they can reach a sound conclusion as to the future developments in the hog market. Clear understanding of the forces which affect the market price is a prerequisite to reaching such conclusions. The dominant influences in the hog market, as shown by this study, are (1) the supply of hogs on the market and expected to arrive on the market within the next few months, (2) the quantity of hog products in storage, (3) the general price level, (4) general business conditions, and (5) the prices of alternative products. The general levels of demand, both here and abroad, are both important, but ordinarily change only slowly. The ‘‘hog-price cycle” was found to be due to the tendency of hog producers to overshoot the mark in increasing production when the relation of hog prices to corn prices was favorable and to reduce too much when it was unfavorable. This excessive reaction resulted from the accumulation of production changes during the interval before reduced or increased breeding began to offset market receipts and price