Provisions and Potential Impacts of the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/24/08.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

Estimates of Minnesota Farm-Level Crop Commodity Payments under New House Framework

The objective of this study is to compare commodity payments under current Federal farm policy with the previous Senate and Administration proposals and the recently released “2008 Farm Bill Conference: House Agriculture Committee-Developed Concept for a Farm Bill Spending Framework.” Projections of crop revenue and government payments are made using historical yield data for each example farm, the county, and the nation; historical price data; and statistical distributions and relationships of these yields and prices. Using 2007 FAPRI price projections (which are closer to the prices expected in the next few years when a new farm bill will be in force), expected Total Government Payments (TGP) are almost entirely attributed to the fixed direct payments under all these proposals. Since commodity prices are so far above their “target levels” the possibility of a counter cyclical price or revenue payment or a loan deficiency payment is highly unlikely. TGP under the alternative policies follows a similar pattern on the example corn and soybean farms and a slightly different but fairly consistent pattern for the example wheat and soybean farms. For the corn and soybean example farms in southern Minnesota, the HB-RCCP and USDA proposals generate very similar levels of TGPs compared to current policy. HB-RCCP provides a slightly higher expected TGP than CP for all example farms except for one and higher TGP than USDA for all farms. ACR is estimated to provide lower TGP for all example corn and soybean farms. For the example wheat and soybean farms in northwest Minnesota, the results are mixed. Compared to the other three proposals, ACR provides higher TGP for 2 of the 6 example farms. Each of the proposals does reduce risk as measured by CV. We note ACR is not quite as efficient at risk reduction except for two wheat/soybean farms in northwest Minnesota.Farm Management,

Alternative Farm Bills: Impacts on Minnesota Farms

With the current federal farm bill set to expire at the end of September this year, many proposals have been made to redesign the next bill. The objectives of this study are to compare the current policy with major proposed alternatives and estimate the potential payments of farmers under each of the alternatives. The alternative policies are compared in two ways. First a historical comparison of crop revenue and estimated government payments for individual farms are made under each proposal from 2002-2005. In a second comparison, projections of crop revenue and government payments are made using historical yields for each farm, county, and nation; historical price data; statistical distributions of the yields and prices including averages, standard deviations, and correlations; and each proposal's rules for calculating payments. For yields, deviations from the yield trend are used. In three of the four years and on average, the American Soybean Association (ASA) proposal has higher payments and thus higher total gross revenue compared to current policy and the other three proposals. Since the ASA proposal raises both loan rates and target prices, the higher payments should be expected. The proposed USDA policy is estimated to have a slightly higher average government payment and total gross revenue compared to current policy, but it is not higher than current policy in each year. Lower total payments under the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) proposal are due to higher than average revenues during 2002-05. The revenue insurance proposal does not create any indemnity payments in 2002-05 again due to the higher revenues in these years. Projections of potential revenue also show the ASA proposal to have higher estimated payments. Average government payments are estimated to be slightly higher under current policy compared to USDA's and NCGA's proposals. Since federal budget concerns may not allow the higher payments under the ASA proposal, the choice between the USDA and NCGA proposal may hinge on the level of administrative costs which would appear to be lower with the USDA proposal since it is based on one national estimate of revenue versus many county and individual calculations under the NCGA proposal. The potential use of multi-commodity revenue insurance will hinge on either the ability to provide additional support in fixed direct payments and green payments and larger federal budget concerns.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Medication Congruence among Patients in a Primary Care Network Serving North Carolina Medicaid Patients

Context: In its 2001 report on health care quality, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated that most medical records are disorganized, illegible, and inaccessible. The IOM targeted safety for improvement, emphasizing that patient information be more available and accessible. In light of the IOM report, this study sought to assess characteristics associated with completeness of medication documentation. Objective: Medication congruence is the percent agreement between two medication lists. The objective of our study was to assess medication congruence between the primary care physician (PCP) chart and pharmacy claims (used as a proxy for the patient’s medication list) in a broad range of primary care practices. A secondary objective was to identify practice and patient factors associated with medication congruence. Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Setting: Eight primary care practices—four private practices, two community health centers, and two academic practices—within a network of 30 practices serving Medicaid patients in four North Carolina counties. Four of the practices used paper PCP charts, and four used electronic medical records (EMR). Participants: One hundred Medicaid patients with at least three providers in six months or at least 15 prescription fills in 90 days, selected from eight practices. Instrument: Electronic pharmacy claims and chart review, including medication list, problem list, visit notes, and correspondence for one year. Outcome Measures: Congruence between pharmacy claims and primary care physician (PCP) medication list or complete chart. Congruence was measured as agreement of pharmacy claims with PCP medication list only (C1) and with entire PCP chart (C2). Secondary outcomes included practice and patient characteristics associated with congruence. Results: C1 and C2 were 53.8% and 64.6% agreement, respectively (p for difference<0.001). C1 was associated with number of chronic conditions (p<0.001), type of medical chart (p<0.001), and type of primary care practice (p=0.017). C2 was associated with number of chronic conditions (p<0.001), and number of medications (p=0.012). Conclusions: Medication congruence in PCP charts is low in a broad spectrum of primary practice settings—private practice, academic clinics, and community health centers—by both measures used in this study. Whether using the PCP current medication list (our C1 measure) or a more thorough chart review (our C2 measure), medication congruence is low; however, more complete medication information can be gleaned from a thorough chart review than from the current medication list alone. Documentation improves with use of electronic medical records and increasing number of chronic conditions. Community health centers showed superior documentation relative to private practices.Master of Public Healt

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF USING A BORDER TREATMENT FOR REDUCING ORGANOPHOSPHATE USE IN SEED POTATO PRODUCTION

Recent research shows initial colonization of potato fields by winged green peach aphid is concentrated at field edges. This suggests that insecticides applied only to field margins during initial colonization would largely eliminate a colonizing aphid population, conserve natural enemies in the field center, and reduce insecticide use. To better understand the costs and benefits of reducing organophosphate use, the six participating growers were interviewed to ascertain their reason for participating and their satisfaction with the border only treatment method as well as their estimated net economic benefits. Five of the farms ranked cost reduction as the most important reason for participating. The sixth farm ranked reducing virus spread as the most important reason with cost reduction as their second most important reason. The average cost savings over all 28 participating fields of using the border treatment is estimated to be $23.85 per acre for the entire field-a 93% savings. Almost all the farmers found the border treatment method to be successful at aphid control. None of the farmers observed any impact on the physical yield of seed potato. All the fields were certified during the summer except for one of Farmer F's fields that was lost because of off type. In conclusion, the border treatment method seems likely to be adopted by many farmers since the potential cost saving is large and farmers dislike Monitor. However, some farmers may resist the method due to scouting requirements and costs. Also, farmers with fields that do not meet the uniformity requirements of the border treatment will not be successful in their use of the border method.Crop Production/Industries,

Magnetically-controlled velocity selection in a cold atom sample using stimulated Raman transitions

We observe velocity-selective two-photon resonances in a cold atom cloud in the presence of a magnetic field. We use these resonances to demonstrate a simple magnetometer with sub-mG resolution. The technique is particularly useful for zeroing the magnetic field and does not require any additional laser frequencies than are already used for standard magneto-optical traps. We verify the effects using Faraday rotation spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Service to-go: The Customer Experience in the Street Food Sector through the Eyes of its Operators

Since the proclamation of the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), companies have turned their focus from selling goods to selling experiences. The street food sector has been serving up experiences since the 1700s. Yet very little is actually known in regards to how these business entities deliver these experiences. The purpose of this study is to explore street food vendor operators’ perception of the factors that contribute to the customer experience in the street food sector. In doing so, this paper provides valuable information about demographics of street food operators and customers, what kinds of experiences they are opt to deliver, and the reasons why their customers eat street food

Understanding High Recession Rates of Carbon Ablators Seen in Shear Tests in an Arc Jet

High rates of recession in arc jet shear tests of Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) inspired a series of tests and analysis on FiberForm (a carbon preform used in the fabrication of PICA). Arc jet tests were performed on FiberForm in both air and pure nitrogen for stagnation and shear configurations. The nitrogen tests showed little or no recession, while the air tests of FiberForm showed recession rates similar to that of PICA (when adjusted for the difference in density). While mechanical erosion can not be ruled out, this is the first step in doing so. Analysis using a carbon oxidation boundary condition within DPLR was used to predict the recession rate of FiberForm. The analysis indicates that much of the anomalous recession behavior seen in shear tests may simply be an artifact of the non-flight like test configuration (copper upstream of the test article) a result of dissimilar enthalpy and oxygen concentration profiles on the copper. Shape change effects were also investigated and shown to be relatively small

Cold atom confinement in an all-optical dark ring trap

We demonstrate confinement of $^{85}$Rb atoms in a dark, toroidal optical trap. We use a spatial light modulator to convert a single blue-detuned Gaussian laser beam to a superposition of Laguerre-Gaussian modes that forms a ring-shaped intensity null bounded harmonically in all directions. We measure a 1/e spin-relaxation lifetime of ~1.5 seconds for a trap detuning of 4.0 nm. For smaller detunings, a time-dependent relaxation rate is observed. We use these relaxation rate measurements and imaging diagnostics to optimize trap alignment in a programmable manner with the modulator. The results are compared with numerical simulations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Collecting genetic material from beef cattle (2005)

The beef cattle industry has long awaited the development of genetic tests to assist producers in breeding selection and management and to improve the marketability of cattle. Currently, there are only a handful of genetic tests commercially available for beef cattle. Beef producers interested in using genetic testing to improve their breeding stock need to know how to collect and store various genetic materials for testing.New February 2005 -- Extension website