Efficiency Costs of Subsidy Rules for Crop Insurance

Participation in federal crop insurance programs has been encouraged through premium subsidies. The current subsidy depends on contract features as well as coverage levels. This type of subsidy rule causes farmers to choose contract designs and coverages that are not efficient for managing risk, in order to capture subsidy. Farmers are found to be as well off with a flat subsidy that is up to 25% less than the value of the current regressive proportional subsidy.crop insurance, futures, risk management, subsidy, Risk and Uncertainty,

PRICING AND USE OF DROUGHT-STRESSED AND IMMATURE CORN AS SILAGE FOR BEEF CATTLE

Demand and Price Analysis,

Economically Optimal Distiller Grain Inclusion in Beef Feedlot Rations: Recognition of Omitted Factors

With the rapid expansion of the ethanol industry, the feeding landscape familiar to the feedlot industry is changing. While concerns regarding rising corn prices persist, many within the industry are looking at distiller’s grains, a by-product of ethanol production, to serve as a feed substitute. The question remains as to what extent these two feed sources are substitutable. The purpose of this study is to identify the economically optimal inclusion rate of distiller’s grains in beef feedlot rations, considering an array of often omitted factors. Most currently prevailing recommendation rates are strictly biologically based and frequently reference only one feeding trial. Unique economic factors considered in this research include the impact of by-product inclusion rates on animal performance (utilizing recently conducted meta-analysis from 17 relevant feeding trials), enhanced likelihood of death loss from heightened sulfur content, and manure disposal costs. Results indicate that excluding these factors can significantly impact optimal inclusion levels and that reliance on a single or few feeding trials may greatly bias results.distiller’s grains, livestock rations, manure disposal cost,

Editors’ Note to Vol 5: Issue 1: On Publishing Survive and Thrive: Journal of Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine During the 2020 Global Pandemic

This Editors\u27 Note reflects the thoughts and feelings of the Editors of _Survive and Thrive_ on Vol 5: Issue 1, summarizes its contents, and reflects on the publication of the issue during a global pandemic. While the issue is not a direct response to the pandemic, the Editors humbly offer it as what writer, rhetorician, and literary critic Kenneth Burke called equipment for living

ECONOMICS OF ALTERNATIVE STOCKING DENSITIES FOR DIRECT-SEEDED CENTRAL MICHIGAN ALFALFA PASTURES

A framework which permits estimation of economically optimal stocking rates for alternative economic parameters and alfalfa forage availability was developed and applied to a controlled grazing experiment conducted with Holstein steers (243 kg) placed on direct seeded alfalfa pastures in Central Michigan. Responses of ADG to alternative levels of forage availability per standard livestock unit (FA) were summarized by a quadratic function and the associated gains/ha were calculated. The ADG decreased as standard stocking rate (SSR; SLU/ha) increased except for the combination of the lowest observed SSR and highest FA, where ADG was curvilinear as SSR increased. The trend for gain/ha was curvilinear for all FA. The SSR which maximized gain/ha increased with FA and was greater than that which maximized ADG. Net returns to fixed resources(NRFR)/ha ($/ha)were calculated for alternative SSR and the economically optimal SSR were identified under various levels of herbage mass (kg/d). The SSR's which maximized NRFR were between the SSR's which maximized ADG and gain/ha. The magnitude of the sale price discount for heavier weight calves (slide) influenced the economically optimal SSR and the sensitivity of net return to SSR. The economically optimal SSR increased as slide increased because animals stocked under higher SSR weighed less off pasture and therefore received less price discount.Crop Production/Industries,

Economically Optimal Distiller Grain Inclusion in Beef Feedlot Rations: Recognition of Omitted Factors

With the rapid expansion of the ethanol industry, the feeding landscape familiar to the feedlot industry is changing. While concerns regarding rising corn prices persist, many within the industry are looking at distillers grains, a by-product of ethanol production, to serve as a feed substitute. The question remains as to what extent these two feed sources are substitutable. The purpose of this study is to identify the economically optimal inclusion rate of distillers grains in beef feedlot rations, considering an array of often omitted factors. Most currently prevailing recommendation rates are strictly biologically based and frequently reference only one feeding trial. Unique economic factors considered in this research include the impact of by-product inclusion rates on animal performance (utilizing recently conducted meta-analysis from 17 relevant feeding trials), enhanced likelihood of death loss from heightened sulfur content, and manure disposal costs. Results indicate that excluding these factors can significantly impact optimal inclusion levels and that reliance on a single or few feeding trials may greatly bias results.Livestock Production/Industries,

Classical Recall: Analysis of the “Mozart Effect” On Basic Mental Tasks

Researchers conducted a study based on the theory of the Mozart Effect to determine how well students at Lindenwood University performed on cognitive tasks when certain variables were manipulated. There were a total of twelve different conditions, in which the order of tasks, music, and hypothesis instructions were varied. It was concluded that no significant difference was found between any of the assigned conditions. Further research needs to be performed to determine if other variables would be better predictors of cognitive achievement, instead of the presence of classical music and priming participants with different hypotheses. If the Mozart Effect is to be researched in the same fashion, perhaps it would be beneficial to vary the type of music