MORALE AND FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS: DISCUSSION

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

MARKETS AND YOU

Marketing,

Lessons Learned in Over 31 Years in Agricultural Economics

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Opening the Classroom Door - A Survey of Middle Grades Teachers Who Mentor Preservice Teachers— Lessons from Clinical Partnerships and Implications for Practice

Mentor teachers that participate in school-university clinical experiences have a unique opportunity to support preservice middle grades teachers’ development and improve the schooling of young adolescents. This article investigates an early clinical experience and presents data from a survey of 38 middle school teachers who served as mentor teachers. Findings address how middle grades teachers view their role as mentors, their perceptions of the clinical experience as a collaborative learning partnership, and concludes with suggestions to improve clinical experiences for preservice middle grades teacher candidates

MANAGING PRICE RISK IN COTTON PRODUCTION USING STRATEGIC ROLLOVER HEDGING

Research on rollover hedging for agricultural commodities has focused on the consequences of using existing contracts to substitute for missing long-term contracts. It appears that some grains are candidates for rollover hedging while livestock is not. Cotton was analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of rollover hedging from 1982 to 1999. This paper demonstrates that strategic rollover hedging can be used as a substitute for missing long-term futures market and increase expected returns in cotton production. The estimated results reported average returns of 62.22, 65.36, 75.80, 79.09, and 69.14 cents per pound for cash sale, single-year hedge, 5, 2.5, and 1% three-year strategic rollover hedging strategies, respectively. Thus, it appears returns for three-year strategic rollover hedging were about 20% higher than under the other two strategies.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing, Risk and Uncertainty,

BASIS RISK FOR RICE

The objective of this paper is to develop a cross hedging model for rice that minimizes basis risk and accounts for the existence of the nonstationary nature of basis. Basis is treated as an endogenous variable and model for basis risk are developed.Financial Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

PRICE RISK MANAGEMENT FOR PEANUT MEAL

Peanut meal is cross-hedged with soybean meal using peanut meal cash prices and soybean meal futures prices. Hedge rations are obtained for short- vs. long-term data sets. Evaluation indicates positive gains for cross-hedged poultry/peanut producers, and that soybean meal futures can be used as a cross-hedging vehicle for peanut meal.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

FEEDER CATTLE PRICE DIFFERENTIALS IN GEORGIA TELEAUCTIONS

Three Georgia feeder cattle teleauction markets were analyzed from 1977 to 1988 to estimate the impacts of cattle characteristics and market conditions on prices. Cattle characteristic price impacts were similar to those in previous studies. The impact of feeder cattle futures price on teleauction price was positive but varied across markets. Optimal lot size ranged from 143 to 276 head. In one market, 14 lots were necessary to generate positive price impacts. Additional buyers were estimated to have a $.30/cwt per buyer impact on price.Demand and Price Analysis,

PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION PROTECTION: DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR MULTIPLE PRODUCERS OF REGIONAL SPECIALTY CROPS

Specialty crops grown by multiple producers are often viewed by consumers as differentiated products that command a price premium. Since price premiums are dependent upon differentiation of an item from generic counterparts, specialty crops must have distinctive identities that cannot be copied or mimicked by others. Trademarks are normally employed to differentiate and protect products, but the limitation of trademarks to products from a single source means that differentiation of specialty crops grown by multiple producers may involve difficulties in precluding free riders from adopting the same name. Through a case study of Georgia's Vidalia Onions and an examination of producer price data, this article explores the problem of the protection of product differentiation of regional specialty crops grown by multiple producers.Agribusiness,

TARGET MARKETS FOR RETAIL OUTLETS OF LANDSCAPE PLANTS

Merchandisers of landscape plants can increase the effectiveness of their marketing strategies by identifying target markets. Using a full information maximum likelihood tobit procedure on a system of three equations, target markets for different types of retail outlets in Georgia were identified. The results lend support and empirical evidence to the premise that different retail outlet types have different target markets and thus should develop different market strategies. The estimated target markets are identified and possible marketing strategies suitable for each type of retail outlet are suggested.Crop Production/Industries,