Economic Issues In Development of Sustainable Animal Health Policies

Animal health concerns are not new to agriculture. Animal health breakthroughs have been occurring with regularity. They represent an advancement in technology. Likewise, the need for evaluation of technologies is not new. While animal health represents an arena where some dramatic new discoveries are likely, approaches for their evaluation and effective implementation into American agriculture will likely Include standard tools now available. This would involve tools such as budgeting, cash flow analysis, systems simulation analysis, and welfare analysis to measure benefits from improved animal health or disease control

Single-Stage and Two-Stage Decision Modeling of the Recreational Demand for Water

Past rivalry over access to water has usually been between the farmers who irrigate and new agricultural, industrial, and municipal demands. Recently, the recreational demand for water has become another consideration in water allocation decisions. We examine the significance of the recreational demand for water as a fishery resource by applying two different frameworks to the decision to fish. The consistency of the estimated responses to changes in fishery resources across both decision frameworks testifies to the importance of streams as a recreational fishery resource. Modeling behavior within the household production framework allows all downstream effects to be estimated, not just impacts at particular sites. Marginal values of water as a recreational fishery resource are estimated based on day values of fishing derived in prior research

A Study of Productivity Changes on Individual Crops

This paper is an original attempt to find ways to estimate total factor productivity change on individual crops especially when certain input quantities and cost and profit data are unavailable. The study also develops a method, which is a measure of change in absolute productivity, to allow comparison of productivity changes among crops

Evaluation of three cropping systems grown under the influence of a shelterbelt

Shelterbelts have the potential to influence growth and yield from various cropping systems. On-farm tests were conducted to determine how shelterbelts interacted with corn, corn/soybean, and strip intercropping

Selection of herbaceous energy crops for sustainable agriculture

Double cropping, a system in which more than one crop is produced per year in a land area, helps to increase food and feed production in the United States. But the impact of double cropping on production of biomass (crops grown to be converted to fuel) has not been evaluated. Such cropping systems have been successful in the eastern and southern United States. If they can be adapted to the relatively short growing season of the extremely large and agriculturally productive north-central region of the United States, biomass production potential can be greatly increased

Economies of Size, Tax Reform and Profitability of Alternative Midwestern Feedlot Systems

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 may have substantial impacts on cattle feeding operations in the Midwest. Changes in the tax laws may encourage different investment patterns in feedlots as to size, type of facility, feeding programs, and age of animal fed. Cost and returns are computed for a variety of feeding systems under the new and old tax laws.Substantial economies of size were found under both tax laws, bu they were more extreme under the new tax system

The Economic Feasibility of Expanding Iowa\u27s Fresh Vegetable Production for the Commerical Wholesale Market

The current financial crisis in Midwestern agriculture has prompted farmers and policymakers to search for profitable alternative crops that can diversify Iowa\u27s agriculture so that farmers and the state economy will be less reliant on corn, soybeans, cattle and swine. Among the alternative crops suggested for diversifying Iowa agriculture are fresh vegetables for the commercial wholesale market

Biomass production and ethanol potential from sweet sorghum

Potential feedstocks from crop-based energy production systems range from starchy and sugary tuberous crops to woody, oilseed, or herbaceous crops (including corn, sweet and grain sorghums, and several grasses). An important characteristic of biomass crops is that the ratio of energy of the biomass product be large compared to the energy used to pro­ duce the crop. Because one of the most costly inputs in the latter component is nitrogen (N) fertilizer, any evaluation of potential energy crops must emphasize N inputs. Given its high N requirement, corn is not likely to meet all future ethanol demands. Corn also is limited by the inefficient conversion of starch to etha­ nol and by environmental and conservation considerations such as suitable land use

Can Options Be Used as a Hedging Instrument?

We develop a portfolio choice model for farmers faced with both price and production uncertainty who can hedge this uncertainty using both options and futures contracts. We then simulate the decision process of a typical Iowa farmer and derive his or her optimal options and futures position

Factors Impacting Production and Economic Variability in Traditional Midwest Swine Enterprises

Traditional swine enterprises report competitive cost of production for the “top one-third”herds.Further analysis shows that individual herds are seldom in the most profitable group every year, and nearly all farms have an occasional good year.While long-run differences exist in cost of production across farms, the wide variability from year to year in efficiency, costs, and returns provides a greater challenge to existing swine enterprises