Financial Analysis of Implementing an Anaerobic Digester and Free Stall Barn System on a Mississippi Dairy Farm

The installation of an anaerobic digestion system and a free stall barn on a Mississippi dairy farm is only feasible with the presence of a cost-share plan. A 60% cost-share plan is the minimum amount of support a farmer must receive in order to install both facilities.Anaerobic digester, Dairy farm, Cost-share plan, Farm Management,

CONTRACTING OVER COMMON PROPERTY: COST-SHARE CONTRACTS FOR PREDATOR CONTROL

Predator control cost-share contracts among livestock producers in North America date back to 1630. A model is developed which provides refutable implications for the structure and distribution of these contracts over time and space. Historical and contemporary state and county level data on sheep producer coyote control generally support the model.contract theory, wildlife, livestock production, Industrial Organization, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

REGIONAL COST SHARE NECESSARY FOR RANCHER PARTICIPATION IN BRUSH CONTROL

Large-scale brush-control programs are being proposed in Texas to increase off-site water yields. Biophysical and economic simulation models are combined to estimate the effects of brush control on representative ranches in four ecological regions of the Edwards Plateau area of Texas. Net present values of representative ranches in three of four regions decrease with brush control. Cost shares necessary for ranches from the three regions to break even range from 7% to 31% of total brush-control costs. Any large-scale brush-control program will therefore require a substantial investment by the state of Texas.Agribusiness,

Existence, Uniqueness and Some Comparative Statics for Ratio- and Lindahl Equilibria: New Wine in Old Bottles

We present a rigorous, yet elementary, demonstration of the existence of a unique Lindahl equilibrium under the assumptions that characterize the standard n-player public good model. Indeed, our approach, which exploits the aggregative structure of the public good model, lends itself to a transparent geometric representation. Moreover, it can handle the more general concept of the cost-share or ratio equilibrium. Finally, we indicate how it may be ex-ploited to facilitate comparative static analysis of Lindahl and cost share equilibria.public goods, Lindahl equilibrium, ratio equilibrium

Institutional and Socioeconomic Model of Farm Mechanization and Foreign Workers

A multi-output cost function approach to induced innovation is adopted to analyze the impact of socioeconomic variables and institutional factors on technological change in agriculture. Focusing on the impact of immigration policy and farm mechanization, the study includes variables such as H-2A or guest workers, deportable Mexicans working in agriculture representing the percentage of unauthorized workers, the public and private research expenditures on farm mechanization and other research on agricultural technology. We found that over the 1971-1995 period, the technology was biased toward labor-saving technology, but was capital-neutral. The number of unauthorized workers had no significant effect on cost shares; the number of H-2A workers had a negative effect on the cost share of capital. Both had a positive effect on the revenue share of cereals. Public expenditures on mechanization have a significant impact on reducing the cost share of capital; however, private expenditures on machinery increase the cost share of capital. Using the Morishima elasticity of substitution, we found that labor was a substitute for capital when the price of capital changes, but when the price of labor changes, capital was not necessarily a substitute for labor.Labor and Human Capital,

Factors Influencing and Steps Leading to the Adoption of Best Management Practices by Louisiana Dairy Farmers

A logistic regression procedure was used to assess the impact of socioeconomic attributes on the best management practices (BMPs) adoption decision by Louisiana dairy farmers relative to cost-share and fixed incentive payments. Analysis of the steps in the BMP adoption decision process indicated visits between producers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Natural Resource Conservation Service significantly increase likelihood of BMP adoption. Producer willingness-to-pay results indicate that marginal increases in dairy BMP adoption and associated improvement in environmental quality require increased technical and financial assistance.best management practices, bootstrap, cost-share, manure, steps in BMP adoption, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q16, Q25, Q53,

ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF USING BRUSH CONTROL TO ENHANCE OFF-SITE WATER YIELD

A feasibility study of brush for off-site water yield was undertaken in 1998 on the North Concho River near San Angelo, Texas. Subsequently, studies were conducted on eight additional Texas watersheds. Economic analysis was based on estimated control costs of the different options compared to the estimated rancher benefits of brush control. Control costs included initial and follow-up treatments required to reduce brush canopy to between 3 and 8%, and maintain it at the reduced level for 10 years. The state cost-share was estimated by subtracting the present value of rancher benefits from the present value of the total cost of the control program. The total cost of additional water was determined by dividing the total state cost-share if all eligible acreage were enrolled by the total added water estimated to result from the brush control program. This procedure resulted in present values of total control costs per acre ranging from $33.75 to$159.45. Rancher benefits, based on the present value of the improved net returns to typical cattle, sheep, goat, and wildlife enterprises, ranged from $8.95 to$52.12 per acre. Present values of the state cost-share per acre ranged from $21.70 to$138.85. The cost of added water estimated for the eight watersheds ranged from $16.41 to$204.05 per acre-foot averaged over each watershed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Influence of Cost Share and EQIP Incentive Payments on Adoptions of Best Management Practices by Louisiana Dairy Farmers

Adoption of best management practices (BMPs) minimizes the negative externalities created by the manure by-product of milk production. Logistic regression procedure was used to understand the impact of socioeconomic attributes of Louisiana dairy farmers on BMP adoption decision relative to the cost share and incentive payment.Farm Management,

Mechanism design for aggregating energy consumption and quality of service in speed scaling scheduling

We consider a strategic game, where players submit jobs to a machine that executes all jobs in a way that minimizes energy while respecting the given deadlines. The energy consumption is then charged to the players in some way. Each player wants to minimize the sum of that charge and of their job's deadline multiplied by a priority weight. Two charging schemes are studied, the proportional cost share which does not always admit pure Nash equilibria, and the marginal cost share, which does always admit pure Nash equilibria, at the price of overcharging by a constant factor