Life Sciences Commons^™

Managing Cattle Market Risk With Lrp Insurance, Jay Parsons

Cornhusker Economics

Price and market uncertainties pose a significant risk to cattle producers with a substantial amount of money invested in breeding livestock, land, and other infrastructure. Price protection through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures contracts and options can be used to help mitigate this risk but, in the case of futures contracts, they can also introduce financial burdens in the form of margin calls. Furthermore, many medium to small-scale producers prefer not to get involved with trading futures and options contracts.

An Introduction To The Economic Impact Of Dry Edible Bean Production, Tim Meyer

Cornhusker Economics

Amazing statistics about Nebraska agriculture are plentiful. For example, Nebraska produces the 4th most output of agricultural products in the United States, while ranking only 37th in population. No wonder Nebraska's agricultural output ranks first when adjusted for population. It is safe to say most Nebraskans understand the importance of beef, corn, soybeans and ethanol. On the other hand, secondary crops play an important role in the economy as well, especially in the western portion of the state.

Incentives And Nudges For Environmental Stewardship On Farmland: A Lab Experiment On The Agglomeration Bonus, Simanti Banerjee

Cornhusker Economics

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes have an important role in generating ecosystem services conservation and restoration benefits through adoption of various land uses on private agricultural property. These policies provide financial compensation to producers for benefits delivered over and above a baseline level and for any income losses arising from the land use change (Hanley et al. 2012). Examples of PES schemes include the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the U. S., the Pago por Servicios Ambientales in Costa Rica and the Stewardship Schemes in the U. K. to name a few.

Who Is Trading In The Futures Markets And Why It Matters Part 2, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

In a previous article (Who Is Trading in the Futures Markets and Why It Matters ?Part 1, 12/14/2016), we discussed the importance of learning about different types of traders in commodity markets and how we can obtain and understand the Commitments of Traders (COT) report, which provides data on trader's positions in futures markets. Today we will discuss some approaches to interpret COT reports, trying to assess the reasoning behind trading decisions from different traders, which can reflect their price outlook and provide insights on how futures prices might change.

Community Size And Resident Satisfaction: Is There A Sweet Spot?, Randy Cantrell

Cornhusker Economics

Members of the rural development industry have long debated the existence of a "Best" community size in which to invest resources successfully. Some places, it is argued, are simply too small to attract the businesses and population required for sustained development. Population trends of the last 50 years seem to support this notion, since every rural regions and communities have consistently lost population while larger places have grown by serving as regional trade centers.

Livestock Air Emission Requirements, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Federal environmental laws require the reporting of emissions of hazardous substances beyond EPA-established minimum amounts. EPA has established a 2008 reporting exemption for livestock operations smaller than large CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Environmental groups challenged the EPA livestock exemption. On April 11, 2017, the D.C. federal court of appeals invalidated the livestock reporting exemption. Reporting requirements will go into effect November 15, 2017 unless the court grants EPA an additional time extension for implementing the livestock reporting program.

Risk Implications From The Selection Of Rainfall Index Insurance Intervals, Ashlee Carlson, Cory Walters, Kathleen Brooks, Monte Vandeveer, Jerry D. Volesky, Walt Schacht

Cornhusker Economics

Since the passage of the 1994 Crop Insurance Reform Act, the federal crop insurance program has grown in both size and scope. The program progressed from generating under $1 billion in premiums in 1994 to generating nearly $9.3 billion in 2016 (USDA-RMA 1994, 2016b). In 2007, the federal crop insurance program introduced the Rainfall Index (RI) and Vegetation Index (VI) Insurance Pilot Program for Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) in selected states. In 2016, RI-PRF replaced VI-PRF and was made available in all 48 contiguous states enrolling 28,538 policies and providing over a billion dollars in coverage on more than …

Strengthening Quality Of Life In Small Towns, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Quality of life is often mentioned as the reason why some people choose to live in a small town. But if you try to get a definition of what quality of life means, you quickly discover that there are all kinds of answers. For instance, it may be the low student-to-teacher ratios in the local school, or it may be the friendly check-out person at the grocery store or the variety of activities available through civic organizations and local churches which come to mind when people define small town quality of life.

Is Less More In Food Safety Information Provision?, Kofi Britwum, Emie Yiannaka

Cornhusker Economics

The development of several niche food markets has been enabled by labels highlighting the existence of desirable or the absence of undesirable food attributes and/or production technologies, effectively targeting consumers willing to pay for this type of information. Examples include the "All Natural," “No growth promoting antibiotic," "No GMOs," and "Cage-free" food labels. In what could be viewed as an extreme example of labeling what is absent, consumers can now purchase gluten-free water (McFadden 2017). This type of "redundant" labeling seeks to exploit uninformed consumers.

Livestock Production And Health, Christopher Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

As in Nebraska and other cattle-producing states, livestock are an important source of income for hundreds of millions of people living in developing countries. However, for livestock keepers in developing countries, animals are often central to multiple dimensions of the family’s existence, providing—in addition to income—important sources of energy-dense, nutrient-rich animal source foods, generating cultural status, including playing a role in family formation through wedding dowries, and serving, for some, as the household’s primary store of wealth. Livestock play all of these roles in pastoralist—semi-nomadic livestock-keeping—communi-ties. While in the past pastoralism was a relatively common way of life throughout the …

Latino Immigration And Community Development In Rural Nebraska, Daniela Mettos

Cornhusker Economics

"Community" originates from the Latin "communis," meaning common. A community can be defined as a group of people who know one another and share common cultural traditions, interests, concerns, and objectives mainly because they have always interacted on a regular basis. To most rural people, community means the same familiar faces and places, a daily routine, social systems and norms they understand, things they have always done. This scenario has been changing with the influx of immigrants in rural areas. Nowadays, rural community residents find themselves sharing their place with new people from distant regions and different cultures.

Market And Welfare Effects Of Renewable Portfolio Standards In United States Electricity Markets, Suparna Bhattacharya, Konstantinos Giannakas, Karina Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

Rising energy prices, dependence on foreign oil supplies, and alarming consequences of global warming have prompted governments worldwide to initiate green energy policies that can motivate a shift away from fossil fuels and toward renewables for electricity generation. Recognizing the fact that around 40 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States come from fossil fuel combustion in the electricity sector, several policies have been adopted across states for reducing carbon emissions and stimulating renewable energy development. One of the innovative policy instruments that stands out due to widespread adoption by states since the late 1990s is the …

2017 Crop Share Leasing Trends In Nebraska, Jim Jansen

Cornhusker Economics

The Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights Report 2016-2017 provides recent trends on land values and rental rates for landlords, tenants, and stakeholders. Each year, a special feature section covers emerging issues related to agricultural land in Nebraska. This year the special feature section focuses on crop share leasing trends in Nebraska given the renewed interest in this lease arrangement due to lower commodity prices.

Community Ownership Of Essential Businesses In Small Nebraska Towns, Jim Crandall

Cornhusker Economics

Some communities in rural Nebraska are facing the closure of what many would consider an essential business in their community. Grocery stores, cafes and restaurants, clothing, hardware, gas/service stations, and variety stores often top the lists of businesses calling it quits. Most of the time the business is the only one of its kind in town.

Historical Perspective Of Crop Rotations Across Nebraska, Matt Stockton, Daran Rudnick, Devin Broadhead

Cornhusker Economics

Nebraska is a diverse state with a wide range of farm production environments including irrigated and rain-fed systems. With this diversity, crop rotation has become a big factor. Recent work at Stanford University, published in the March issue of the Agronomy Journals, is a whole series of various corn/soybean rotational effects and yield penalties across the U. S. Corn Belt. (Refer to references below) This information is leveraged by University of Nebraska-Lincoln to simulate historical economic relevance for producers in their state. Historical annual corn and soybean yields for 6 of the 8 United States Department of Agriculture - National …

The Effect Of The Dodd-Frank Act On Non-Metro Cooperative Lenders, Greg Mckee

Cornhusker Economics

Credit availability affects the equilibrium quantity of housing. Lenders incorporated as cooperatives, such as agricultural credit associations (ACA) and credit unions, are aware of their role in offering rural residential real estate loans, facilitating entry into this housing market. In some instances there are few alternatives to cooperative financial institutions for access to mortgages in rural areas. At year -end 2016, credit unions were the only type of financial institution in approximately 275 nonmetropolitan counties nationwide. In some instances other types of financial organizations simply do not offer home finance products in nonmetro locations. Compounding these features of non-metropolitan real …

Trade Balances, E. Wesley F. Peterson, Marianna Khachaturyan

Cornhusker Economics

The fact that the United States has a global trade deficit as well as bilateral trade deficits with particular countries, such as China or Germany, has recently received extensive commentary in the news (see Irwin 2016, Constable 2017, Goodman 2017). The balance of trade is the difference between the value of a country’s imports of goods and services and the value of its exports and can be either negative (deficit) or positive (surplus). Trade balances between two countries are actually of little economic interest as countries always have trade surpluses with some countries while having trade deficits with others. The …

2016 Net Farm Income, Tina Barrett

Cornhusker Economics

The Nebraska Farm Business published results from their 2016 Farm Financial Averages program in May. The data included is from farms and ranches across Nebraska that participate in their financial analysis program. The data is a result of the averages from the individual farms which the producers can use as benchmarks, but also provide a source of actual farm level information to gauge the financial health of the producers in Nebraska.

Factors Influencing Employment Choices Of Graduates From The Department Of Agricultural Economics, Larry Van Tassell

Cornhusker Economics

During the Spring of 2012, we sent a survey to alumni of our department for the purpose of collecting information to assist students and aid in student recruitment. We surveyed 2,899 alumni and had 789 responses. For this article, I focused on the 406 respondents who have graduated since 1980. The average respondent抯 age was 40, with a range of 22 to 65. Twenty-six percent were female and 74 percent were male.

Projecting Corn And Soybean Crops: How Accurate Are Crop Forecasts?, Fabio Mattos, Kattie Cumming, Xiaoli L. Etienne

Cornhusker Economics

Commodity prices are determined by the dynamics of supply and demand and they oscillate over time according to expectations of market participants, who form and update their outlooks based on new information available in the market. As new information about supply and demand of commodities becomes available, buyers and sellers review their beliefs and trade in the market accordingly. This process of price discovery is crucial for various business decisions in the agricultural sector, such as production, marketing and risk management. For instance, if new information on supply and demand suggests that corn prices will decrease, grain producers might want …

Healthy Food Promotion: The Role Of Information Framing, Cognitive Processes, And Social Influence, Christopher Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

Rates of overweight and obesity in the U.S. have increased steadily over the past 50 years, with serious consequences for people’s health, livelihoods, and quality of life. Estimates of U.S. adult and childhood overweight and obesity that were based on measurements of height and weight, rather than self-reported data, were collected in a nationwide study conducted in 2011-2012. These data suggest that over one-third of adults were obese and another third were overweight, while 17 percent of children were obese and 15 percent overweight.

Rural Manufacturing Factors Associated With Plant Survival, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

In a recent report from the USDA Economic Research Service, rural manufacturing resiliency was measured as it related to plant survival, from 1996- 2011. The author, S. Low*, makes the case that rural manufacturing is a critical piece of the rural economic pie. In 2011 nationally nonmetro/rural manufacturing employment was approximately equal to that of rural retail trade and the rural healthcare/ social assistance sectors. These jobs are also considered to be relatively well-paying jobs and often include benefits.

North Central Extension Risk Management Education, Christine Lockert, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

After peaking over $123 billion in 2013, U.S. net farm income fell to $68 billion in 2016 with projections of $62 billion for 2017, a nearly 50% drop (USDA Economic Research Service). The large drop from 2013 to 2017 after nearly a decade of strong growth in agricultural income presents a substantial challenge to agricultural producers and an increased need to manage risk on the farm or ranch carefully.

Nebraska National Agri-Marketing Association: Practical Experience And Professional Development, Kara Heideman, Rosalee Swartz

Cornhusker Economics

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln National Agri- Marketing Association (NAMA) chapter concluded a successful year at the NAMA annual conference. The chapter brought home three awards, a chapter performance award for chapter communications, fourth place outstanding student chapter and fifth place in the John Deere Signature Award competition. Chapter performance award judges praised Nebraska NAMA's collaboration with the University of São Paulo. Students from São Paulo joined Nebraska students each week to work on developing the marketing plan for the competition. The John Deere award is given to student chapters based on business knowledge, academic excellence, leadership development and community citizenship. …

Family Feud Ends Up In Court, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

A May 2017 decision by the Nebraska Court of Appeals deals with an unfortunately common situation in Nebraska family farm corporations– is the on-farm heir (or heirs) in charge of the corporation legally required to share the corporation’s income with the off-farm heirs? (24 Neb. App. 649) As we shall see, the court answered “no” even though that seems to be an unfair result.

Women In Agriculture: The Heart Of The Farm, Cheryl Griffith

Cornhusker Economics

Women in Agriculture: The Heart of the Farm was the theme of the 32^nd Nebraska Women in Agriculture (WIA) Conference, February 23-24, 2017 in Kearney. This annual conference is hosted by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Nebraska Extension and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). The Nebraska WIA program is committed to providing opportunities for all Nebraskans to develop risk management skills by providing tools for sound business decisions in every facet of agriculture through leadership, advocacy, and networking avenues.

The Russian Food And Agricultural Import Ban, Marianna Khachaturyan, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Cornhusker Economics

In 2014 the United States, European Union (EU), and several other countries imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine (Nelson, 2017; Europa, 2017). Prior to the 1990s, the use of economic sanctions to challenge the behavior of foreign governments was fairly rare as the target country could easily turn to the cold-war adversary of the sanctioning country to avoid their effects. With the end of the Cold War, sanctions, usually comprehensive in nature restricting economic relations across the board, became a major foreign policy tool. Because comprehensive …

Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference, Charlotte Narjes

Cornhusker Economics

The inaugural Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference (CEC) will be held April 19-20 in McCook, Nebraska.

What Is It? The CEC Conference is an opportunity to educate communities on the various tools and resources available to assist them in helping entrepreneurs grow and prosper in their communities. Presenters are found locally, regionally and from other states to share how they found success in a variety of aspects of building the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

One of the unique aspects of the CEC Conference is that it is not held in a conference setting. Breakout sessions are embedded in shops and venues throughout the …

Nebraska Retailing Activity Changes Since 1990 And The Effect Of The Great Recession By Town/City Size Classes, Anil Giri, Bruce Johnson

Cornhusker Economics

Retailing is an important sector of our state’s economy and is watched carefully as an indicator of overall economic performance. This retailing activity, however, is not evenly distributed across different town/ city size classes. Large cities and towns serve as retail centers for larger geographic areas as well as for some nearby small towns. In other words, small trade centers experience trade leakage relative to their population and large centers experience retail gain relative to their population. Relative retail activity can be measured and hence compared using Pull Factor (PF) as a metric.

In essence, PF measures the relative market …

Getting To Know Your Yield Response Better Through Whole-Field Randomized Experiments, Taro Mieno, David Bullock

Cornhusker Economics

Six researchers at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln are working on the USDA-NIFA-funded Data Intensive Farm Management (DIFM) project. DIFM is based at the University of Illinois, and also involves the Universities of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois State. The overarching goal of the project is to collect production data after conducting large-scale, on-farm randomized input use field trials, and then using the information to inform growers of optimal input use practices to enhance their profits. DIFM researchers hope to find a win-win situation in which more efficient crop nutrient management both increases farm profits and water quality in the …