Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Improving Beef Cattle Profitability By Changing Calving Season Length, Christopher N. Boyer, Andrew P. Griffith, Ky G. Pohler

Journal of Applied Farm Economics

We determined the impacts of calving season length on net returns and variability in net returns for spring-and fall-calving herds in Tennessee. Weaning weight as a function of calving date was estimated using a 19-year data set and simulation models generated distributions of net returns for 45-, 60-, and 90-day calving periods with and without using hypothetical improved reproductive management (IRM) practices. Shortening the calving period from 90 days increased expected net returns in the spring-and fall-calving herds. The 45-day fall-calving period with IRM maximized profits, but an extremely risk-averse producer would select a 45-day fall-calving period without IRM.

Financial Implications From Contracting Avian Influenza In A U.S. Broiler Operation, Jordan M. Shockley, Tyler Mark, Kenneth H. Burdine, Levi Russell

Journal of Applied Farm Economics

This essay evaluates the on-farm financial impacts of an avian influenza outbreak on a U.S. commercial broiler operation. It investigates how the timing and length of the outbreak impacts farm financial performance for two different farmers, beginning and experienced. Results indicate that a beginning farmer is more susceptible to significant financial losses. Both farmers are financially impacted more when avian influenza is contracted early in the investment and when the contamination and eradication of the virus was prolonged. Furthermore, this essay highlights the problems of using standard financial measures for analyzing disease outbreaks under production contract arrangements and presents alternative …

Impact Of Saturated Thickness To Protect Farmers From Drought In High Plains Aquifer, Olivier Tuyizere, Taro Mieno

UCARE Research Products

●The High Plains aquifer is the primary source of water supply for irrigating major crops in the region including corn and soybeans ●Climate change is expected to reduce groundwater availability in High Plains Aquifer and increase extreme climatic events such as droughts. ●Aquifer depletion leads to lower well yields, which in turn diminish the effectiveness of irrigation against drought.

●Estimate the effect of saturated thickness to protect irrigated corn and soybeans production against severe drought in the High Plains Aquifer. ●Calculate the impact of aquifer depletion on farmers’ ability to protect against severe droughts based on the regression results.

Conflict In Kashmir, Matthew Atkison '22, Sarah Oquendo '22, Manaal Shamsi '22

Student Leadership Exchange (SLX)

The topic we are discussing in our presentation is the controversy of Kashmir. Kashmir is a region that has recently been in a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan due to it being between the two nations and it having access to an abundant supply of resources. Kashmir has basically been blocked off by the rest of the world and because of this, many protests have sprung in the region, often violent ones with students throwing rocks at officers. Nothing has been done to solve the situation other than Pakistan and India pointing the blame to each other. Many have …

A Fishy Situation: Large-Scale Versus Small-Scale Aquaculture In Zambia, Ellie Templeton

Business and Economics Presentations

This study examines the socio-economic effects of large-scale and small-scale farmers on fish production in Zambia. The government has recently encouraged small farmers to raise fish in order to decrease poverty and increase food security. However, it can be hard to make money when the large-scale, wealthy farmers are taking over the market. The possession of chicken manure to aid in fish production was significant in its impact on yields. It can be assumed that since this manure is expensive, poorer, smaller farmers are not reaping the benefits of this fertilizer since they cannot afford it.

Fighting Waste And Feeding People: Exploring The Context Of Campus Food Waste And Student Recovery Efforts, Sarah Becker, Max Stout, Maddie Kuklentz, Savona Cerra

Environment and Sustainability Presentations

Wismer on Wheels is dedicated to our mission of not only reducing food waste on campus, but also reducing food insecurity in our wider community. The work of our team of over 35 student volunteers reflects that dedication. This past year we became the official Food Recovery Network chapter for Ursinus, broadened outreach efforts on- and off-campus, and boosted food waste education, all while recovering unprecedented quantities of food. In this presentation, we celebrate the accomplishments of our dedicated volunteers while exploring deeper questions about food waste on the Ursinus campus. Why are we seeing such massive food recovery numbers …

The Community Influence Of Sponge And Coral Aquaculture In Zanzibar, Hanna Gaertner, Asma Ahmada Hamad, J. Richard Walz

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Aquaculture has been presented as a means of income for coastal communities, particularly in the context of climate change and resource exploitation. The NGO Marine Cultures in Jambiani, Zanzibar has established a sponge cultivation program for women in response to declining feasibility of seaweed farming from warming ocean temperatures. In addition, the organization strives to restore a severely damaged reef while providing employment for coral farmers and tour boat operators. This study analyzed the influence of aquaculture on community stakeholders, primarily with respect to sponge cultivation and secondarily in regard to coral farms. Using Marine Cultures as a case study, …

A System Dynamics Model Of Supply-Side Issues Influencing Beef Consumption In Nigeria, Kelechukwu G. Odoemena, Jeffrey P. Walters, Holger Maximilian Kleemann

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

The per capita consumption of beef in Nigeria is reducing amidst a rising population that is dependent on beef as a major source of animal protein. In this paper, a system dynamics (SD) model was developed with the aim of testing exploratory policies aimed at reversing this trend. The simulations of various policy tests showed that, of all the policies tested, having a higher carcass yield seems to be the most efficient solution, but its feasibility faces some steep biological and ecological challenges. However, a combination of policies that cuts across the land–cattle–market nexus is necessary to obtain a consumption …

A Nutritional And Environmental Analysis Of Local Food Pantries Accessible To College Students In Rural North Carolina, Emily E. Frymark, Jonathon Stickford, Alisha Farris

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Food insecurity is a growing concern among college students and is especially prevalent in rural areas. Food pantries often serve as a resource to food insecure individuals yet, their policies, standards, and nutritional quality vary due to the unpredictability of food donations.

Purpose: To examine the nutritional quality of food items and adherence of best practices at local food pantries accessible to college students near a university in rural Appalachia.

Methods: Three food pantries in North Carolina were selected due to their proximity to a local, rural university. Food items were analyzed for nutrient and food …

Transformative Change In Rural Ethiopia: The Impact Of Small- And Medium-Scale Irrigation, Logan Cochrane, Anne Cafer

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Rural livelihoods in Ethiopia are vulnerable due to their reliance upon variable rainfall and the lack of access to irrigation. Irrigation coverage in the country is low, as the existing systems tend to cover state-run and commercial operations. There is significant potential for irrigation to play a transformative role in rural lives and livelihoods. Much of the evidence available in Ethiopia focuses upon technical studies of irrigation systems or impacts on households after gaining access to irrigation. This article highlights the causes and pathways of change. We focus on more financially-viable and environmentally-sound small- and medium-scale systems, versus the large-scale …

Understanding The Impact Of Psychological Empowerment, Workplace Motivation, And Social Capital On The Job Performance Of Farmers In Honduras: A Mixed Methods Study, Susan Lale Karimiha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A farmer’s job performance is critical to the production of raw materials such as food, fiber, and fuel and is therefore an important concern for individuals, businesses, and economies across the world. The literature on improving farmers’ job performance has focused more on introducing new technologies, and less on the psychosocial factors that improve job performance. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of psychological empowerment, workplace motivation, and social capital on farmers’ job performance in Honduras.

A mixed methods approach was used to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. For quantitative data, a …

A Half Century Of Yield Growth Along The Forty-First Parallel Of The Great Plains: Factor Intensification, Irrigation, Weather, And Technical Change., Federico J. Trindade, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

In this study, we explain a half-century of crop yield growth along an 800-mile transect of the forty-first parallel North in the U.S. Great Plains. Using 101 county-level observations from 1960-2008 we jointly estimate a biomass production function with cost shares for fertilizer and chemicals while controlling for environmental factors. The main contributors to yield increases in this region were non-specific technical change +62%, irrigation +17%, fertilizer +13% and chemicals +11%. Environmental changes had a minor impact on regional yield changes. The wide range of agroclimatic conditions present along this transect produced significant sub-regional deviations from the aggregate estimates. While …

The Potential Cost Of Methane And Nitrous Oxide Emissions Regulation In U.S. Agriculture, Tshepelayi Kabata, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Most studies on the impacts of agriculture on the environment have devoted efforts to measure the environmental impacts of the sector rather than to assess its ability to reduce or mitigate such impacts. Some have addressed the environmental efficiency of the sector (Reinhard, et al., 1999, Ball et al., 1994 and 2004; Rezek and Perrin, 2004 and Serra et al., 2011) but only few have examined greenhouse gas emissions (Njuki and Bravo-Ureta, 2015; Dakpo, Jeanneaux and Latruffe, 2016) from the sector. This paper analyzes the agricultural performance of states in the U.S. in terms of their ability to reduce emissions …

Food Frights: Covid-19 And The Specter Of Hunger, Maggie Dickinson

Publications and Research

Worries over widespread food shortages in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States eclipsed the real hunger crisis on the horizon—one intimately tied to already existing inequalities. In the midst of the pandemic, the specter of hunger is haunting the same people it always has—the poor, the undocumented, low wage workers, the un- and under employed. It is not our supply systems that are breaking down and causing hunger, but our systems for ensuring people can access the food that exists which have been broken for a long time.

Mis-Nourished Nation: Analysis Of The Impact Of Snap Benefits On Food Deserts In The U.S., Audrey E. Maynard

Student Publications

Researchers from a range of fields have been concerned with learning about and addressing food security and access issues, but have done less to tackle the specific issue of food deserts. Rooted in a historical analysis of diet and health, I examine how trends in agricultural subsidies and other structural factors contribute to a cycle of health issues, poverty and “mis-nourishment”. Further, I review and evaluate existing interventions. Then, with the use of grounded theory, I conduct a systematic review of sources within the EBSCO Host database concerning both “food access, insecurity and deserts” and “SNAP Benefits” to determine the …

Landings, Vol. 28, No. 4, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to

Maine’s lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …

Online Shoppers Spending On Fresh Produce; Do Those On Government Assistance Spend Less?, Wyatt Tucker Lucas

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study applies an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model to explain differences in the amount that online shoppers might spend per month on fresh produce, given specific consumer characteristics. It also uses a multinomial logit model to determine the relative probability of online shoppers spending more or less, given specific consumer characteristics. The independent variable of interest in both models is whether or not the respondent is a recipient of a government assistance food program. These analyses used data from a stratified random sample of 1,205 online shoppers residing in the southern region of the United States. “Online shoppers” in …

Non-State Actors’ Covid-19 Response In Nepal, Jenna Mae Biedscheid

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research explores the ways in which non-state actors have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal and the needs present in the months before drastic increases in cases began on May 11th. In doing so, it describes how social and political inequality within Nepal has caused people experiencing the most need to be left out of early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic relief effort. This research includes a literature review which situates Nepal amidst the global pandemic as well as interviews with non-state actors currently responding in Nepal. It finds that migrant workers, daily wage earners, Dalits, Janajati/Adivasi peoples, …

Changing Water Resources’ Effect On Livelihoods And Socio-Ecological Relationships In Himalayan Communities Of Nepal, Luke Bazemore

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The looming threat of climate change will lead to significant alterations in livelihoods and daily practices for individuals across the world. This paper seeks to identify the effects of climate change on hydrological regimes in Himalayan communities in Nepal with particular focus towards livelihood and socio-ecological transformations. Using the socio-ecological systems framework to analyze specific communities and their resource use, along with vulnerability and adaptative capacity analysis, this paper includes a meta-analysis of existing literature. Numerous findings indicated that rural, mountainous communities of Nepal face a variety of environmental impacts which may reduce viability of two significant modes of production: …

The Impact Of Coronavirus On Vermonters Experiencing Food Insecurity, Meredith T. Niles, Farryl Bertmann, Emily H. Morgan, Thomas Wentworth, Erin Biehl, Roni Neff

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Key Findings

1. Respondents experiencing food insecurity were more likely to be people of color, female, live in households with children, and live in larger households.

2. 84.2% of respondents who experienced food insecurity at some point in the year before the coronavirus pandemic remained food insecure during the early days of the outbreak.

3. The majority of respondents experiencing food insecurity are not utilizing food assistance programs.

4. ⅔ of respondents experiencing food insecurity are already buying different, cheaper foods or eating less to make their food last.

5. ⅔ of respondents experiencing food insecurity with a job had …