Agribusiness Commons^™

Benchmarking Cow Comfort On North American Freestall Dairies: Lameness, Leg Injuries, Lying Time, Facility Design, And Management For High-Producing Holstein Dairy Cows, Marina A.G. Von Keyserlingk, A. K. Barrientos, K. Ito, E. Galo, Daniel M. Weary

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to corporate involvement in on-farm assessment, driven by the desire to provide a service for dairy producers and to create a vehicle for engagement on issues of dairy cow welfare. This program provides producers with feedback on animal-based (including gait score, leg injuries, and lying time) and facility-based (including freestall design, bedding practices, feed bunk design and management, and stocking density) measures that can be used to better address their management goals. The aim of this paper is to describe variation in the prevalence of lameness and leg injuries, lying behavior, facility …

Aesthetic Qualities Of Websites And Their Effects On Public Perceptions Of Agricultural Issues And Organizations, Chase Tyler Hundley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to evaluate perceptions of agricultural issues and organizations based on how information is presented visually in websites. Researchers intended the results to be used to help the agricultural industry more effectively communicate information through better website design and increased persuasiveness. The study was conducted through the use of three focus group sessions as mapped out by Krueger (1998a, 1998b, 1998c) and Morgan (1998a, 1998b). The study used non-agriculture students purposively selected from a class in the University of Arkansas School of Human Environmental Sciences as participants in the study. The subject demographics closely resembled the primary demographics …

The Russian Village, Urban Infrastructure Issues, And The Vertically Integrated Agriculture Model, Phillip Imel

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Russia’s population total has been in decline since 1992 and this is most evident in the villages of Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the large farm collectives, many villages’ raison d'être ceased to exist. Today people continue to leave the villages for what they consider to be the better economic promise of the larger cities. There are serious societal and infrastructure issues related to the village exodus to the larger municipalities. In this paper, a vertically integrated agriculture model is examined as one step towards a more vibrant village economy. A vertically integrated model based upon …

Economic Impact Of The Ability Of Nebraska Agriculture To Irrigate: The Case Of 2012, Nebraska Farm Bureau, Decision Innovation Solutions

Nebraskiana Publications: Resources and Materials on the 37th State

With the harsh 2012 growing season behind for Nebraska crop producers, sights are now on the prospects for 2013. An exceptional drought gripped much of the United States from mid-June to the end of the growing season. In many regards, the drought persists in many parts of the country. Without significant moisture accumulations prior to spring planting 2013, drought conditions may continue into next year’s growing season. Since the drought of 2012 became a cause of concern in mid-2012, there have been discussions regarding ways to limit the use of water for agricultural purposes. Many of these discussions will result …

A Margin Risk Approach To Risk Analysis And Risk Management In Agriculture, Jay Noel, Steven Slezak

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of Health And Vitamin Consumption, Christiane Schroeter, Sven Anders, Andrea Carlson

Agribusiness

We estimate the impact of vitamin supplement intake, lifestyle, health indicators, food culture, and demographics on diet quality outcomes as measured by the Healthy Eating Index–2005 (HEI). Our data consists of U.S. adults who participated in the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Alternative instrumental variable estimators explicitly address issues of endogeneity and complex sample design. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that diet quality is strongly interrelated with food culture. We suggest that vitamin consumption serves as another marker for healthy eating. This finding emphasizes the need to employ economic modeling when developing public policy to reduce obesity.

Feasibility Analysis Of A Microbrewery, Dylan Warren Snyder

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Consumer Purchase Decisions Regarding Screw Cap Wines, Lauren M. Jeter

Master's Theses

Screw cap wine closures provide many benefits in maintenance of wine quality over time, however acceptance of their use by purchasers has varied. This work first investigates how factors like age, gender, income and education affect the decision to purchase screw cap wines and to what extent these factors impact consumer decisions to bring screw cap wine to various social settings. The results of a questionnaire pooling attitudes and behaviors of wine purchasers (n=319) indicate that factors such as age, wine knowledge, income and gender influence a consumer’s decision to purchase screw cap wine. Education and income positively impact the …

When Do Fat Taxes Increase Consumer Welfare?, Jayson L. Lusk, Christiane Schroeter

Agribusiness

Previous analyses of fat taxes have generally worked within an empirical framework in which it is difficult to determine whether consumers benefit from the policy. This note outlines on simple means to determine whether consumers benefit from a fat tax by comparing the ratio of expenditures on the taxed good to the weight effect of the tax against the individual's willingness to pay for a one-pound weight reduction. Our empirical calculations suggest that an individual would have to be willing to pay about $1500 to reduce weight by one pound for a tax on sugary beverages to be welfare enhancing. …

The Impact Of Food Environment On Private Label Versus Branded Produce Choice, Christiane Schroeter, Xiaowei Cai

Agribusiness

Over the past two decades, retailers are providing more Private label foods (PL), which are directly competing with the National brand (NB) products. For years, PLs competed as generic and cheaper versions with their high-priced NB substitute. However, modern PLs have improved in product quality relative to NBs and are available in the premium, organic, and even produce sections with the goal to distinguish themselves from their competitors’ product lines. One of the fastest growing segments in the produce industry consists of triple-washed cello-packed spinach. Using a two-step Heckman model, we determine the impact of household purchase information, demographics, and …

Association Between Stall Surface And Some Animal Welfare Measurements In Freestall Dairy Herds Using Recycled Manure Solids For Bedding, A. W. Husfeldt, M. I. Endres

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between stall surface and some animal welfare measurements in upper Midwest US dairy operations using recycled manure solids as bedding material. The study included 34 dairy operations with herd sizes ranging from 130 to 3,700 lactating cows. Forty-five percent of the herds had mattresses and 55% had deep-bedded stalls. Farms were visited once between July and October 2009. At the time of visit, at least 50% of the cows in each lactating pen were scored for locomotion, hygiene, and hock lesions. On-farm herd records were collected for the …

Welfare Issues With Tail Docking Of Cows In The Dairy Industry

Agribusiness Reports

Banned in several European countries, as well as three US states, and opposed and criticized by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, experts, scientists, and representatives of industry, tail docking of cows in the dairy industry—the partial amputation of up to two-thirds of the tail, typically performed without anesthetic—is still permitted in most of the United States. Scientific studies have shown the practice to cause serious welfare problems for animals, including distress, pain, and increased fly attacks.

The Political Economy Of Contract Farming In China's Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How does rural China’s political economy determine the motivations and constraints that drive small farmers and agribusiness companies into contract farming and shape its practice and impact? This paper identifies three distinctive features of contract farming in China—varied impact on rural inequality, unstable contractual relations, and lack of competitiveness with other alternatives—and proposes tentative explanations with three features in rural China’s political economy: strong collective institutions, active state support for agriculture, and strong domestic markets. The recent turn in China’s agrarian transition toward vertical integration of agriculture with industries is, however, undermining these conditions and may move China toward more …

An Economic Analysis Of Wine Grape Production In The State Of Connecticut, Jeremy L. Jelliffe

Master's Theses

The Connecticut Wine and Vineyard industry has grown at a steady 3.9% per year over the past decade (ATTTB, 2009). Economic models estimate that the wineries sub-sector contributes $38 million dollars to the state economy and direct employment of 106 residents (Lopez et al., 2010). Programs to support and foster further growth of the industry and CT farm vineyard culture include the Department of Agriculture’s CT Wine Trail and the annual CT Wine festival (DOAG, 2010). Farmland preservation groups also support vineyard development since grape growing tends to secure tracts of farmland for long periods of time.

Investment analysis for …

An Integrated Framework For Rural Electrification: Adopting A User-Centric Approach To Business Model Development, Simon J. D. Schillebeeckx, Priti Parikh, Rahul Bansal, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Rural electrification (RE) has gained prominence over the past two decades as an effective means for improving living conditions. This growth has largely been driven by socio-economic and political imperatives to improve rural livelihood and by technological innovation. Based on a content analysis of 232 scholarly articles, the literature is categorized into four focal lenses: technology, institutional, viability and user-centric. We find that the first two dominate the RE debate. The viability lens has been used less frequently, whilst the user-centric lens began to engage scholars as late as 2007. We provide an overview of the technological, institutional and viability …

Using Social Media To Enhance Learning Through Collaboration In Higher Education: A Case Study, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf, Mitch Wolf, Tom Frawley, Ann Torres, Shane Wolf

Agribusiness

Bradley and McDonald in a Harvard Business Review Blog discuss the difference between knowledge management and social media. They indicate that knowledge management is when company management tells employees what they need to know. In higher education faculty practice knowledge management by telling the students what they need to know. Social media is a method peers use to show connections the content they think is important. Bradley and McDonald believe that organizations can gain value from social media through mass collaboration. Mass collaboration occurs with “social media technology, a compelling purpose, and a focus on forming communities” (Bradley and McDonald, …

Who Is Eating The Fruits And Vegetables: Couch Potato Or Internet Junkie?, Christiane Schroeter, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf

Agribusiness

About 21% of U.S. college students are overweight. However, aside from the 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (NCHRBS), the prevalence of health-risk behavior among college students has not been well characterized. The objective of this study is to investigate how college student’s body fruit and vegetable intake is affected by (1) demographics, (2) dietary habits, and (3) lifestyle. We collected data of college students enrolled at California Polytechnic State University. Sedentary habits such as watching TV, playing computer games, and surfing the web negatively impact both fruit and vegetable intake, which emphasizes the need to improve on-campus health …

Economic Impact Of The Williamson Act In San Luis Obispo County, Hayley Nicole Loehr

Master's Theses

The goal of this research was to analyze the economic impact of the Williamson Act and the agricultural industry in San Luis Obispo County, and to assess the changes in agriculture and the County’s economic structure if a significant proportion of Williamson Act contracts were not renewed. Williamson Act enrollment and agriculture data were analyzed on a zip code level using IMPLAN v. 3.0, an input-output modeling program.

The first round of analysis assessed the baseline economic impact of the agriculture industry in San Luis Obispo County. Then, four regions of the county were established based on Williamson Act enrollment …

Key Findings Of The Ntm-Impact Project, David Orden, John Beghin, Guy Henry

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This special issue of The World Economy presents research findings from the European Commission–funded project “Assessment of the impacts of non-tariff measures (NTM)—on the competitiveness of the EU and selected trade partners” (NTM-Impact). Directed toward the EU and its trade partners, the project’s first overall objective was to collect and analyze new data on NTMs for key and representative agri-food products. This involved three components: creating a large symmetric international database on the diverse types of governmental standards and regulations used to address food safety and quality issues, constructing measures of heterogeneity among these standards and regulations; and evaluating the …

Business Plan For A Commercial Teff Farm In Ethiopia, Ephrem Teklu Phifer-Houseman

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project was undertaken to determine the feasibility of creating a profitable farm in Ethiopia using commercial farming methods in order to raise the standard of living for Ethiopian subsistence farmers and improve food security in Ethiopia. Initially, a farmer’s cooperative was the model proposed for this farm. However, further research into the realities of Ethiopian agribusiness and the difficulties smallholder farmers face in obtaining capital, along with in-depth financial analysis called for a modification of the business model. Consequently, this senior project discusses the design and delineation of a business plan for a privately-held, commercial, teff grain farm …

Regional Identity And The Reputation Of Willamette Valley Wines: A Multiple Stakeholder Assessment, Katherine Byers, Julia Prow

2012 Projects

The Keck Summer Collaborative Research Program provides opportunities for Linfield College students and faculty to conduct research on issues related to the Pacific Northwest, and to bring the research findings back into the classroom within the subsequent academic year. Students partner with faculty to conduct research and present their work to other students, Linfield staff and faculty, and community members during a series of brown bag lunches. Kathie Byers and Julia Prow conducted research with Sharon Wagner and gave this presentation during the summer of 2012.

This presentation gives a project overview, explaining the purpose of the research and where …

Intensive Production Of Millet And Sorghum For Evolving Markets In The Sahel, John H. Sanders, Botorou Ouendeba

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

One principal constraint to improving the performance of millet and sorghum systems is overcoming the conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom has some or all of these characteristics depending upon where you hear it. “Sorghum and millet are subsistence crops.” “They do not respond to fertilization.” “Even if they do respond to fertilizer, it is not profitable.” “Farmers will not use fertilization on these crops even if there were agronomic and economic responses.” “Banks will not lend to farmers for sorghum and millet fertilization.”

The Welfare Of Animals In The Veal Industry

Agribusiness Reports

Intensive confinement of calves raised for veal has long raised pointed concerns regarding the animals’ welfare. Traditional production practices include individually isolating calves in narrow wooden stalls or pens, which severely restrict movement, feeding the animals an all-liquid diet deliberately low in iron, and prematurely weaning the animals. Stressful conditions lead to a high incidence of stereotypic behavior and illness. Scientific reviews of the welfare of intensively confined calves raised for veal have concluded that the young animals suffer when reared in conventional systems.

The Welfare Of Intensively Confined Animals In Battery Cages, Gestation Crates, And Veal Crates

Agribusiness Reports

Within U.S. animal agriculture, the majority of egg-laying hens, pregnant sows, and calves raised for veal are reared in battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates, respectively. The intensive confinement of these production systems severely impairs the animals’ welfare, as they are unable to exercise, fully extend their limbs, or engage in many important natural behaviors. As a result of the severe restriction within these barren confinement systems, animals can experience significant and prolonged physical and psychological assaults. Indeed, extensive scientific evidence shows that intensively confined farm animals are frustrated, distressed, and suffering.

Who Are The Wine Techies?, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf, Mitch Wolf, Leanne Brady, Hanna Peszynski

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Using Social Media For Collaborations About Industry News In Higher Education, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf, Mitch Wolf, Leanne Brady, Hanna Peszynski, Lindsey Higgins, Shane Wolf

Agribusiness

Social media use has surged in the past decade. Facebook has 900 million global users (Wall Street Journal, 2012). Recognizing that many of these 900 million users are potential customers (a search on Facebook in May 2012 revealed that there are 11.5 million US Facebook users that “like” wine, beer, or spirits), the wine industry has embraced social media (Vinography, 2012). Wineries are using social media as a tool to reach consumers and as a tool to reveal their brand quality and personality (The Tribune, 2011). In a survey of 118 of Texas’ 181 bonded wineries, nearly 80% of them …

A Comparison Of Wine Purchasing Behaviors In Ireland And California When The Celtic Tiger Roared, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf, David Dudley, Megan Ginny Rood, Sarah Geraghty, Ann M. Torres

Agribusiness

In 2006 the Irish wine market was growing rapidly along with its Celtic Tiger economy (Euromonitor, 2008). Total wine sales in Ireland more than quadrupled in the seventeen-year span from 1990 to 2007 (Geraghty and Torres, 2009). While wine consumption in Ireland was growing at a rapid rate, US consumption was growing, but at a slower rate. (Euromonitor, 2010). According to Moran, Ireland’s increased consumption of wine was due primarily to improved accessibility, affordability, and branding of wine. Geraghty and Torres conducted research in Galway Ireland in 2006 among 307 wine consumers and identified three clusters of wine consumers in …

Does Family On A Label Increase Purchase Interest For A Wine, Or Just Cause A Halo Effect?, Marianne Mcgarry Wolf, Lindsey Higgins, Mary Rice

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Feasibility And Economic Viability Of Establishing A Wine Grape Vineyard In Moraga, Ca, Vincent Joseph Bruzzone

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

A Demand Analysis For The New Dow Agrosciences Insecticide, Sulfoxaflor, Among California Pest Control Advisors, Andre Lima Alves

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.