Agriculture Commons^™

Economic Feasibility Of Aquaponics In Arkansas, Leah Ashley English

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Concerns regarding population growth and resource scarcity have led to a recent renaissance of food production research. Over the past few decades, scientists have discovered new and innovative methods for growing food that, cumulatively, may hold the key to efficiently and sustainably feeding an ever-increasing world population. One method, known as aquaponics, has shown promise as being a sustainable solution for producing food locally in all parts of the world. Although many studies have shown aquaponic food production to be technically feasible, there are relatively few studies concerning the economic feasibility of aquaponics in various regions. To determine whether aquaponics …

A Regional Approach To Analysis Of Food Security Framework And Policies Of The Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), Hannah Elizabeth Shear

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food security is always a concern for consumers, but especially for those in West Africa, where the population of food insecure people has continued to grow over the past decade despite attempts by initiatives such as the World Food Program and the establishment of Millennium Development Goals. The people of West Africa are subject to repetitive natural disasters and are often in political upheaval. Many economic policies have been established to mitigate the impact that production disasters have on the consumers; one of these policies is the utilization of regional food reserves.

In 2010, the Economic Community of West African …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Respondent Errors In Arms: A Case Of Farm Service Agency Loans, Louise Nicole Mcminn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have used the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) to research various aspects involving the agricultural sector in the United States. Since nonresponse and inaccurate reporting may cause significant bias in statistical analysis, research was conducted to determine the magnitude of response error on the farm debt section of the ARMS Phase III. A multinomial logit model identified demographic, structural, and financial characteristics of FSA Farm Loan Program (FLP) borrowers who refused to indicate if they had end of year farm debt, or who accurately or inaccurately classified their farm operations as having end …

Perceptions Of Agricultural Leadership Academic Programs At 1862 Land-Grant Universities, Jackson Cole Alexander

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to characterize perceptions of agricultural leadership programs in colleges of agriculture, food, life, human, or environmental sciences at 1862 land-grant institutions. Twenty-six academic programs were identified with a major, minor, graduate degree, specialization, concentration, or certificate in agricultural leadership. Programs were identified through analyzing the APLU and USDA NIFA websites, searching academic college websites, and contacting deans and departments heads. Objectives included identifying programs, describing the need for programs, describing evolution that has taken place within the discipline, describing faculty recommendations for future development and growth in the field, and examining why faculty believe programs are relevant. …

Soybean Planting And Risk-Return Tradeoffs In The Mid-Southern United States, Weston Weeks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is comprised of two studies on the effects of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) planting date (PD) and maturity group (MG) selection on producer expected returns. Having to replant soybean after early-season planting because of poor stand establishment is costly for producers. Replanting costs have increased in the last ten years as seed and other input costs for soybean have increased. Using five years of field trial results from two locations in Arkansas, the yield response to early and late season plant population density has been estimated to determine yield and future revenue potential for the purpose of …

Modifying A Cow-Calf Biophysical Simulation Model For Analyses Of Alternative Enterprises, Jennifer L. Lutes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cow-calf producers in the United States, tasked with providing beef calves for the beef industry, have had a multitude of difficulties to overcome in recent years. Producers in northwest Arkansas were negatively impacted by high hay prices coupled with low beef cattle market prices due to severe drought experienced in portions of 2010, 2011, and 2012. During this time they also faced high grain prices, due to a record low harvest, combined with portions of the corn harvest diverted from human and animal feed to ethanol production. Tight lending policies of this time, reminiscent of the housing market crash in …

Using Precision Agriculture Field Data To Evaluate Combine Harvesting Efficiency, Justin Carroll

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Soybean crops must be harvested during a limited time period using expensive combines and associated equipment. Maximizing combine field efficiency, the ratio of the actual harvesting capacity to theoretical harvesting capacity, is an important objective of machinery managers. Spatial and temporal yield data from a 2012 CaseIH 8120 Axial-Flow combine equipped with a 30-foot MacDon D-65 Draper header and the Case-IH Advanced Farming System (AFS) yield monitoring system were used to examine field efficiency when harvesting soybean in three Arkansas Delta irrigated soybean fields during the 2015 season. Time efficiencies (TE) in the three fields ranged from 72.9 to 85.8% …

Economic Contribution Of Agriculture And Food To Arkansas' Gross Domestic Product 1997-2013, Leah English, Jennie Popp, Wayne Miller

Research Reports and Research Bulletins

Agricultural production, processing, and retail industries are major contributors to the Arkansas economy in terms of GDP. Agriculture contributes to the economy through direct agricultural production, value-added processing, and agricultural retail activities, and it also plays an important role through its interactions with other sectors. The use of non-agricultural goods and services as inputs into the agricultural sector promotes diversified growth in Arkansas’ economy; thus agriculture remains a vital part of Arkansas’ economy. This report: 1) compares the relative size of the Agriculture and Food Sector in Arkansas with those of neighboring states; 2) provides an overview of Arkansas’ economy …

Cost-Benefit Analysis And Potential Spillover Effects Of Farmer Field Schools In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case Of Cocoa, Francis Tsiboe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of two studies analyzing the first phase of the Cocoa Livelihood Program (CLP-I), a current World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) development project, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and aimed at improving the livelihood of small scale cocoa producers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first study uses a difference-in-differences econometric model to estimate yield enhancements attributable to farmer field schools which CLP implements. The results show a 32%, 34%, 50% and 62% increase in cocoa yield for Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon, respectively. These yield enhancements have the potential to increase income by 26%, 29%, 48%, …

Food Waste At Retail, Erin G. Killeen Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food waste at retail represents forgone sales and embodies store management and disposal costs. Fresh produce is the largest contributing sector to food waste at retail and bulky, seasonal products are an added challenge when stores experience a high waste event. In order to improve, retailers need to better understand the costs of food waste, as well as how management strategies can impact these costs.

Using pumpkins as an example of bulky, seasonal products, a twofold research project was conducted to better understand contributors to, and costs of food waste at the retail level. In part one, using data from …

Identifying Leadership Perceptions Of Desired Competencies Of Agricultural Sales Students And Agricultural Sales Industry Professionals, Sarah Beann Wright

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two articles presented in this thesis used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to evaluate competencies among agricultural business students and agricultural sales professionals respectively. In the first study, students enrolled in the Fall 2014 agribusiness sales course at [State] University (n = 97), participated in a pre and post evaluation comprised of leadership assessments to determine the change in introversion and extroversion, task-oriented and relationship-oriented, and finally strength characteristics over the time period of an academic semester. Students presented to be from a variety of leadership backgrounds. Posttest results reported students being both high task (62.89%) and high …

The Impact Of A Ballot Education Program On Arkansas Voters, Kristin Netterstrom Higgins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of Arkansas Division Of Agriculture’s Public Policy Center has educated Arkansas voters about statewide ballot issues for 10 years. The ballot issue education program, was evaluated during the 2014 election cycle to determine the program’s impact on voters. This descriptive study sought to describe program participants, to determine knowledge transfer of county agents, to describe knowledge acquisition of program participants, and to measure whether people who attended Cooperative Extension Service presentations made informed choices on Election Day. Researchers found that program participants were mostly older, educated, White women. There were increases in knowledge among participants who read fact …

Life Cycle Assessment Of Alternative Swine Management Practices, Prathamesh Avadhut Bandekar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are quantitative analyses of complex systems for evaluation of impacts and risk associated with management decisions. LCAs can be effective tools for determining comparative advantages of management strategies across specific impact concern. In this study, life cycle assessments of pork production management alternatives was performed. The alternative management practices included in this study were production of entire males (boars), use of pens for gestation housing, immunocastration, production without growth promoting antimicrobials, production without growth promoting and preventive antimicrobials, and production without ractopamine. These LCAs evaluated the impact of each management strategy on greenhouse gas emission (GHG), …

Addressing Genetic Pollution From Pollen Drift On A Heterogeneous Landscape, Mattia Ciro Mancini

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genetically modified (GM) crops are crops in which single or multiple genes have been introduced artificially in order to obtain certain characteristics that are difficult to obtain through conventional breeding. Even though farmers have the right to freely choose what types of crops to grow, pollen mediated gene flow from GM crops to non-GM crops can limit the possibility for crops to coexist on a same landscape, resulting in economic losses that depend on the institutional arrangements and the type of property rights in place. Although it is well known that spatial variability affects the degree of cross-contamination between GM …

Poultry Production Messaging: A Content Analysis Of Three National Newspapers From 1994 To 2014, Stuart Estes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumers are increasingly concerned with the use of antibiotics and hormones in poultry production, and the news media is the primary way consumers gain knowledge about this subject. This study assessed articles about antibiotic and hormone use in poultry production from the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal from 1994 to 2014. This study employed a content analysis methodology to assess selected articles (n = 139) for key messaging about antibiotic and hormone use in poultry production, article tone, article framing, and article journalistic quality. Data gathered from key messages were assessed for emergent themes that …

Physiological And Nutritional Characterization Of High Yield Soybean, Ryan John Van Roekel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] grain yields greater than three times the national average have been reported in yield contests. Characterization of soybean in a maximum yield environment is necessary to provide empirical data to support those yield claims and to provide an understanding of the physiological processes at that yield level. From 2011 to 2013, research characterized biomass and N accumulation rates, radiation use efficiency (RUE), leaf N dynamics, the rate of harvest index increase (dry matter allocation coefficient, DMAC), seedfill period (SFP), and grain yield components from Mr. Kip Cullers' contest fields and in small plots at the …

Ex Ante Analysis Of Price And Trade Effects For The Rice Sector In The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership, William Lawrence Jacobs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, trade negotiations began between the United States and the European Union to create a free trade agreement with the goal of phasing out tariffs for all but the most sensitive products. To aid negotiators in analyzing potential agriculture agreements, the objective of this study is to quantify policy impacts of a potential trade liberalization of rice. This study will also be a useful analysis for various participants in the rice market to make educated business decisions.

This study utilizes the spatial partial equilibrium model RICEFLOW to project the differences in market prices, production volumes, trade volumes, and consumption …

Intake And Digestibility Of Fescue Hay Supplemented With Co-Product Feeds, Omega J. Sanders

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Satisfying an animals' nutritional needs can help optimize performance and keep an animal healthy. Meeting these nutritional requirements is often complicated by the low quality characteristics of hay, requiring supplementation with concentrate feedstuffs to offset this low nutrient density. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of supplementation with soybean hulls (SH), distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS), or a 50:50 mixture of the two (MIX) on ruminal fermentation characteristics and in situ forage disappearance in lactating and non-lactating ruminally-cannulated cows offered tall fescue hay. For this experiment, a basal diet of tall fescue hay was offered …

Earthworm Populations In A Wheat-Soybean Double-Crop System Under Seven Years Of Established Residue Management Practices, Jill Elizabeth Thomason

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Earthworms improve soil structure, distribute litter and microbes, stimulate microbial activity, facilitate decomposition, and increase nitrogen (N) availability for plant growth. Earthworm density is often reduced in low organic matter soils that are intensively managed to grow row crops. This study was designed to relate earthworm density and community composition to residue management after seven years of established management practices in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) double-crop system maintained in Marianna, AR. Residue management practices included conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT), N fertilization to produce high and low wheat residue amounts left in the field, …

Use Of Endocrine And Immune Responses As Predictors Of Bull Sperm Motility, Lydia Mitchener

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Research has shown that immune cells increased from an immune response, and endocrine concentrations directly affect sperm characteristics (Jones and Mann, 1976; Hansson et al., 1989; Grattan et al., 2007). Previous findings show a negative relationship between leukocytes and sperm function (Jones and Mann, 1976) and prolactin and fertility (Grattan et al., 2007). On the other hand, research has shown a positive relationship between insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and sperm characteristics (Hansson et al., 1989). The objective of this study is to identify biomarkers for yearling bull sperm associated with endocrine response and activation of the immune system. Seventeen Brahman-influenced …

Cultivating Dreams: Examining Community Involvement And Satisfaction In Fayetteville Farms, Donna J. Freeman

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Agriculture has a great, often untapped potential to be integrated in to the urban landscape as part of a green infrastructure and food production network. Urban agriculture is often piecemeal and opportunistic, rarely part of a city-wide master plan or with a comprehensive site plan. Because of this, farms are less likely to be considered as public space like parks and plazas or be studied as part of the human environment. This study utilizes data triangulation from site analysis, policy analysis and surveys to attempt to determine how urban farms might be improved in specific categories such as visibility and …

Matching Missions: Hunger Relief Programs And Impact Of Food Donation Partners In Northwest Arkansas, Amy May West

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2012 and 2013, Arkansas ranked first in the nation in food insecurity in both categories of “low food secure” (21.2%) and “very low food secure” (8.4%) (Lilley, 2013; Coleman- Jensen, 2014). In order to help address food insecurity in NWA, The Cobblestone Project developed a hunger relief donation partner, The Farm. (Cobblestone Project, 2013). In spring 2014, The Farm partnered with University of Arkansas to: • Better understand the demographics and need of hunger relief organizations • Calculate the impact of donations to hunger relief organizations • Assess satisfaction of donations from The Farm to hunger relief organizations • …

Commodity Of The Quarter: Quinoa: Catalyst Or Catastrophe?, Necia Parker-Gibson

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

Quinoa is a grain-like crop that is rich in protein and minerals; its ability to grow on marginal soils improves its attractiveness as a potential solution to hunger in many areas. Primarily adapted to the high Andes, it is drawing increasing amounts of research scrutiny, as researchers and farmers try to create reasonable agronomic solutions to growing populations and continuing loss of arable land. Since it has become fashionable with vegetarians and vegans in the developed world, it may be argued that the crop is less available to its original growers. Issues of economic and political sovereignty complicate the use …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Bumpers College Students In Action, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 16 2015, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Message From The Editorial Board, John R. Clark

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Michael Vayda

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Information Content Of Usda Rice Reports And Price Reactions Of Rice Futures, Jessica L. Darby

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Rice is a predominant food staple in many regions of the world, and it is important to determine how efficiently the U.S. rice market helps to ensure world food security. This question can be answered by gauging the price discovery performance of the U.S. rice futures market and the economic usefulness of the U.S. government’s supply and demand forecasts. So, to this end, we employ two event study approaches: (1) to examine variability in returns on report-release days as compared to returns on pre- and post-report days, and (2) to regress price reactions on changes in usage and production information. …