Agricultural Economics Commons^™

Letter From The Faculty And Managing Editors, Beth Kegley, Gail Halleck

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

No abstract provided.

Food Accessibility Related To The Double Your Dollar Program, Julia Carlson, Heather Friedrich, Mechelle Bailey, Curt Rom

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

The Double Your Dollar (DYD) Program is a program that gives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) participants match dollars to spend at local farmers markets. The DYD’s goal is to incentivize healthy eating among individuals of low income and promote spending at farmers markets. Food insecurity affects over 60,000 individuals in Washington and Benton counties in Arkansas. The aim of this study was to assess how the DYD program impacted users’ food accessibility and how the program could be improved for the future. A survey was used to address basic demographics, type, …

The Biofiltration Ability Of Asparagus Densiflorus To Remove Sulfur Dioxide From The Indoor Atmosphere, Rhiannon De La Rosa, Mary Savin

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

Sulfur dioxide is an inorganic compound (IC) and air pollutant that causes health risks in humans. The buildup of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in enclosed indoor spaces is, therefore, a concern to human health, especially since the average person spends 90% of his/her time indoors. This study focused on decreasing SO2 concentration in a cost-effective and simple way—by using botanical biofiltration, or the uptake of pollutants by plants. Research in biofiltration has focused mostly on the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOC). However, research has also shown that plant species that remediate VOC efficiently also have the potential for efficient IC …

The Economics Of On-Farm Rice Drying In Arkansas, Clayton J. Parker, Lanier Nalley

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

Globally, rice producers are faced with the temporal problem of deciding the optimal time to harvest rice. When harvested, paddy rice is typically at a harvest moisture content (HMC) between 15% and 22% and subsequently dried by the mill to a moisture content (MC) of 12.5%. Riceland Foods Inc., the largest miller of rice in the world, uses a stair-step pricing model to charge farmers to dry, which can complicate the timing of harvest as producers try to balance the tradeoff of minimizing drying costs by waiting to harvest at lower HMC vs. maintaining higher rice quality typically observed when …

The Impact Of Income On Nutrition: A Case Study Of Northern Mozambique, Hunter Swanigan, Lawton Lanier Nalley

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

In 2017, Mozambique ranked as one of the least developed countries in the world by measures of health, education, and income. With a minimal annual income, purchasing adequate food to meet recommended levels of nutrients for a healthy diet is difficult, leaving 40% of the country undernourished. This study analyzed what foods are available during the dry months (hungry season) of May through October in the Nampula province of Mozambique to determine if it is possible to meet recommended levels of nutrients from purchasing and growing food. Three different levels of income were used to determine what percentage of the …

Letter From Division Of Agriculture Communications, Fred Miller

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

No abstract provided.

Intercropping For Water Conservation: Environmental And Economic Implications Of A Sustainable Farming Practice In California's Central Valley, Sophie Baker

Scripps Senior Theses

California’s agricultural sector is the biggest water consumer in the state and faces intense pressure to reduce its overall water usage. Industrialized monoculture systems dominate the industry and often disregard long-term environmental and economic externalities for short-term profit maximization. To maintain longstanding food security and economic stability as well as protect the state’s water supply, it is critical that these systems transition to more sustainable and resilient production mechanisms. As an alternative to monoculture, intercropping affords greater potential to conserve water, protect soil quality, and increase crop yields, among other metrics of sustainability. However, there has been much controversy over …

Paleoethnobotanical Evidence Of Early Formative Period Diet In Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, Éloi Bérubé, Guy David Hepp, Shanti Morell-Hart

Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this paper, we discuss dietary and possible medicinal practices of an Early Formative period (2000–1000 BCE) community transitioning from Archaic-style to Formative-style lifeways. The results we present come from the analysis of plant residues, including microbotanical and macrobotanical remains, which were excavated at the village site of La Consentida in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. Phytoliths and starch grains were recovered by sonication from twenty ceramic and lithic artifacts. The microbotanical analyses identified plant remains from four different families: Bombaceae (flowering plants), Dioscoreaceae (yam family), Fabaceae (bean family), and Poaceae (grasses, including maize). We also report on limited macrobotanical analysis, including …

Automatic Seeder, Zachary Bunting, Nicholas Muscarella, Trevor Tout, Dalton Denny

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our Senior Design Project is the construction and implementation of an automatic seeder that is to be used in the agricultural industry. The automatic seeder is being designed to eliminate prevalent issues within the process of planting seeds by hand, such as labor requirements and inconsistent operations. The seeder is meant to reduce time spent on planting seeds and place them in an efficient manner for optimal growth conditions.

This project will require several specific research questions to be addressed in the form of application and good usability. We will investigate the method of planting the seed, the conveyor track …

Rural Business Development Corporation Annual Report 2020, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

All other publications

I

n accordance with section 63 of the Financial Management Act 2006, we hereby submit for your information and presentation to Parliament, the annual report of the Rural Business Development Corporation for the reporting period ended 30 June 2020.

The annual report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Financial Management Act 2006 and the Rural Business Development Corporation Act 2000.

Contents, 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.

The Political Preference Of Arkansas Farmers And Ranchers, Rachel J. Barry, Donna L. Graham

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

Access to information is critical to improving production efficiency, but little is known about how farmers are informed on the policy or issues influencing programs related to farming. This research sought to determine the sources of communication used by farmers and ranchers to form opinions about agricultural policy and candidates, identify the issues important in voting, and their level of participation in the political process. Face-to-face interaction was the preferred form of communication in farm organization meetings, with friends, or farm agencies. Magazines were the preferred source of print communication, and university/extension websites were preferred for internet sources. Broadcast media …

Using Bioenergetics And Radar-Derived Bird Abundance To Assess The Impact Of A Blackbird Roost On Seasonal Sunflower Damage, Bonne A. Clark, Page E. Klug, Phillip M. Stepanian, Jeffrey F. Kelly

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Methods aimed at reducing avian damage to agricultural crops are routinely implemented in situations where efficacy can be assessed by quantifying blackbird (Icteridae) abundance relative to environmental variables and extrapolating to ensuing crop damage. Concomitantly, Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR) data may have potential to enhance crop damage mitigation through improved monitoring of nuisance wildlife populations. We used WSR to derive daily abundance estimates of blackbirds at a fall roost in North Dakota, USA from 2012 to 2019. We integrated these estimates with previously developed bioenergetics-economic models to estimate local sunflower (Helianthus annuus) damage. The greatest losses usually occurred …

Growing South Dakota (Winter 2020), College Of Agriculture, Food And Environmental Sciences

Growing South Dakota (Publication of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences)

This issue contains the SDSU Extension 2019 Annual Report

[Page] 2-3 South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
[Page] 4 SDSU Extension
[Page] 4 From the Director of Extension Karla Trautman
[Page] 5 2019 USDA Risk Management Agency Crop Indemnities
[Page] 6-8 SDSU Extension Responds to Mother Nature in 2019
[Page] 9 Successful Energize! Conference Buoys Community Efforts in Lemmon & Beyond
[Page] 10-11 Helping Loved Ones Transition Smoothly
[Page] 12 AmeriCorps VISTA Members Expand Extension Programming
[Page] 13 South Dakota Wellness Coalitions Make Big Impacts in Small Communities [Page] 14-16 Extension Programs in Our Own …

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 21 2020, Several Authors

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

No abstract provided.

"A Pressure Not To Be Resisted Or Evaded": Military Occupation, Reform, And The Incorporation Of Northern Montana, 1879-1916, Hayden Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores Fort Assinniboine’s role as an extension of the federal government’s military arm in the Northern Plains. It argues that the military occupation of northern Montana served to incorporate the northern borderland region and peoples into the American mainstream as a part of the national reconstruction processes following the Civil War into the twentieth century. In a period of half a century, north-central Montana transformed from a Native American common hunting ground lacking any major white settlement to a rapidly developing agricultural region. Fort Assinniboine played a central role in this transformation, hastening the economic collapse of the …

The Intersection Of Deforestation And Economic Growth In The Brazilian Amazon, Victoria Oceguera

Student Theses 2015-Present

Abstract

As a result of capital gain, deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil continues. Brazilian government's insufficient efforts to mitigate and enforce the preservation of these precious forests has ledto the commodification of the Amazon. Chapter 1 uses historical and quantitative data to examine the negative impacts of deforestation on indigenous communities and climate change. Chapter2 employs economics to analyze the role of business as a crucial component of deforestation in Brazil. Chapter 3 engages politics in Brazil to discuss interactions between key actors involved in the perpetuation of deforestation. Chapter 3 examines the interactions between politics and corruption involved …

Representative Economic Budgets For Nebraska Cow Herds, Glennis Mcclure, Jay Parsons

Cornhusker Economics

In 2017, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources (IANR) and Nebraska Extension made a commitment to implement a multidisciplinary Beef Systems Initiative (BSI). BSI is administered by the Center for Grassland Studies and is comprised of six projects designed to develop and support implementation of beef production systems that optimize feed resource use, natural resource conservation, and producer success in Nebraska through improved management of perennial grasslands and systems of integrated crop-beef cattle production. In addition to BSI, a parallel project funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is studying the best practices …

Feeding The Future Meat Doesn’T Come Cheap, Lukas C. Southard

Capstones

Cultured – or as it is referred to by companies innovating the technology clean – meat is expected to be the next innovation to change the way the world gets its animal protein. Meat from animal cells grown in a lab seems like science fiction but it is around the corner from hitting your supermarket shelves. The technology has been developed but how these companies intend on scaling up their production to meet retail demands remains a mystery. So far companies have relied on seed and early stage investment from venture capital companies and private sources to fund research. Predictions …

Accrual Accounting And The Farm Business, Part Ii, Timothy Meyer

Cornhusker Economics

My last Cornhusker Economics article, Accounting Assumptions and the Farm Business (October 16, 2019) set the foundation for a specific evaluation of the conceptual framework accrual accounting offers the farm or ranch manager. The article addressed cash accounting and hinted at its shortfalls which were rectified by accrual accounting. This article will explain conceptual frameworks, and two accrual accounting principles; namely the revenue recognition principle and the matching principle.

During one of my graduate school experiences, I encountered a professor who seemed to be in love with conceptual frameworks. I chose a framework and tried to use it as instructed, …

“Cracking” Into The Debate About Laying Hen Housing, Courtney Bir, N. M. Thompsen, Wallace Tyner, J. Hu, Nicole Olynk Widmar

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Livestock production systems have faced social pressures related to animal welfare; the laying hen industry also has faced changes in governing regulations/policies. This study employs experimental data to evaluate 3 confinement-housing systems: standard cages with no perches, cages with standard perches, and cages with cooled perches. Based on the cost-benefit analysis conducted of revenue less feed costs, operators are expected to have revenue, after covering feed costs, which could contribute to installation and maintenance of standard and/or cooled perches. Thus, egg producers may be able to use caged housing that incorporates perches profitably, depending on the final costs of such …

What Regional Economic Factors Drive Feedstock Cost For Cannabinoid Hemp Processors In The United States?, Tanner Mccarty

Journal of Agricultural Hemp Research

This study measures the importance of various regional economic and agronomic factors on a grower’s decision to cultivate cannabinoid (CBD) hemp flower in the United States, and its subsequent effect on CBD processor feedstock cost. I use real options analysis to recover the price of hemp flower required to trigger land use change from commodity crop production to hemp flower production across various scenarios endemic to different hemp producing regions. Results suggest the most important factors in determining the price required to trigger CBD floral hemp production are the expected yield of floral hemp and CBD concentrations within it. CBD …

The Effect Of Chronic Wasting Disease On Resident Deer Hunting Permit Demand In Wisconsin, Dane Erickson, Carson Reeling, John G. Lee

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has had a negative impact on deer license demand in Wisconsin since it was first found in the state in 2002. Prior work evaluates the effect of CWD on hunting permit sales, but only in the period immediately after the disease was discovered. We use data on hunting permit sales, permit price, and other demand shifters to estimate a model of deer permit demand for the period 1966–2015. We use the estimated model to quantify the effect of CWD on (1) hunter demand for deer permits; (2) hunter surplus from hunting; and (3) lost hunting permit …

The Impact Of Veterans Treatment Courts On The Community, Daniela Mettos, Amanda Leingang

Cornhusker Economics

With the United States’ ongoing presence in the Middle East and the ever-present possibility of future conflict, the commitment to tend to the unique needs of veterans returning from combat is an essential one. The number of veterans suffering from mental health issues, substance abuse disorders, and physical trauma continues to rise. With this comes an increased risk of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), drug and alcohol abuse, and repeating criminal behavior, all of which increase the likelihood that veterans will find themselves involved in the criminal justice system at some point following their combat service.

Utilizing effective, reliable, and focused …

Genetically Modified Organisms In The United States Crop Market, Toluwani V. Ogunbayode

Quest

Economic Analysis

Research in progress for ECON 2302: Principles of Microeconomics

Faculty Mentors: Millie D. Black, Ph.D., and Michael Latham, Ph.D.

The following paper represents research begun by students in Honors Principles of Microeconomics. The honors course introduced students to numerous economic models and methods of analysis. Students were asked to identify an economic issue or controversy related to topics studied in class and to provide a literature review relevant to their topic. Students were also asked to provide an economic analysis, discuss opposing viewpoints, present an economic evaluation of various policy options, and make a recommendation regarding the preferred …

2019-2020 Kentucky Agricultural Economic Situation And Outlook, Kenneth H. Burdine, Todd D. Davis, Jerry Pierce, William M. Snell, Timothy A. Woods, Jeffrey W. Stringer, Bobby Ammerman

Agricultural Situation and Outlook

No abstract provided.

Drivers Of On-Farm Performance Of Irrigation Water Management Practices: Empirical Evidence From Eastern Arkansas, Jacob Askey

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Unsustainable agricultural practices are putting a strain on freshwater supplies in many parts of the world. More efficient irrigation techniques are going to be critical to feed a growing population. Data from the 2016 Arkansas Irrigation Survey was used to assess the adoption of three Irrigation Water Management (IWM) practices: multiple inlet rice irrigation, tailwater recovery, and storage reservoirs. Results indicate that these practices do not always lead to reported pumping time reductions, a proxy for water use savings. Large variations in pumping time reduction are observed across producers for all three practices. A Tobit model was used to examine …

Further Thoughts On The Brazilian Grain Market, Its Competitiveness And Its Challenges, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

In previous articles in this space (on 6/20/2018 and 6/19/2019), I talked about recent developments and challenges for Brazilian grain markets. We discussed that one of the main obstacles for Brazilian competitiveness is the country’s logistics system. In those articles, we focused more on transportation and how higher marketing costs are explained by the poor infrastructure in Brazil and the modes of transportation used to haul grain to export ports. Today we will talk a bit more about this point, and then address another dimension of the logistics challenge in Brazil.

As previously discussed, the major agricultural area in Brazil …

Trouble At Old River: An Economic Evaluation Of An Avulsion On United States Soybean Trade, Patrice Maria Lazard

LSU Master's Theses

The Mississippi River is an essential asset to agricultural trade given that its existence contributes to a cost-efficient transportation system. Barge travel allows large amounts of soybeans and other bulk commodities to be transported at low costs. Currently, barge costs are the lowest relative to those of other modes. Although there has been increasing competition for soybean shares from other countries in the global market, low transportation costs of soybeans, grain, and other oilseed crops allow the United States to retain its competitive advantage in the world soybean market. The Mississippi River’s urgency to change course and possibly eliminate barge …